ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Conceptual Background Penrose (1959) pioneered the resource-based view. However, Chamberlain (1939) was the first to explain explicitly the concept of unique resources and capabilities. He explained that exploiting unique skills is the best strategy of achieving competitive advantage. Wernerfelt (1984) did the first publication of Resource based theory, whereby he explained it as a compliment of the market based theory. He observed that competition for resources among firms would affect their ability to implement product market strategies. Rumelt, Schendel and Teece (1984) also made significant contribution to this theory whereby they defined firms as bundles of productive resources. They therefore suggested that the economic value of these resources would be different depending on context within which they are used. Mahoney and Pandian (1992) asserted that the main idea behind the Resource based view is that internal resources act as the source of a firm’s strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, for a company to have strength over its competitors it has to have resources that are different and superior to other firms. Therefore, a firm’s unique resource endowment will influence its strategic choice or its conduct, which will in turn determine its economic success or performance (Collis & Montgomery, 1995). Characteristics of Resources There is no generally accepted typology of the resources. However, the resources of a firm can be divided in to two broad categories – tangible and intangible resources. Tangible resources describe the physical and financial resources which include production facilities, Information technology hardware and equity base. On the other hand, intangible resources are further divided in two parts – personal and impersonal resources. Personal resources refer to skills and capabilities, Impersonal resources refer to intangible assets such as patents and rights as well as organizational processes and routines (Von Pock, 2007). The main characteristics of the resources are based on two assumptions: firms in the same industry are different with respect to the resources they control. These resources controlled by these firms may not be perfectly mobile (Barney, 1991). Barney (1991) identifies key parameters that can be used to determine the resources of a firm that leads to competitive advantage. First, the resources must be valuable, which refers to the ability to facilitate the exploitation of opportunities as well as reduce the threats that are in its competitive environment. Secondly, the resources must be rare which means that they should not be easily available to current or potential competitors. Thirdly, imperfectly imitable, this means that they cannot be copied or obtained by competitors. Lastly, they should be non-substitutable. This means that there are no other equivalent resources which can be used to develop the same strategies. All characteristics affirm the first assumption of heterogeneity. The second assumption of imperfect mobility is affirmed by the fact that some resources cannot be obtained from the factor market
Executive summary The world is moving from a native tradition to a comfortable palace with a wide variety of options to choose from, men cosmetic industry being no exceptional. Clarisonic is driving a momentum force towards men cosmetic and machine industry. Clarisonic face cleansing machine is the answer to the men face a problem that has been long awaiting an answer. The negative impacts posed by the sun, climate change, and other natural factors can diminish skin’s vitality. Indeed, the most appropriate and important way to care for the skin is to cleanse it free of oils, dirt, pollutants, and free from radicals. Clarisonic considered marketing has an important tool and a key contributor to the company’s success. The company has rated it itself in the market industry through critical look at the SWOT of the company and its markets. Marketing mix has been well balanced to ensure that they go extra miles to capture and to retain larger market as well as enjoy the profitability. According to (Luther, 27) the marketing research approach is used to develop the marketing strategy and tactic for the new product. Implementations are based on the facts from findings after a critical analysis has been done. An overview Clarisonic face cleansing company founded June 12, 1990. The company’s world headquarter is located in Paris France. The company operates by the vision “to achieve total customer satisfaction through deliver of products and services that enhance self-image and confidence.” Clarisonic face cleansing sells a variety of skin-care products through more salespeople worldwide. The product line consists of more than 150 beauty products, including skin-care, cosmetics, body care, sun protection products and now the face cleansing for men. Clarisonic has incorporated much of its traditional philosophy into its corporate strategy to maintain high-quality products. The company is widely known for reliability and quality of products. Today, clarisonic is a leader in innovation and production high-quality products. Clarisonic is private owned company with high motivation of men cosmetic. Clarisonic face cleansing’s mission Driving efforts together in a lean way, global enterprise as an innovative leader measured by customer experience, employee, dealer, supplier, and community satisfaction. clarisonic’s plan entails an aggressive structure to operate profitably in the current world demand for cosmetic products, while changing the marketing style. The other plan includes scaling up the development of new products that correspond to the needs of our customers. In achieving these plans, clarisonic believes in availing necessary funds that improve the status of the balance sheet through an effective spirit of teamwork (Westwood 3).
