1
Twenty-First Annual Conference on International Business
and Contemporary Issues in Business October 8th-October 11th, 2014
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
2
Twenty-First Annual
Conference on International Business and
Contemporary Issues in Business
Rapid City, South Dakota
October 8th- October 11th, 2014
Conference Program
Hosted by:
Northern State University
Center of Excellence in International Business ISBN: 1883120411
Willard Broucek, Ph.D. Conference Chair
Liz Hannum
Hannah Walters
Ben Leidholt
Lauren Marshall Conference Coordinators
3
4
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR
SESSION CHAIRS
Willard Broucek, Northern State University, USA
Hannah Walters, Northern State University, USA
Scott Peterson, Northern State University, USA
James Kennedy, Northern State University, USA
Allen Barclay, Northern State University, USA
Juan González, Northern State University, USA
Tim Becker, Brandman University, USA
Thomas Head, Roosevelt University, USA
Michael Pülz, University of Applied Sciences and Arts FHNW, Switzerland
5
WEDNESDAY, October 8th, 2014
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
REGISTRATION
Hotel Alex Johnson Lobby
WELCOME RECEPTION
Vortex Lounge
THURSDAY, October 9th, 2014 Events on Thursday, October 9th, take place at Hotel Alex Johnson, Rapid City, SD.
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. BUFFET BREAKFAST Ballroom
9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Opening Remarks – Conference Chair: Willard Broucek, Northern State
University, USA
Ballroom
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. SESSION 01
Each presentation will be half an hour in length
Lincoln Room
9:30 a.m.
Session Chair: Ms. Hannah Walters- Northern State University
An Innovative New Venture in the Dakota Badlands
Leo Dana
Montpellier Business School
10:00 a.m. Work Experiences of Native Americans: A Qualitative Study
Ahmed Al-Asfour and Mwata Chisha
Oglala Lakota College and College of Menominee Nation
Washington/
Rushmore Room
9:30 a.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Thomas Head- Roosevelt University
Mindfulness at the Workplace - A Lifeline for All of Us?
Michael Pülz
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW
10:00 a.m.
An analysis of Small Town Retail Pull Factors in a Rural State
Rand Wergin, Daniel L. Tracy, and Richard Muller
University of South Dakota
10:30 a.m. –
10:45a.m. BREAK
Beverages and a light snack will be provided in hallway
10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. SESSION 02
Each presentation will be half an hour in length
Lincoln Room 10:45 a.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Willard Broucek - Northern State University
Fly-On-The-Wall Ethics: Can Students Learn from Watching Real-World Ethical
Dilemmas?
Jack Walters
Dakota State University
11:15 a.m. The Reaction of Lebanese Banks’ Stock Prices to the 2008 Financial Crises
Nehale Farid Mostapha
Beirut Arab University
Washington/
Rushmore Room
10:45 a.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Michael Pülz – University of Applied Sciences
and Arts, Switzerland
CBE…Competency-Based Education – the What, How and Why
6
Tim Becker
Brandman University
11:15 a.m.
Ensuring Food Security in the 21st Century - Pressures on Natural Resources,
Agricultural Commodities and the Environment
Andrew Buks
Northern State University
11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. BUFFET LUNCH Ballroom
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. SESSION 03 Each presentation will be half an hour in length
Lincoln Room
1:00 p.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Willard Broucek – Northern State University
LeBron James: The Image Roller-Coaster
Joshua Shuart
Sacred Heart University
1:30 p.m. Concussions: The Marketing Nighmare that Faces the NFL and Youth Sports
Thomas Orr
Northern State University
Washington/
Rushmore Room
1:00 p.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Tim A. Becker – Brandman University
JOBS Act: Has it Brought Back the IPO?
Marlin Jensen, Beverly B. Marshall, and John S. Jahera, Jr.
Auburn University
1:30 p.m.
An Overview of the “How Do I Keep My Employees Motivated?
George Langelett
South Dakota State University
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. SESSION 04 Each presentation will be half an hour in length
Lincoln Room
2:00 p.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Keun Lee – Northern State University
Prediction of market sales with search behavior across different countries
Shaoqiong Zhao
Northern State University
2:30 p.m. Work Experiences of Native Americans: A Qualitative Study
Ahmed Al-Asfour and Mwata Chisha
Oglala Lakota College and College of Menominee Nation
Washington/
Rushmore Room
2:00 p.m.
