ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the most famous work of Babylonian literature, in which the everlasting question of life’s purpose and the inevitability of human death is posed. The poem is divided into four major sections: the tale of Gilgamesh’s control of Uruk, the arrival of Enkidu, and their friendship, a summary of their adventures, Gilgamesh’s odyssey in pursuit of immortality (Sanders, 2). The final part comprises Gilgamesh’s conversation with the shadow of the deceased Enkidu. Some of the episodes may be distant echoes of historical events mentioned in legends from the past. Apart from this, The Epic of Gilgamesh incorporates mythological and legendary plots based on ancient legends about the great flood, man’s existence, and the afterlife. The topic of post-existence has been widely examined in ancient civilizations’ literary works, namely, in the Egyptian Book of the Dead . From the perspective of the book’s author, after death, there are two options for a p
Introduction Following the advent of globalization, many companies that previously operated in the local markets have sought to establish businesses in foreign markets. Globalization refers to the process of integrating people with governments and organizations across the globe. One of the major limitations the companies that seek to exploit foreign markets may face is the challenge of linking franchises established in foreign nations to the organizational culture and polices. However, globalization has eased communication partly due to the recent immense development in telephone and internet technologies. This implies that the challenges of expanding markets that were experienced by organizations seeking to take their businesses globally have been incredibly eased. Consequently, the term international firm has become a common terminology in the international business debates. Kottler (2000) described an international organization as the one, which conducts businesses in more than one nation (p.34). However, when making a market entry into new nations, an international organization has to choose appropriate market entry methods because each nation acts as a market segment whose consumption is determined by a variety of factors such as culture, economic, social, and political affiliations among others. These factors are different in every nation. In this context, this paper finds it indispensable to analyze the factors that affect a firm’s decision-making process on the choice of entry modes to the foreign markets coupled with the impacts of the entry modes on business practices and success. The focus is on western nations’ organizations entry into the Asian markets. The paper presents this by considering the case of MacDonald’s entry into the Chinese markets. The paper specifically considers Asia as the one that that has undergone tremendous growth within the last three decades. Consequently, emanating from the economic advantages, western organizations such as MacDonald have considered extending their operations into the Asian regions in a variety of ways. As such, the paper further presents these ways with the aid of a review of the relevant theories on foreign entry modes followed by identification of the mode(s) of entry that MacDonald adopted in China. The case study report also investigates and analyzes the factors contributing to MacDonald’s decision on the choice of the entry mode(s) coupled with evaluation of the a
The term “hate crime”, existing as a legal concept for approximately 30 years, designates the criminal offence which is motivated (at least partially) by the offender’s prejudice or bias toward the victim’s racial, ethnic, gender, sexual identity, or other social group membership. Even though this term is well-known in the contemporary law practice, and the majority of states eventually enacted the hate crime legislation, there many ambiguous aspects, related to the bias-motivated crimes. In this paper, four articles will be examined as the representatives of particular hate crime problems. Based on that critical analysis, the personal opinion and the conclusion will be given. How “Hate” Impacts on the Crime Clearance First of all, it is essential to observe the correlation between the bias-motivated crimes, being the relatively new division of the criminal law, and the standard crimes concerning the crime clearance. Therefore, in the first section of this paper, “The Difference “Hate” Makes in Clearing Crime: An Event History Analysis of Incident Factors” by Lyons and Roberts (2014) will be considered in order to define the crucial factors which affect the clearance of the hate crimes. The authors attempt to draw the differences between bias and non-bias crimes because the same factors can influence the clearance rates differently. In that context, Lyons and Roberts (2014) mention both advantages and disadvantages of investigating the hate crimes. On the one hand, such crimes attract more significant attention since they pose more damage and threat to the community. However, the victim devaluation, based on its commonly low social status, leads to the diminishing of the investigative effort (Lyons and Roberts, 2014, p. 271-273). In their study, the authors employ the data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which is “the largest scale incident-level data set”, in order to examine “differences in clearance by arrest between bias and nonbias violent incidents” (Lyons and Roberts, 2014, p. 273-274). Also, the hate crimes are disaggregated by the underlying motivation, which could be racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and disability. To estimate the given data more accuratel
