ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Firms in the travel business such as the airline industry are affected by changes that occur in the macro and microenvironments. Therefore, they should not be passive to environmental changes. On the contrary, they should adopt effective strategic management processes in order to counter the environmental changes. The adoption of effective strategic management processes enables businesses to identify and exploit available opportunities and be effective in dealing with threats. Over the past decades, the airline industry has been characterised by significant changes that have compelled its players to adopt diverse strategies. This paper involves a case study on the factors that have motivated the formation of global airline networks, the strategic benefits of strategic alliances, and the forms of management adopted in managing the alliances in order to achieve the corporate objectives. Strategic and environmental factors Strategic alliances have become a fundamental component across companies established in the service and manufacturing industries (Uddin & Akhter 2011). The global changes that are currently being experienced have motivated businesses to collaborate with other local and international players. Bartsch (2012) affirms that firms within a strategic network stand to exploit significant market advantages. The airline industry ranks amongst the economic sectors that have witnessed extensive establishment of global alliances. The alliances are based on diverse elements such as code sharing and coordination of diverse airline activities such as flight schedules. Currently, the industry is dominated by three main networks, which include SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and OneWorld (Bartsch 2012). A number of strategic factors motivate the establishment of global airline network. First, airline companies integrate strategic alliances in an effort to expand their strategic capabilities. According to Uddin and Akhter (2011), airline companies are motivated to join global network by the need to develop adequate competitive advantage through knowledge transfer. Knowledge has become an essential element in organisations’ pursuit for competitive advantage. Additionally, knowledge is increasingly being regarded as an intangible organisational asset and a differentiating competitive factor (Riege 2005). However, managing knowledge is challenging as it can becomes obsolete if new knowledge is not developed. Global airline networks provide airline companies with an opportunity to gain from tacit and explicit knowledge, which are embedded in the respective strategic alliance members. The knowledge repositories developed by individual organisations are not easily accessible to competing firms (Stonehouse & Houston 2003). Subsequently, tacit knowledge can only be transferred through context-specific environment. The high rate of globalisation has increased the need for knowledge creation. Consequently, firms are under pressure to move into learning entities in order to attain optimal competitiveness and performance. Strategic alliances enable airline companies to share knowledge, hence increasing their resource capabi
Tom Monaghan was born in Michigan in 1937. An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Monaghan’s desire as a young boy was to become a catholic priest, a baseball player, or an architect. Even in his wildest dreams, Monaghan did not see himself becoming the architect of a multi-billion dollar company dealing in pizza. However, that was what fate would bring on Monaghan’s way. At the age of only four years, Monaghan and his brother were placed under the care of an orphanage when it became hard for his mother to raise them single-handedly. The two stayed in the orphanage from 1943 to 1949 when their mother collected them. It was at the orphanage that was run by catholic sisters where Monaghan got his devotion to the Catholic faith. After failing to secure good grades in school that would enable him to join college, Monaghan joined the U.S. Marine corps in 1956 where he served for three years (Monaghan & Anderson, p. 5). After being discharged from the army in 1959, Monaghan joined the University of Michigan where he trained to be an architect. A few years later, he and his brother borrowed money that they used to purchase a small store that was dealing in pizza deliveries in the neighborhoods. The two brothers named the business Domino’s Pizza. After a few years of operation, his brother sold Tom his share of the business in exchange for a Volkswagen car. This trade transferred the ownership of the business to Monaghan. After this, Monaghan improved the packaging for the pizzas by introducing a box that could allow more pizzas to be transported per trip. This technique proved to be very effective as more people began placing orders for Domino’s pizzas. In the mid-1980s, Monaghan was opening close to three new branches all over the country on any given day (Ave Maria). As Domino’s Pizza continued its unparalleled growth, Monaghan faced many challenges that he had to overcome. In 1967, his main store in Ypsilanti was gut down by a fire that also destroyed the building that housed the company’s offices. Insurance companies refused to compensate him for most of the damages done by the fire. Owing to losses brought by the fire and Domino’s unchecked expansion, the company ran into financial constraints in the early 1970s. He was forced to turn his company to financiers to avoid filing for bankruptcy. Monahan also had to contend with lawsuits that challenged his Domino’s Pizza brand. However, he was able to rise from these challenges to become one of the biggest entrepreneurs of our time (Monaghan & Anderson, p. 25). Tom Monaghan was unique in the way he handled challenges. Having come from a po