Session Chair: Ms. Hannah Walters- Northern State University
Course and Program Design to Support Measurable Intercultural Competency
Development
Naomi Ludeman-Smith
Northern State University
2:30 p.m. Options, Strategies, and Trade-Offs in Resource Mobilization
Arbab Naseebullah Kasi
Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences
(BUITEMS)
3:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. BREAK Beverages and snacks will be provided in hallway
3:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. SESSION 05 Each presentation will be half an hour in length
Lincoln Room
3:15 p.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Allen Barclay – Northern State University
Environmentalizing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
7
Tim Becker
Brandman University
3:45 p.m. The Role of Regional Economic Communities in Poverty Eradication in Africa:
Perspectives from Different Stakeholders in Urban Zambia
Ahmed Al-Asfour and Mwata Chisha
Oglala Lakota College and College of Menominee Nation
Washington/
Rushmore Room
3:15 p.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Willard Broucek – Northern State University
When Congress Fails to Act: State/U.S. Territory Legislated Minimum Wage
Laws and Their Implications
James Kennedy and Keun Lee
Northern State University
3:45 p.m. John Kotter, Adolf Hitler, and Change
Robert Vodnoy
Northern State University
6:00 p.m. BUFFET DINNER AND KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Paul Horsted – Photographer and Author
Ballroom
FRIDAY, October 10th, 2014 Events on Friday, October 10th take place at Hotel Alex Johnson, Rapid City, SD.
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. BUFFET BREAKFAST Ballroom
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. SESSION 06 Each presentation will be half an hour in length
Lincoln Room
9:30 a.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Tim A. Becker – Brandman University
Why Trash don’t Pass? Pharmaceutical Licensing and Safety Performance of
Drugs
Tanista Banerjee and Arnab Nayak
Auburn University and Deloitte and Touche
10:00 a.m. An Evolution of Fertilizer Marketing Vision
Numair Ahmad Sulehri and Asif Khurshid
COMSATS Islamabad
Washington/
Rushmore Room
9:30 a.m.
Session Chair: Dr. James Kennedy- Northern State University
No Where to Run. No Where to Hide. The Roots of the Escalating Violence in
Latin America that Keeps Investors from Fully Embracing a Burgeoning Market.
Juan Gonzalez
Northern State University
10:00 a.m. Assessment of HR development and utilization: In the public sector
Mussie Tessema
Winona State University
10:30 a.m. - 10:45a.m. BREAK
Beverages and snacks will be provided in hallway
10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. SESSION 07 Each presentation will be half an hour in length
Lincoln Room
10:45 a.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Willard Broucek- Northern State University
The Decision to Centralize or Decentralize Decision Making in Foreign
Operations: Should Versus Does
Thomas Head
Roosevelt University
8
11:15 a.m. A Cross Cultural Study on Sense of Brand SNS Community
Cheol Park and Xiaowu Wang
Korea University and University of Jinan
Washington/
Rushmore Room
10:45 a.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Juan Gonzalez - Northern State University
Do Credit Rating Agencies Favor Their Big Clients
Timmy Yin-Che Weng and Pu Liu
Harbin Institute of Technology and University of Arkansas
11:15 a.m. Historical Origins of China’s Post-1978 Economic “Miracle”
Stephen Thomas and Ji Chen
University of Colorado Denver
11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
BUFFET LUNCH AND SPEAKER
Ballroom
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m SESSION 08 – THE AFTERNOON WILL CONSIST OF STUDENT
PRESENTATIONS Each presentation will be TWENTY minutes in length and hosted in the Ballroom
Ballroom
1:00 p.m.
Session Chair: Mr. Scott Peterson - Northern State University
The Performance Impact of Project Managers as External Leaders: The
Influence of Followership Style and Team Disbursement
Billy Whisnant
Eastern Michigan University
1:20 p.m. More Ethnic Diversity within an Urban Setting could Result in Greater
Economic Stability
Lauren Marshall with Allen Barclay
Northern State University
1:40 p.m. Styles of Learning for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Informing Performance
Management
Sara Colorosa
Colorado State University
2:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m. BREAK Beverages will be provided in hallway
2:20 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. SESSION 09 – Student Presentations Each presentation will be TWENTY minutes in length
Ballroom
2:20 p.m.