Introduction: A Short History of Siemens’s Success The choice of the leadership strategy and the creation of organizational culture often define a company’s success. As long as employees feel valued and appreciated, they will be willing to contribute to a company. Unless Siemens conducted its policy of investing into the staff and encouraging their development, creating the atmosphere of mutual trust would have been impossible. Company Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses and the Key Concerns A rather unusual and at the same time very efficient system of human resource management combined with a well thought out human resource development strategy seems to be the key strength of the Siemens Company. Indeed, the company leader has not only developed a unique method of hiring employees, therefore, assuring that only experts should provide their services to Siemens, but also come up an impressive strategy of staff’s professional and personal growth by introducing training courses and other methods of improving the staff’s skills (“Case 2: Creating a High-Performance Culture at Siemens 10”). The fact that the company has put its stake on its employees and invests in their personal and professional evolution shows that, having chosen the track of high performance culture, Siemens has created the environment in which the company’s staff will remain motivated enough to deliver top results and follow the company’s principles of organizational behavior. It would be wrong to claim that Siemens’s framework for building employee-manager relationships is flawless. Quite on the contrary, it also has its problems, the key one being the fact that the company’s policy presupposes relying on the employees’ integrity completely. While putting trust in the staff is important to make the later feel valuable, it is also crucial to have control over the relationships between the staff and the managers. The Siemens leader, however, clearly ignores the necessity to control the employees, making it obvious that the latter is fully trusted. Such a strategy must be combined with a very efficient motivation technique; otherwise, the employees will start abusing the opportunities provided to them by the company. Conjuring an Appropriate Conclusion: High-Performance Culture The head of the Siemens Company has admittedly developed a very efficient leadership style, which allows for both motivating employees for achieving perfect results and at the same time investing into the employees mentioned above (Siemens AG para. 4), thus, making sure that the human resources ar
The discovery of the Minoans and Mycenaeans’ cultures changed the Classical Greeks’ understanding because the Greeks based their religion, politics, trade, and war on the tradition of Minoans and Mycenaeans. Although the Classical Greeks were viewed as a cultured society, their ancestors had a civilized society that made large ships and traded with other civilizations, such as the Egyptians (Gorogianni et al., 2016). Moreover, the Classical Greeks cherished Minoans and Myceneans by respecting their gods and warriors, such as Achilles, Agamemnon, Odysseus, and Menelaus, who were all Myceneans. Additionally, these legends were accorded immortal life through art activities, such as painting, pottery, sculpture, and literature. For instance, the story of the Trojan War is based on the conflict between the Hittites and Myceneans. In other words, the classical Greeks culture was entirely based on the Myceneans and Minoans, hence making them the founder of Greeks civilization. The ‘Dark Ages’ were not dark as they are usually referred to because numerous activities were occurring. Since powerful kingdoms had fallen, people were still organized into different groups, and their powerful institutions still governed the citizens. For instance, churches had a strong influence on how people were supposed to conduct themselves. Even though the whole period is regarded as the ‘Dark Ages, numerous agricultural innovations were introduced in Europe (Pruitt, 2018). For instance, agricultural activities started taking place in northern Europe due to the heavy plow invention that
Introduction The article The Paradox of a Marketing Planning Capability and several examples of paradox in marketing from real companies will be presented in this work. The ideas of marketing implementation are considered to be the major ones in this work, as only marketing implementation may include “producing advertising material, undertaking promotions, manufacturing products, inconsistent promotions” (Gelder, 2005, p.59). Paradox in marketing planning may be caused by different outcomes of planning capabilities, this is why this very issue is considered to be the burning one for many researchers. Literature Review The major purpose of marketing planning is to develop and promote the relationship between a firm and the environment (Slotegraaf & Dickson, 2004, p. 372), in other words, marketing implementation should be on a really proper level. This is why planning capabilities should be developed day by taking and improved in accordance with new circumstances. Unfortunately, even excellent planning may bring to poor implementation. Poor prepared marketing copies, not successful targeting campaigns, or even bad design of a web site – all this is a good example of poor implementation even with proper marketing planning (Schultz & Doerr, 2009, 40). This is why good marketing should give proper answers to who the customers are, what the products are, why needs should be met, when and where to start working, how to advertise the products (Epstein, 2006, p. 3). However, even taking into consideration all these aspects, it is quite possible to face marketing paradox in case firms are not interested in improvising from their own approved plans even if they have enough planning capabilities. Research Findings Very often, the results of investigations of marketing planning capability show that this capability’s effect is curvilinear. When marketing planning capability enhances performance and decreases returns exist, the effect is negative. However, at the same time, planning capabilities lead to positive results because advertising still takes places. So, marketing paradox is noticeable and has to be solved. In order to manage this type of paradox, it is necessary to clear up with tensions. For example, when one firm creates a certain plan but the content of this plan is explained not to each member of a team, the implementation will be certainly poor, and the mistake will be made by numerous departments in chain. Social media is one of the spheres, where poor implementation of good marketing planning capabilities takes place. Many media companies create proper content but do not take into consideration marketing this content. Thei