Introduction One of the characteristics of business operations is the existence of agreements. These agreements may be between businesses or between a business and an individual. Although it is possible to have oral agreements, formal written contracts are mostly used in business engagements. An employment contract is an agreement that is reached between an employee and an employer in order to ensure that the parties involved are safe and fully protected. A written contract between an employee and an employer shows clearly the obligations of each party to the contract. Contracts can be enforced in law and help to provide guidelines on how to deal with any actions that are unacceptable. According to Cahuc et al. (327), the features of a labor contract depend on whether the results of an employee’s activity can be observed and taken into account. Both the employer and the employee have numerous obligations that must be respected and lived up to. A well-structured labor contract helps to protect both parties of the contract from questionable allegations. Drawing from a study by Wortzel (35), having a formal contract helps to prevent misunderstandings that are likely to occur for the period that an employee is engaged by an employer. Necessity and Significance of Labor Contract for the Employee To a large extent, a labor contract presents a negotiation process that clearly stipulates the duties of the employer and the employee with regard to the contract. For an employee, a contract serves as an assurance that he or she is working for an honest and professional employer. On the other hand, a contract gives an employer the guarantee that an employee clearly understands what is expected of him or her and has accepted to fully comply. In many countries across the world, the labor contract more often than not favors the employee and makes sure that an employer does not subject an employee to any form of unfair treatment. Ordinarily, a labor contract is explained fully to an employee to ensure that he or she has a complete understanding of the employer’s expectation. When this is done, it gives an employee an opportunity to either accept or reject a possible engagement with an employer. The explanation also creates a chance for an employee to seek clarification about the terms of the contract in the event that they are not clearly stated. Equally important is the fact that a labor contract stipulates the grounds for hiring and dismissal. Through a labor contract, an employee gets to know what he or she will be paid at the time of engagement. In addition, a labor contract indicates the benefits an employee is entitled to and what happens during a termination. According to Poole (237), a labor contract provides the assurance that an employer will take reasonable care of an employee economic well being in the event that he or she has to be laid off. Indicating how much an employee will be paid during the duration of engagement is useful in helping the employee to plan. An employee must be made aware of any changes to the salary structure in order to avoid any misunderstandings. The labor contract also includes information such as health
The article entitled Markets “Markets Fall on Doubts Rescues Will Succeed” published in the Wall Street Journal outlines the fall of global stock markets, attributing the plunge to doubts on the feasibility of the then proposed $700 billion financial system bailout plan by the US Federal Government. Nuances on volatilities of stock markets presented in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) referred to above relate to the pervading stock market ironies with investors torn in the dilemmas regards the wisdom of selling or buying or whether to invest in stocks or in bonds. The doubts in the interim stock markets in the US and in the world over culminate from the failure by global leaders to restore confidence in financial markets through their capital injection rescue schemes. The crisis in the financial has become a cyclic crisis protracted by the fear of lending and investing by market players. This has also been exacerbated the voluminous sale of stocks in huge proportions. The Dow on Wall Street plunged to 161.52, or 1.47 percent, to 10,854.17 after surging more than 125 points in the earlier than dropping by over 180. With Monday’s 370-point recession worsened by the doubts over the feasibility of the rescue package by the Federal Government were down 534 points, or 4.69 percent for the week. Broader stock indices also dropped in the interim. Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes plunged to 18.87, or 1.56 percent, to 1,188.22, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 25.65, or 1.18 percent, to 2,153.33. From another dimension, investors were keeping an eye on the oil prices with the contrasting anticipation of government rescue scheme as well as significant short covering driving crude to the biggest one-day gain. Investors also watching oil prices after anxiety over the government bailout and a huge short-covering rally pushed crude to the biggest one-day gain. The pervading atmosphere in the financial and stock markets is marked gloom illumined by poor stock market performances following failure by concerted efforts by the US Federal government and other global leaders to restore confidence through capital injection schemes in the stock markets still smarting from the blow of the collapse of the U.S securities firm Lehman Brothers, an incident which seemed to be just a tip of an iceberg. The article “Dow Takes Giant Leap as Bailouts Snap Gloom” presents an outline of the dramatic and phenomenal rise of the Dow Jones Industrial average. The article captures the ecstasy of investors following the preceding week’s glum triggered by dismal stock market performances after revived stock trading trends sparked by bailout prospects. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shows that the firm’s shares shot through 936.42 points to 9387.61, becoming the largest one-day point gain ever. The record was remarkable, coming after eight successive days of trading