Session Chair: Ms. Hannah Walters - Northern State University
Cloud Security101: A Primer
Nigel Van Der Burg with Scott Peterson
Northern State University
2:40 p.m. Secured Chiropractic Database
Liza Strate, Mariah Ahlert, Brahn Olson, Brandon Ding, and Brittany Paulson with Mark
B. Schmidt
St. Cloud State University
3:00 p.m. Can Servant Leaders Encourage Trust and Communication of Tacit Knowledge
at any level of Leader-Member Exchange Quality?
Billy Whisnant and Odai Khasawneh
Eastern Michigan University
3:20 p.m. Testbed implementation of Cassandra distributed database solutions
Karl Konz, Bill Bruggenthies, and Erika Koes with Mark B. Schmidt
St. Cloud State University
3:40 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. BREAK Beverages and snacks will be provided in hallway
9
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. SESSION 10 – Student Presentations Each presentation will be TWENTY minutes in length
Ballroom
4:00 p.m.
Session Chair: Dr. Willard Broucek - Northern State University
Let it Grow: The Issue of Sustainablility and How Gardening can help us Evolve
Taylor Melius with Kristi Bockorny
Northern State University
4:20 p.m. Configuring a MYSQL database for efficiency and security within a cloud
environment
Natalie Shofner, James Niehaus and Barrett Holien with Mark B. Schmidt
St. Cloud State University
4:40 p.m. Lead the parade: a case study depicting the use of traditional and online
marketing strategies to expand into the hyper-growth market in the Bakken
region of North Dakota
Dan Nelson with Deb Tech
Dakota State University
5:00 p.m. End of Conference
Dinner on your own
SATURDAY, October 11th, 2014 Events on Saturday, October 11th, 2014 take place at Hotel Alex Johnson, Rapid City, SD, Reptile
Gardens, Mount Rushmore, Crow Peak Brewery in Spearfish, SD.
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. BUFFET BREAKFAST Ballroom
9:00 a.m.
9:30 a.m.
11:30 a.m.
12:00 p.m.
1:30 p.m.
2:30 p.m.
4:30 p.m.
Load bus and depart Hotel Alex Johnson
Visit Reptile Gardens
Depart Reptile Gardens
Visit the beautiful Mt. Rushmore National Memorial and enjoy lunch
Depart Mount Rushmore
Arrive at Crow Peak Brewery in Spearfish, SD
Depart Spearfish for the Hotel Alex Johnson
Have a safe trip to your return destination!
10
Conference Paper Abstracts
Ahmed Al-Asfour and Mwata Chisha 13
Work Experiences of Native Americans: A Qualitative Study
Ahmed Al-Asfour and Mwata Chisha 14
The Role of Regional Economic Communities in Poverty Eradication
in Africa: Perspectives from Different Stakeholders in Urban Zambia
Tim Becker 15
CBE…Competency-Based Education – the What, How and Why
Tim Becker 16
Environmentalizing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Andrew Buks 17
Ensuring Food Security in the 21st Century - Pressures on Natural
Resources, Agricultural Commodities and the Environment
Sara Colorosa 18
Styles of Learning for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Informing
Performance Management
Leo Dana 27
An Innovative New Venture in the Dakota Badlands
Juan Gonzalez 28
No Where to Run. No Where to Hide. The Roots of the Escalating Violence
in Latin America that Keeps Investors from Fully Embracing a
Burgeoning Market
Thomas C. Head, Therese Yaeger, and Peter F. Sorensen, Jr. 29
The Decision to Centralize or Decentralize Decision Making in Foreign
Operations: Should Versus Does
Marlin R.H. Jensen, Beverly B. Marshall, and John S. Jahera, Jr. 30
JOBS Act: Has it Brought Back the IPO?
James K. Kennedy and Keun Lee 42
When Congress Fails to Act: State/U.S. Territory Legislated Minimum
Wage Laws and Their Implications
Karl Konz, Bill Bruggenthies, and Erika Koes with Mark B. Schmidt 43
Testbed implementation of Cassandra distributed database solutions
11
George Langelett 44
An Overview of the “How Do I Keep My Employees Motivated?