Introduction The business sector for a long time has recognized the significance of marketing strategies in the overall success of any organization (Andreasen & Kotler 2003, p. 3; Claycomb, Germain & Droge 2000, p. 219). The sport sector has not been left behind either and is beginning to embrace strategic marketing as well. Marketing strategy is a process by which companies can maximize great opportunities to enhance sales and attain sustainable competitive advantage using the available scarce resources (Kriemadis & Terzoudis 2007, p. 29-30). The success of the Adidas Company is accredited to the ethics and laurels of its founder, Adolf Dassler. Dassler who is a veteran and founder of the Adidas group , started producing foot wares out of limited resources available in Germany after the first world war and had a very simple dream for his company: to supply athletes with the finest suited foot ware for their respective sports (Kriemadis & Terzoudis 2007, p. 29). The simple vision was followed up by three guiding principles: Producing the best foot ware for the requirement of different sports, protection of the athletes from injury, and durable products that can withstand all weather conditions. Original Adidas products were designed for soccer and track activities which were common in Europe during that time (Kriemadis & Terzoudis 2007, p. 30). The biggest rival of Adidas is Nike, which controls a third of the global market in sports ware, considerably higher than Adidas. In addition, there are other small rivals in US and Europe such as Asics, Puma and New Balance. In Asia we have Li Ning, which is China’s largest sports shoe company. All these companies are hoping to conquer Adidas market share, but with more advanced marketing strategy, Adidas has been able to counter all of its rivals (Kriemadis & Terzoudis 2007, p. 30). Global Sporting Apparel and Footwear Market The substitutes for Adidas products come from the rival companies that are spread across the globe. The price margin between these companies is small and consumers can switch to different products with ease (Kriemadis & Terzoudis 2007, p. 32). Athlete foot ware being the most premium product, these companies focus more on the quality and durability of sports shoes since consumers are also looking for good quality and value for their money. In addition, large rivals such as Puma and Nike, substitutes for Adidas products particularly in the apparel market. Three quarter of the world athletic apparel market and about 20% of the global
Harley Davidson Motor Company was established in 1903 and has grown to become one of the leading manufacturers of motorcycles globally. The company produces up to 28,000 motorcycles annually. The motor bikes are then sold by dealers in over 67 countries around the world. The company has an ambitious plan to increase its production capacity. As a result of company’s growth and enlarged global presence, the management has realized that the future demands for an integrated management system that will not only improve the company’s processes but also fit within its budget and enhance its returns growth. This underlay the start of the process to identify the most appropriate information management system for Harley Davidson Motor Company. The process was largely reliant on teamwork, which played a leading role in the structuring of the Information System function. The organization, rather than have a Chief Information Officer, constituted a team of three directors to offer leadership on information systems integration. The three directors play an internal consultancy role to the team engaged in the identification of the appropriate software that meets the needs of the organization. Additionally, they provide direction as to how well the technology w
Introduction One of the main principles of all judicial procedures legal implementation is respect for human rights. Their violation, both in the course of trials and before the commencement of hearings and charges, is fraught with the appeal of any decisions in the judicial institutions of higher instances. In order to determine which boards are responsible for the consideration of appellate cases of defendants’ personal rights violation, it is possible to consider the judicial branch of the state of Georgia. Local control over the execution of proper procedures can be an example of how the system of defendant protection is organized. The key subjects of these proceedings are those who intend to appeal against the decisions of the first instance courts because of doubts about the legitimacy of specific procedures conducted. The analysis of the branch of courts in Georgia may provide a comprehensive picture of the state jurisdiction system and the powers with which all of the boards represented are vested. Violation of Rights as a Basis for an Appeal To participate in the proceedings in a criminal case, persons are involved in respect of which the board conducting a certain process issues a specific decision. Despite the severity of a crime, a proper procedure is to be followed. Participants in the proceedings should be explained their rights and obligations under the criminal procedure law. Otherwise, defendants have an opportunity to appeal against any of the decisions taken, referring to their illegal consideration because of