Introduction The purpose of this study is to understand the exposure young girls have to media and the weight concerns they have due to the depiction of ultra-thin women in the media. The relevance of the article lies in its drawing a direct relation between print media and the perception of adolescent and preadolescent girls of their body shapes and weight and the influence on their intentions of losing weight through a diet regime or exercising. This study is important for our study as it will allow us to understand the effect media has on young girls due to its depiction of women as very thin. Description of the study The study was conducted on a sample size of 548 students, girls from schools, and was given a questionnaire. They were from grade five to twelve out of which 29.5% were from elementary school, 31.4% from junior high school, and 33.3% from high school. The questionnaire asked questions about the girls’ weight and height. It also asked if they had exposure to fashion magazines. The response was rated on a scale ranging from “never” to “daily”. Students were categorized as high-frequency readers, moderate frequency readers, and infrequent readers based on their responses. Two questions were directed to assess the media’s influence on the girls’ attitude towards their weight: “Do you think that pictures of women in the magazines influence what you think is the perfect body shape?” and “Do pictures of women in magazines make you want to lose weight?” Then they were asked if they had initiated in a diet loss or exercising after reading the articles in the magazines. Then the girls were shown four pictures of models and were asked to answer questions like who they believed was most good looking, or would be popular among boys, they would like to look like, was likely to be more successful, etc. For the analysis, the Mantel-Hanzels x2 test, with 1-degree freedom, was used to find the relation between reading fashion magazines and the trend of dieting and losing weight through exercising. It also studied their impact on their diet, exercise trends, and the readers’ perception of a perfect body. The study was done based on grade, race, or ethnic background, and their weights. The result showed that 59% of respondents showed dissatisfaction with body weight, 66% wanted to lose weight, 29% were overweight. 69% of girls said that pictures of models in magazines shaped their perception of “perfect body shape” and 49% wanted to lose weight due to exposure to magazines. The study found that with age, girls became more frequent readers of magazines. Again the effect of culture and ethnicity was found to affect the girls due to their exposure to the magazines. Results showed that Hispanics were more likel
At a glance, a story of The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World may seem not that exciting and, probably, not one of the best Gabriel Marquez’s stories. However, if read more carefully and analyzed, the story turns out to be a good guide to self-improvement, to living a better and more interesting life. Transformation, changes, and strive for better are one of the central themes in the story. In his work, Marquez tries to explain that people should not be merely satisfied with what they have, but dream about and seek for better and bigger. Another important theme covered is admiration, but in this story, it is also directly related to self-improvement. So, what happened in the small fishing village that “was made up of only twenty-odd wooden houses that had stone courtyards with no flowers” at the day when the body of an unknown man was washed up on the beach (Marquez, 1999, p.248)? Why was it such an important event? From the very first lines of the story, we see that the drowned man becomes an object of admiration for villagers, especially for women. They have never seen such a handsome, tall, and well-built man. In their imagination, if this man had lived in their village, he would have the house with “the widest doors, the highest ceiling, and the strongest floor” and “his wife would have been the happiest woman” (Marquez, 1999, p. 249). Men of this village are also astonished by the drowned man. Although he is dead, they see that probably it was a great man who met his death with pride. Yet, why do villagers admire the drowned man so much? The answer is simple. They just see in this dead man all those good qualities and characteristics they themselves find valuable and precious. Women in the village want to have the same strong and handsome husbands and want to be happy with them. Men in the village want to be the same great and, perhaps, want to be admired the same. Anyway, this admiration of the dead body shows that people want to live better and be better. Transformation is another important theme in the short story. Again, from the very first seconds when people discover the drowned man, he has a kind of transformative effect on them. Although it is only villagers’ imagination where the man is so great and all his good qualities may not exist in reality, they are still so inspired, they want to change, they want to make lives better. Even their small odd village as we see it at the beginning changes dramatically at the end of the story. People want to “paint their house fronts gay colors”, they want to “break their backs digging for springs among stones and planting flowers” (Marquez, 1999, p. 253). Maybe, these are only their dreams, but the most important thing is that starting from this day, villagers know that they have a chance to have a different future and better lives. What may be missing in this story? From my point of view, the story misses details about the drowned man himself. I would like to know who he really was, was he so great. I would lik