Many organizations comprise of both groups and teams as part of workplace dynamics. A group consists of a number of individuals assembled together with a unifying objective of attaining a certain goal (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993, p. 1). On the other hand, a team is a group of people which differs from the group in terms of design features and characteristics. (Armstrong, 2010, p. 1). Most organization managers use these two tools to distinguish matters relating to delegation, roles and responsibilities. Teams and groups differ in a number of aspects: Age Usually, teams have a relatively small number of people while a group comprises of a bigger number. According to Katzenbach & Smith (1993, p. 1), a team cannot be naturally big and therefore, the definable membership number is 12 persons at maximum and 2 at minimum. Groups consist of more than 12 persons. Pool of Skills A team pools together complementary but varying skills that could not be done on an individual level (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993, p. 1). The different skills, knowledge, perspectives and strengths of each member in the team are identified and utilized. On the other hand, group members usually have an array of similar knowledge and skills in a certain field such as marketing. Roles and Responsibilities Team members are very flexible while performing their tasks in that they have an open platform that allows them to contribute in various aspects of duties and responsibilities. Roles and tasks keep on changing depending on the expertise and experience pertinent to the work being performed. Group members are assigned roles and tasks that do not change hence making them rigid. Relationships Members of a team normally have close relationships since their interaction is fairly open, more relaxed and less formal. Group members are conformed to professional and laid down company ethical guidelines. This brings about strict professional interactions among members. Performance Goals and Objectives Team members usually share a common task which is of a limited scope and has clear defined objectives and timelines for which every member is individually and collectively accountable (Robbins and Judge, 2009). In a group, the members work towards a greater objective such as a mission statement for the organization which is not specific on timelines. Approach to the Purpose A sense of shared purpose is a main objective which is guided by the team’s mission. The members identify what they have to achieve and then set the norms and values to guide them through their assignment and tasks. Groups work in line with the rules, norms, values and guidelines already set by the organization and cannot alter them. Accountability The outcome of team members is as a result of collective effort. In a group, the contribution of each member is what matters at the outcome level. (Armstrong, 2010, p.1). Members of a group are individually accountable whereas team members help each other out in accomplishing the purpos
Introduction Injustice in criminal justice systems is a rather common situation that cannot be eradicated just yet. There are numerous reasons that impact judges’ outlooks and negatively affect the possibility of positive outcomes. Therefore, there may be a situation where the victim will suffer even more when going to the court and trying to protect their views and freedoms. The current paper will concentrate on this issue as the author is going to elaborate on the case where a man allegedly raped his wife and got away with it while getting joint custody of their child. The whole situation revolves around the county judge of Sanilac who granted parental rights to the man who raped the mother of an 8-year-old. Interestingly, the mother of the child was a victim of sexual assault at the age of 12 but her offenders were never properly charged. The woman tried to seek child support but the judge took another route and gave parental rights to the offender. It is a shocking decision, especially knowing that the man never asked for these rights. Currently, these two individuals share a joint custody of the child even though the child’s mother never gave her agreement to sharing custody. From one of the perspectives, the article is a direct representation of the people that were affected by crimes in a negative way (directly). On the other hand, there is much broader impact on society that can be triggered by decisions like the one that will be analyzed within the framework of the current paper. From another perspective, one can perceive this case as a direct aftermath of sexual assault where every party involved in the dealings can be affected by the outcomes. As it can be seen from the situation at hand, the offender was never willing to have custody of the child but the court’s decision obliged him to take it. This, accordingly, led to a more unpleasant situation that was encountered by the victim. She never showed any sign of wanting to cooperate with the criminal and raise the child together but the court’s decision seemed not to take her viewpoint into consideration. It is also interesting that it was the victim who had to accommodate and move to the offender’s place so as to comply with the court’s decision. This kind of situation definitely impa