the violation of the due process rights. The relevant judicial boards are obliged to accept such an appeal in order to render a verdict on its legality and to confirm or refute the alleged violations. Trial Appeal in Georgia In addition to the basic legislation of the state, there are other authorities that consider controversial court cases. According to Janflone ​​and Williford (2016), if the defendant intends to file a complaint regarding the violation of legal rights, he or she applies to the Georgia Court of Appeals. This procedure is aimed at identifying the causes of unlawful treatment in relation to the accused and further proceedings. As Hill and Hill (2018) note, the Georgia Court of Appeals can satisfy the defendant’s petition if evident mistakes are made in the process of detention. At the same time, both structures work independently of each other, and even in case the trial continues in the first instance, the Georgia Court of Appeals acts separately and independently. This procedure allows speeding up the process of proceedings and maintaining unbiased opinions concerning particular cases. Appeals from a Federal Trial Court In Georgia, a controversial proceeding from a federal court may be transferred to the State Supreme Court, which is the highest authority, and its decisions are indisputable. Hill and Hill (2018) cite the local Bill of Rights and argue that “the Georgia Supreme Court could interpret the state Constitution more expansively than the federal Constitution in several areas” (p. 37). I
“Breaking Bad” is one of the best drama action series on television which introduces Walter White, a middle-class chemistry teacher who calls himself Heisenberg. Due to the fact that the episodes in the series vary in their dramatic effect and tension, the episodes’ culminations and endings are always unpredictable, and this aspect, along with the focus on the antagonist as the main character, influences the audience’s great interest in the series. Although the series started as the typical television crime show, it developed its dramatic effect in several following episodes. In the first episode, Walter White is portrayed as an ordinary chemistry teacher, and the viewer does not expect that he can become a cool-headed killer and the greatest methamphetamine dealer at the West Coast and in some European countries (“Breaking Bad: Official Site”). The motives for Walter’s crime activities are in the fact that he is diagnosed with lung cancer, and Walter knows that he is dying slowly (Stanley). As a result, Walter becomes ‘bad’ and chooses the easiest way to make money for his family while selling methamphetamine with his ex-student Jessie Pinkman. The former student Jessie Pinkman is the supporting negative character in the show who reflects the true nature of Walter’s actions. Pinkman was a terrible student in high school, and his parents punished him because of the drug abuse. Thus, Walter took Jessie under his wing and taught him how to cook and sell methamphetamine to become richer (“Breaking Bad: Official Site”; Stanley). It is possible t
Introduction Harley-Davidson Company has been in the motorcycle manufacturing business for decades now. The American based company was launched in Wisconsin at the start of the 20 th century as a small yet promising motorcycle manufacturer. Due to its strong managerial and marketing background, Harley-Davidson outwitted the Great Depression era that witnessed many manufacturing firms going under receivership while others closing down completely. The unfavorable competition brought about by lack of adequate quality control of the US markets was yet another challenging moment for Harley-Davidson (Harley-Davidson, 2006). Nonetheless, it survived the harsh markets, moved on and later emerged as one of the global leaders in the manufacture of heavyweight motorcycles with over 750 cc. engine capacity. Today, Harley-Davidson motorcycles are known globally due to their distinctive design similar to that of a chopper. Unfortunately, the firm has not been successful in its bid to venture and invest in the light motor-cycle industry largely due to dominance by other market rivals. Through its loyal brand community, the motorcycle manufacturer has spread its marketing tentacles far and wide. Its logo alone generates about five per cent of the firm’s net income. This paper explores a case study of Harley-Davidson and the strategic marketing theories and concepts used. The paper also offers some recommendations that the company could adopt to improve its marketing competences. Case Summary Customer loyalty is the strongest marketing strategy of Harley-Davidson, a phenomenon not common with most brands especially those operating in the high end manufacturing market. One reason attributed to this overwhelming success in the company’s marketing strategy is the fact the marketing department has laid more emphasis on the needs of customers, the latter being the most vital asset owned by the company (Harley-Davidson, 2006). Firstly, the company marketers have taken significant amounts of time to understand the ideals of Harley-Davidson customers, what they really want and how their purchasing needs and preferences can be met at any given time. For the company, it is imperative to serve its customers with passion. This entails evaluating their feelings as well as their rationale behind buying at Harley-Davidson. According to the marketing team, attention to details is paramount in understanding the needs of customers (Harley-Davidson, 2006). The management at Harley-Davidson confirms that it is out of customer satisfaction that it has grown into a five billion dollar company and the largest group sponsored by a company worldwide(Harley-Davidson, 2006). Currently, there are over nine hundred thousand members attached to Harley Owners Group (HOG). As the management admits, the company does not just sell motorcycles. Harley-Davidson believes in cre