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Other Forces (other + force)
Selected AbstractsTechnological Innovativeness as a Moderator of New Product Design Integration and Top Management SupportTHE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2000Morgan Swink Many war stories, as well as a number of empirical research studies, point to the value of design integration and top management support in new product development (NPD) efforts, where design integration is conceptualized as the coordination of product and process design activities performed by various organizational groups. However, some emerging evidence suggests that these aspects of program management are not equally valuable in all NPD contexts. Furthermore, the benefits of these approaches may not extend to all dimensions of NPD performance. This article addresses these issues as they relate to technological innovativeness. The author reports the results of a research study designed to (1) assess the direct contributions of design integration and top management support to several dimensions of NPD performance, and (2) identify potential moderating influences of technological innovativeness on these direct effects. A survey of 136 NPD projects drawn from firms representing most of the major U.S. manufacturing industries provides data for the study. The overall goals of the study were to amplify our understanding of management's role in NPD and to further the development of contingency theory explaining new product success. The results indicate that design integration is positively associated with higher design quality in NPD, but it is not significantly linked with better financial performance. In addition, design integration appears to be an important influence on achieving NPD time goals, but only in cases of high technological innovativeness. This result suggests that increased design integration produces its greatest impacts when development processes are full of uncertainty. Top management support is positively associated with better time-based performance, design quality, and financial performance on the whole. However, a significant interaction effect suggests that high levels of top management support are ineffective in securing good financial performance in high technologically innovative environments. Other forces appear to be at work in these circumstances, making top management support less important. The article discusses the implications of these findings for management practice, a contingency-oriented view of NPD processes, and future research. [source] Seeking asylum in EuropeECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 38 2004Timothy J. Hatton SUMMARY Seeking asylum in Europe Over the last three decades the annual number of applications for asylum in the countries of the European Union has increased from about 15 000 to more than 300 000. This has sparked a political backlash, a revolution in policy, a lively academic debate, but very little economic analysis. Although the causes of asylum flows and the effects of policy are much discussed, they have rarely been the subject of quantitative analysis. This article examines the evolution of asylum flows and asylum policy across the EU since the early 1980s. It investigates the effects of war and conflict, economic incentives, and asylum policies on the total numbers and on the proportions going to the different countries of the EU. Special attention is given to the growth of policy restrictiveness across the EU and to the harmonization of asylum policies. Contrary to some views, policy has worked to stem the flows, but it has been overwhelmed by other forces. [source] May the weak force be with you: The power of the mass media in modern politicsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2006KENNETH NEWTON Television is often said to undermine democratic government popular support for leaders and institutions. In spite of all that has been written about media malaise, however, both theory and evidence suggests that the media are a comparatively weak force whose effects can be deflected, diluted and diffused by stronger forces. These include bedrocks political values associated with class, religion, age, gender and education, as well as social networks and discussions, distrust of the mass media, and personal knowledge and experience. Equally, the variables that mediate the media may also magnify its effects so that what appears to be a large media effect is, in fact, the result of an interaction between the media and other forces. This article lays out the argument of the media malaise literature that covers government and politics, then outlines the social forces that mediate the media, and finally provides some evidence to illustrate the argument that the media are generally a weak force in society. [source] The Third World Water Forum: to translate visions into concrete actions and commitmentsHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 11 2002Hideaki Oda Abstract Water is vital for the life and health of people and ecosystems and a basic requirement for the development of countries, but many people lack access to adequate and safe water to meet their most basic needs. Water resources, and the related ecosystems, are now under threat from pollution, unsustainable use, climate change, and many other forces. The World Water Forum series has been likened to a series of stepping stones towards the solution of the world's pressing water problems. Each step constitutes a new