Naomi Ludeman-Smith 47
Course and Program Design to Support Measurable Intercultural
Competency Development
Lauren Marshall with Allen Barclay 48
More Ethnic Diversity within an Urban Setting could Result in Greater
Economic Stability
Taylor Melius with Kristi Bockorny 63
Let it Grow: The Issue of Sustainablility and How Gardening
can help us Evolve
Nehale Farid Mostapha 71
The Reaction to Lebanese Banks’ Stock Prices to the 2008 Financial Crises
Arbab Naseebullah Kasi 72
Options, Strategies, and Trade-Offs in Resource Mobilization
Dan Nelson and Deb Tech 73
Lead the parade: a case study depicting the use of traditional and
online marketing strategies to expand into the hyper-growth market in
the Bakken region of North Dakota.
Thomas Orr 74
Concussions: The Marketing Nighmare that Faces the NFL and
Youth Sports
Cheol Park 78
A Cross Cultural Study on Sense of Brand SNS Community
Michael Pülz 79
Mindfulness at the Workplace - A Lifeline for All of Us?
Natalie Shofner, James Niehaus and Barrett Holien with Mark B.
Schmidt 92
Configuring a MYSQL database for efficiency and security within
a cloud environment
Joshua Shuart 93
LeBron James: The Image Roller-Coaster
Liza Strate, Mariah Ahlert, Brahn Olson, Brandon Ding, and
Brittany Paulson with Mark B. Schmidt 94
Secured Chiropractic Database
12
Numair Ahmad Sulehri 95
An Evolution of Fertilizer Marketing Vision: A Case Study of
Tiger Fertilizer Company
Stephen Thomas and Ji Chen 104
Historical Origins of China’s Post-1978 Economic “Miracle”
Nigel van der Burg with Scott Peterson 106
Cloud Security101: A Primer
Robert Vodnoy 111
John Kotter, Adolf Hitler, and Change
Jack Walters 113
Fly-On-The-Wall Ethics: Can Students Learn from Watching
Real-World Ethical Dilemmas?
Timmy Yin-Che Weng and Pu Liu 115
Do Credit Rating Agencies Favor Their Big Clients
Rand Wergin 116
An analysis of Small Town Retail Pull Factors in a Rural State
Billy Whisnant 117
The Performance Impact of Project Managers as External Leaders:
The Influence of Followership Style and Team Disbursement
Billy Whisnant and Odai Khasawneh 118
Can Servant Leaders Encourage Trust and Communication of Tacit
Knowledge at any level of Leader-Member Exchange Quality?
Shaoqiong Zhao 119
Prediction of market sales with search behavior across different countries
13
Work Experiences of Native Americans: A Qualitative Study
Ahmed Al-Asfour
Mwata Chisha
After almost a century of attempting to eradicate unemployment for Native Americans
and many federal government acts to boost economic empowerment on the reservations,
unemployment remains high among Native Americans on the reservations. Subsequent to
many interviews with Native Americans from various tribes on and off reservations, this
study has identified themes of work experiences and challenges facing Native Americans.
The themes are cultural tensions, family obligations/expectations, pregnancy, excessive
workload, and inadequate education for career advancement. The responses from this
qualitative study of the Native American workers in this study clearly indicated that they
experience some difficulties that are manageable, but stressful. Due to the lack of
opportunities on the reservations, the majority of the participants sought employment off the
reservations, although some interviews were conducted with individuals working on different
reservations. It is hoped that the findings from this study will raise awareness of the
struggles of Native Americans in the workplace and spurs further discussion in this area
among researchers, politicians, and stakeholders.
Key words: Native Americans, workforce development, unemployment, lack of employment
opportunities.
14
The Role of Regional Economic Communities in Poverty Eradication in Africa:
Perspectives from Different Stakeholders in Urban Zambia
Mwata Chisha
Ahmed Al-Asfour
Regional economic communities (RECs) have a role to play in addressing social
problems such as chronic poverty in Africa. Economies of member countries are small and
fragmented. Various individual country economic development programs have
underperformed or failed due, in part, to inadequacy of resources. The regional economic
integration initiatives, have suffered major setback despite the enormous amounts of scarce
resources that are channeled to them annually. Examined in this paper are the community
perspectives on the role of RECs in eradicating poverty in Africa. Quantitative and
qualitative data were gathered by interviewing members of the general public, college
students, and employees Southern African Development Community (SADC) representatives
in Zambia. A country with 42 percent of its population living in abject poverty – defined as
depending not only on income but also on access to services – presents a plausible platform
for research to find the SADC’s initiatives elasticity of poverty, from the perspective of the
regional citizens. The research findings from this study seem to suggest a variance between
current SADC development initiatives in Southern Africa and what the communities
perceive as their needs.