Collective security Political scientists, who study international relations, attempt to develop mechanisms that can minimise the risk of military conflicts between or among states. Collective security can be viewed as one of such mechanisms. Overall, this concept is based on the assumption that states are not likely to act as aggressors if they know that this attack can evoke the collective response of cooperating members that form a certain alliance. One should mention that the foreign policies of many countries have been affected by the ideas of researchers who examined various aspects of international relations. Among such impacts, one can mention the formation of the North Atlantic Alliance. To some degree, this military cooperation has been regarded as one of the main mechanisms that eliminate the possibility of wars. Nevertheless, one should also consider the cases when this approach does not work. This is why some researchers speak about the false promise of collective security. Political scientists, especially those ones, who adopt the liberal approach to the preservation of peace, may believe that countries are fully committed to the protection of other states that have joined a certain alliance 1 . However, there are exceptions that can refute this assumption. For instance, one can mention the Falklands War between the United Kingdom of Argentina. At that time, other NATO countries did not intervene in this conflict, either military or diplomatically. Therefore, international relations as a field of political science can play several roles. In particular, it can contribute to the creation of safeguards that can reduce the possibility of armed conflicts between the states. Nevertheless, researchers can misguide the policies of a country, especially if they do not consider the reasons why countries may not fulfil their previous obligations. Perception and Misperception The relations between the two countries are often dependent on the ability of political leaders to establish relations with one another. Sometimes, these people can misinterpret each other’s intentions; as a result, there is a significant risk of conflicts between these countries. In some case, these communication problems can result in military confrontations. This argument can be partly applied to such a conflict as World War I. To a large extent, it was caused by the failure of various European monarchs to discuss the conflicting interests of their states. These policy-makers perceived each other only as enemies. This argument is particularly relevant if one speaks about Wilhelm II and Nicholas II, who did not consider the potential impacts of this war on their countries and the very existence of monarchy in Russia and Germany. Both of them were unwilling to stop the mobilisation of their armies since they were afraid of
Introduction China is located in East Asia and it has the largest population in the world. It is one of the largest countries in the world. The population of China is estimated to be 1.3 billion people. The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the sole party that governs China. China is therefore a single-party state. CPC exercises jurisdiction in 22 provinces across China. It is also responsible for monitoring the operations that take place in the five autonomous provinces and the four main metropolitans in China. China has a vast and diverse landscape. It is characterized by forest steppes and deserts which are found in the northern and central Asia. China also has subtropical forests which are found in the wet regions of Southeast Asia. The terrain of Western China is rugged and raised. China is separated from Central and Southeast Asia by the Himalaya, Pamir, Tian Shan ranges. The Yellow and Yangtze rivers are some of the largest rivers in the world. They originate from the Tibetan Plateau. These rivers flow from Tibetan Plateau up to the densely populated seaboard in Eastern China. China’s coastline along the Pacific Ocean is one of the most elongated coastlines in the world. It is estimated to be 14,500 kilometers (Guthrie, 2012). China has experienced a series of historical manifestations. The Chinese civilization is one of the earliest form of civilization that has ever been encountered in the world. The first civilization in China occurred around the Yellow. The political system of China is also based on monarchies. The early Chinese used to refer to monarchies as dynasties. Dynasties in China came to an end when the Qing dynasty fell in 1922. The Chinese Civil War took place between 1946 and 1949. During this time, the Chinese Communist Party fought with the Nationalist Kuomintang who had occupied mainland China in order to reclaim China. CCP defeated Nationalist Kuomintang in 1949. After CCP won the fight against Nationalist Kuomintang, it set in place the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The establishment of PRC was carried out in Beijing. The Kuomintang was therefore forced to move the Republic of China (ROC) administration to Taiwan. Today, the jurisdiction of ROC is limited to Taiwan only. However, since 1949, both the PRC and ROC have been in dispute regarding the political state of Taiwan. They compete over the ownership of Taiwan (Guthrie,