phase. The third World Water Forum takes up the World Water Vision created at the second World Water Forum in The Hague in 2000, and sets out to see that vision realized in concrete actions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Origins and Applications of London Dispersion Forces and Hamaker Constants in CeramicsJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CERAMIC SOCIETY, Issue 9 2000Roger H. French The London dispersion forces, along with the Debye and Keesom forces, constitute the long-range van der Waals forces. London's and Hamaker's work on the point-to-point dispersion interaction and Lifshitz's development of the continuum theory of dispersion are the foundations of our understanding of dispersion forces. Dispersion forces are present for all materials and are intrinsically related to the optical properties and the underlying interband electronic structures of materials. The force law scaling constant of the dispersion force, known as the Hamaker constant, can be determined from spectral or parametric optical properties of materials, combined with knowledge of the configuration of the materials. With recent access to new experimental and ab initio tools for determination of optical properties of materials, dispersion force research has new opportunities for detailed studies. Opportunities include development of improved index approximations and parametric representations of the optical properties for estimation of Hamaker constants. Expanded databases of London dispersion spectra of materials will permit accurate estimation of both nonretarded and retarded dispersion forces in complex configurations. Development of solutions for generalized multilayer configurations of materials are needed for the treatment of more-complex problems, such as graded interfaces. Dispersion forces can play a critical role in materials applications. Typically, they are a component with other forces in a force balance, and it is this balance that dictates the resulting behavior. The ubiquitous nature of the London dispersion forces makes them a factor in a wide spectrum of problems; they have been in evidence since the pioneering work of Young and Laplace on wetting, contact angles, and surface energies. Additional applications include the interparticle forces that can be measured by direct techniques, such as atomic force microscopy. London dispersion forces are important in both adhesion and in sintering, where the detailed shape at the crack tip and at the sintering neck can be controlled by the dispersion forces. Dispersion forces have an important role in the properties of numerous ceramics that contain intergranular films, and here the opportunity exists for the development of an integrated understanding of intergranular films that encompasses dispersion forces, segregation, multilayer adsorption, and structure. The intrinsic length scale at which there is a transition from the continuum perspective (dispersion forces) to the atomistic perspective (encompassing interatomic bonds) is critical in many materials problems, and the relationship of dispersion forces and intergranular films may represent an important opportunity to probe this topic. The London dispersion force is retarded at large separations, where the transit time of the electromagnetic interaction must be considered explicitly. Novel phenomena, such as equilibrium surficial films and bimodal wetting/dewetting, can result in materials systems when the characteristic wavelengths of the interatomic bonds and the physical interlayer thicknesses lead to a change in the sign of the dispersion force. Use of these novel phenomena in future materials applications provides interesting opportunities in materials design. [source] Palms Use a Bluffing Strategy to Avoid Seed Predation by Rats in BrazilBIOTROPICA, Issue 2 2010Constança De Sampaio e Paiva Camilo-Alves ABSTRACT The goal of this study was to ascertain why the production of variable seediness is advantageous for Attalea phalerata palms. Our hypothesis was that variation reduces seed predation by the spiny rats Thrichomys pachyurus and Clyomys laticeps. Although there is a positive correlation between endocarp size and number of seeds, endocarps sometimes contain more or fewer seeds than expected; palms bluff about the number of seed per endocarp. Therefore, rats do not know how many seeds an endocarp contains. To model rats' predating behavior, we applied Charnov's Marginal Value Theorem. The model shows that rats attack endocarps only when the energy gain is higher than the energy available in the habitat. Hence, it is not advantageous to eat all the seeds inside an endocarp. This explains why 45 percent of forest endocarps and 35 percent of savanna endocarps were still viable after predation. We then applied the model to two simulated endocarp populations with less variability in the number of seeds per endocarp size and determined that viable diaspores after predation were reduced to 15 percent. With less variability, palms cannot bluff about the number of seeds inside endocarps and predators can predict accurately how many seeds they should try to eat. Uncertainty about the number of seeds diminished predation but gave selective advantage to multiseeded fruits. Therefore, the bluffing strategy would be evolutionarily stable only if it were counterbalanced by other forces. Otherwise, predators would win the bluffing game. Abstract in Portuguese is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/btp. [source] | ||||||||||