Key words: Chronic poverty, Southern Africa, Zambia, stakeholder perspective, communities
15
Environmentalizing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Dr. Tim A. Becker
Most businesses, managers, and marketers are familiar with Abraham Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs. This theory is one of the preferred that describes the behavior of
individuals and groups while labeling what people are looking for and trying to achieve. The
five levels of the theory are highly agreed upon, physiological, safety and security, social and
interactive, esteem, and self-actualization. The use and understanding of the theory are
widespread.
The presentation at the conference will detail a more modern, targeted, and effective
model and understanding of the original theory. The 5 Levels of the original theory are
divided each into three different “environments” where the needs exist. The environments
cover where someone lives and works 24/7. As a result, an individual operates in the
environments and ultimately has 15 different needs.
Through “environmentalizing” Maslow, managers can better serve their workers and
provide what they really need and seek. Marketers will better target their prospects and
customers in a way that will increase sales and profits. Teachers and instructors could also
adapt their curricula, delivery, and assessments based on this innovative implementation of
this well-worn theory.
Attendees will fully understand the “new” Maslow and will be engaged in a mini-case study
to practice “environmentalizing.”
16
CBE…Competency-Based Education – the What, How and Why
Dr. Tim A. Becker
Is CBE for your university? In this presentation attendees will be taken through a
briefing on “what” it is, “why” it’s being done (and not done by some), and finally direction on
“how” to do it if you choose to explore this innovative and adaptable curriculum. Ultimately,
CBE is a series of updating tactics and strategies of “learning, knowing, and doing.”
This presentation will explore the many options, pros and cons of CBE implementation
along with tactics of what to beware of and what to make sure to include. CBE is not just a
fad, the DOE (Department of Education) is watching its development and progress closely
and is a sideline supporter, the content of the support will be shared. In a mini-case study
format, you will see the results of Brandman University’s foray into CBE as it converted its 4
year BBA program to CBE in less than 2 years. Attendees will understand CBE and be able
to decide whether CBE is something to explore for their institution.
17
Ensuring Food Security in the 21st Century - Pressures on Natural Resources,
Agricultural Commodities and the Environment
Andrew Buks
Despite many innovative solutions to ensure food security in the 21st century, the
global population is facing a large number of complex challenges. The world’s population is
expected to reach over 9 billion by 2050 and rural-urban migration is increasing
considerably, with growth concentrated in today’s developing countries including China,
India, Southeast Asian and several African nations accounting for 70% of the global
population in 2050 against 49% today.
Undoubtedly, one of the main factors, globalization, is affecting the agriculture sector
and, together with economic expansion and urbanization, it is contributing to changing
patterns in food consumption. The types of food products consumed in developing and
developed nations are the direct result from globalization, economic growth and rapidly
growing urbanization.
The availability of land and water resources is of utmost importance for food security.
Natural resources are being subject to unprecedented pressure from human activities, and
marked climate and environmental changes are occurring, resulting in higher agricultural
commodity prices and frequent climate change-related disasters.
This paper discusses the current knowledge of these complex challenges and discusses
likely implications for the food and agriculture sectors as well as for hunger and poverty
reduction.
18
Styles of Learning for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Informing Performance
Management
Sara Colorosa
Background
Even though the Autism Spectrum (AS) have been studied since 1943, there is still
more information needed about the implications for AS in the workplace (DSM, 2011; Frith,
1991; 1993) to improve opportunities for those on the spectrum. The Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC, 2014) estimates that one in 68 children are on the Autism
Spectrum. With such a high frequency of children being identified with the disorder, there
are implications as they advance through education and into the workforce. Given the
changes in the workplace, managers and co-workers need to be aware of the styles of
learning in the workplace and know how to use this information to inform and improve the
performance of all employees.