The Reading of Women’s Lives written by April Lidinsky is considered to be the complex study of the global female issues such as feminism and homophobia through the introduction of the concept of power and fear. The author raised the problem of women’s empowerment and men’s threat of status quo maintenance. April Lidinsky tried to explain the most important problems concerning the place and position of the woman in the society through the number of articles related to the topic. Lidinsky introduced the homophobia problems in one of her articles “Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism” which disclosed the understanding of the concept of a woman. “ Homophobia as an effective test for sexism tends to be used…” (Lidinsky, 56) The author connected the notion of sexism with the heterosexism. She argued that the understanding of the heterosexism by people is observed from early childhood of their development. The major issue raised in this article relates the connections between sexism and homophobia. The article “Becoming a Gendered Body” continued the discussion of the homosexual issues in the society. According to the author the only aspect that really denies the power of the women is considered to be lesbian baiting. The fact is that sometimes people cannot find the necessary functions and values in the other gender. Very often the fear of being labeled gives an opportunity for the males to take control over the women. “ The introduction of the women’s rights is not compulsory accepted as the feminism…” (Lidinsky, p. 74) The author stressed the importance of sex identity for the individuals. This fact is closely connected with the promotion of lesbian and gay ideas in the society which cannot find identity of their sex. The homophobia elimination cannot be compassioned, tolerated, accepted or understood. The author stated that this problem can be overcome with the help of the family model behavior providing healthy facilities. “Fear of Feminism” is devoted to the differences between gender and feminist consciousness. The author tried to show the two sides of the gender consciousness, such as women’s vulnerability and differences. She stated that lack of these issues understanding results in fear and violence in men. “… thus, the promotion of anti-feminist ideas results in women’s violation…” (Lidinsky, p. 113) The existence of non-feminist and anti-feminist ideas can be the result of feminism awareness which differ depending on the culture peculiarities and social values. Fear of feminism is more about the politics rather than gender. The author proves that everything is influenced by the political system. One more article related to the topic of women’s study is “Men in Feminist Struggle”. This article discloses the role of the male in the feminist position highlighting the fact that feminism provides too much power for the women giving them an opportunity to control and manage the views of the society. Thus, that analysis of the book The Reading of Women’s Lives proves that economic and social rights should be equal for men and women. She supports the opinion that feminists should always confront homophobi
Physical border security, human trafficking, and illicit narcotics trafficking are serious issues that threaten national security. The necessity to single out one of them as the most important presents a severe challenge. However, since the problems of physical border security and human trafficking are closely related to the drug trafficking issue, it can be stated that this threat can be considered the most crucial. Drug trafficking constitutes a danger not only to national security but also to the U.S. population’s health and creates challenges for law enforcement. According to official statistics, in 2019, drug-related deaths became the leading cause of injury death in the country, and every year since 2011, they have “outnumbered deaths by firearms, motor vehicle crashes, suicide, and homicide” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2019, p. 5). Moreover, drug trafficking and substance use constitute significant risks for human trafficking (Myths, facts and statistic, n.d.). Furthermore, it perpetuates cross-border criminal activity, resulting in challenges to the border control security (Wayne, 2019). Therefore, battling narcotics trafficking can be seen as a primary goal for the authorities. This type of interconnection between treats demonstrates the necessity of collecting intelligence and combating these threats, systematically paying attention to them equally. Nowadays, the United States spends 17 billion dollars on border security (The White House, 2020a), 35,5 billion dollars on counter-dru
Introduction Economic exchange is a common practice in each country. The trading mainly involves goods and services between different countries. The exchanges always come with either losses or profits while they are displayed in the Bop commonly referred to as the balance of payment. In fact, the balance of payments shows all the records of cash inflow and outflow incurred in trade transactions. The balance of payments has got two sections namely the capital and the current accounts. However, China has been strained over the past years in both their exports as well as their imports, which constitute the BOP. Considering the rapid downfall of China, wealthy country partners are withdrawing their investments from the country to avoid further experience of more losses. However, there are certain factors that contribute to the continuous deficit in China’s economic exchange rates. The essay explains key economic challenges facing China today from this country’s balance of payment perspective. Main Body In the past years, China has been balancing its current accounts along with the capital. Most of the times, it handled its resources mostly by marketing them overseas. In fact, either the profit made through trade that accrues from the current or capital account would then uplift the country’s monies. The practice of netting both the current and capital accounts benefits the country’s currency. Alternatively, they coul