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is widely sought and used in the world today. A number of debatable issues arise due to this practice and maybe the most notable is the case of Nadya Suleman. A big part of the public is of the opinion that regulations should be in place to ensure that the rights of the fetus or babies are not violated. Sometimes in the practice of ART doctors and their clients defy the regulations and ethics as many may argue was the case of Nadya the octuplets mom. Antonowicz (2009) tells Nadya’s story. She was a 33 year old single mother of six who delivered in vitro fertilized octuplets. Growing up, Nadya was the only child of an emotionally detached mother who herself had grown up in a dysfunctional family and a father who wanted a bigger family. In her own words Nadya describes her childhood as lonely, and admits to an obsession to have babies. Clearly Nadya wanted to fill her world with babies as a compensation for the brothers and sisters she never had. Nadya Suleman was jobless at the time she delivered her octuplets. Already a mother of six whom she could not comfortably provide for, Nadya had eight more children knowing well that it was beyond her means to provide them with not only materially but also love and the parental care they needed. Three of her children had learning disabilities. Nadya Suleman’s actions can be defined as anything but ethical, her obsession with big a family is the only reason why she was giving birth. Dr Michael Kamrava implanted Nadya with six embryos; there was a split later that resulted in a total of eight. Caplan (2007) posts that multiple births are considered an unavoidable consequence of assisted reproductive technology because implanting more embryos increases the chances of a life birth. The above statement could mean that what Dr Kamrava did was within standards, but yet again Nadya’s case was different, she only wanted one more child. Dr. Kamrava was aware of her in vitro history and that all the embryos might have survived following her previous in vitro experiences which had high success rate. There was also a possibility of a split resulting in more than six embryos. The recommended number of embryo implantation in the US for women under the age of 35 years is two (Antonowicz, 2009). Dr Michael Kamrava implanted 33 year old Nadya with six. According to Rosato (2006) multiple births pose higher risks to the health of the mother and foetus. Children born in single births have higher birth weight, mortality rates are higher in multiple births and the risk of babies born with congenial birth defects is higher in multiple births. Three of the six of Nadya’s older children had learning disabilities yet her doctor went ahead with a multiple implantation knowing that the babies were at a higher risk of being born with defects. Conclusion
BPR & IS The concept of “reengineering” was defined by Hammer as “the use of modern information technology to radically redesign business process”. When a business process need to work efficiently, (click, “modern technology” appears), business needs Information Technology to redesign its process, (click twice, “arrow” and the happy man appears), so the new business process becomes more effective and efficient. This is the process of Business Process Reengineering, BPR for short. But how do we make the best use of Information Technology to support BPR? The key is to develop an (click, “IS Strategy” appears) “IS Strategy”. The three steps of reengineering This diagram (click, blue diagram appears) demonstrates how IT and IS support Business Process Reengineering step by step These are the three steps of reengineering: Using information technology, we can address what an organization is lack of, what kind of needs (click, “identify needs” appears) drive this organization to reengineering. Knowing the gaps between what we are now and what we need to be, we will come up several develop options for radical change. On the other hand, IT is not only a tool to identify needs, it is also an enabler of change (click, “enabler” appears), that means new technology is the drive for a business to develop When we have possible options for change, we need to evaluate the changes for reengineering process. At this stage, IT and IS can be used to model, simulate and prototype the options for change. After analysis, we will choose the options that suitable for organization’s development strategy. Implementation is the last step, this is the stage that strategies turn to real actions. For lots of business which have IT as enabler of change, IT and IS will play a significant part as key component to achieve changes. Information Management   * IT.   * Business. The organization may use a number of different strategies which may be helpful for information delivery. Using information management, the organization can create a specific model according to which information is going to be received, developed, and used. To conduct successful information management, the company should be able to collaborate IT and the business. Only the correct involvement of those two components may guarantee that the information is collected and used effectively and in accordance with the stated goals (McKeen & Smith 2008). Knowledge management & Information management & Information technology Information management may be considered as the fundamental strategy for the business success if the strategy is correctly used. The main properties of information management is that both IT effectiveness is