The purpose of this article is to make the case as why it is important for managers and
co-workers to be aware of the styles of learning in the workplace, learn about the AS styles of
learning, and inform how this information can be used in the workplace. This knowledge can
inform managers in how they implement performance management for the various styles of
learning. Managers should be familiar with this material, as they may supervise people in a
diverse workplace, with diverse skill sets.
Individuals on the Autism Spectrum in the Workplace
Managers and co-workers should recognize the changing work environment and create
supportive environments by minimizing employment issues. Highly capable of doing their
work, some of the challenges for those on the AS are anxiety, not understanding personal
space, talking too much or not enough, lack of independence from supervisors and co-
workers, being too rigid, and poor personal habits (Mawhood & Howlin, 1999). These
challenges are not solely characteristic of those on the spectrum. Communication is one skill
that may be difficult for individuals on the spectrum. Dew and Alan (2007) state that with
different skills and abilities of individuals on the spectrum, employment needs and
opportunities vary. Supportive work environments can help employees be successful and
maintain employment (Barnhill, 2007; Grandin & Duffy, 2004; Hendricks & Wehman, 2009;
Hurlbutt & Chalmers, 2004; Mawhood & Howlin, 1999; Robinson & Smith, 2010).
Research has indicated that better understanding from managers about the AS and
how to support the needs of their employees, reported successful employees, who stayed
employed and reported being satisfied with their work (Mawhood & Howlin, 1999).
Employers and those who manage employees on the AS should be able to support the
behaviors and environments for these individuals (Van Wieren, Reid, & McMahon, 2008, p.
306).
Similarly, Grandin and Duffy (2004) discuss the transition into the workforce “in order
for many on the autism spectrum to join the workforce, their sensory sensitivities must be
‘smoothed,’ communication skills built, and anxiety reduced through treatment and,
sometimes, medication” (p. 11). There has been a call to action put forth for adults on the
Autism Spectrum to know more about their strengths, career interests, and how they need to
19
navigate the cultural world within a company. It is just as important for managers and co-
workers to understand how to support whatever the needs of employees are.
Adults on the Autism Spectrum experienced high unemployment and
underemployment, changed jobs and made less money than their counterparts, and had
issues adjusting to the workplace (Hendricks & Wehman, 2009, p. 81). They found that
recent research was focused on design strategies to reduce poor behaviors, match
communication needs with a job, and increase retention. Hurlbutt and Chalmers (2004)
concluded that if a person is allowed to discuss their needs and disability, it would be helpful.
However, this is not always the situation, as some employees are not comfortable discussing
their needs in the workplace. Barnhill (2007) stated that there are employment issues for
people on the AS, as they are not always able to find work that fit with their abilities.
Additionally, they tend to have trouble maintaining work and social relationships (2007, p.
118). Robinson and Smith (2010) developed an intervention to create a supportive work
environments for a young man on the AS. He was able to complete his work tasks
successfully given that the participant lacked cogitative skills before the intervention to
complete all of his work. By implementing a supportive environment, the research
participant was able to learn the tasks needing to be completed. Barnhill (2007) studied
employment issues that people on the spectrum may encounter and found that fitting work
within their abilities, maintaining work, and social relationships leads to positive outcomes
(2007, p. 118). These studies demonstrate some of issues employees on the Autism Spectrum
can face along with possible solutions to create supportive environments by becoming
familiar with styles of learning.
Definition of Styles of Learning
A definition of style of learning was developed from a variety of sources. Learning style
is how an individual processes information, behaves in situations, and feels while learning
(Conti, 2009). An individual’s learning style is based on preferences when engaging in the
learning cycle (Kolb & Kolb, 2004). Each person’s learning style can be influenced by
personality, jobs, education, and experiences (Kolb, 1984).
Autism Spectrum Styles of Learning
The literature has indicated three models of learning relevant for individuals on the
Autism Spectrum. These styles are Specialized Brains, Learning and Communication Styles,
and Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic Learning Styles. There are two behavioral theories
influencing learning; these theories are Theory of Mind Thinking and Positive Support
Behaviors.
Specialized Brains Model
Three types of specialized brains have been defined by Grandin for individuals on the
Autism Spectrum (2006). Grandin has met and talked with hundreds of families and
individuals with Autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Over the years, she has observed and
identified different types of specialized brains, as people on the spectrum think in details.
Grandin’s categories provide detail about how a person thinks and processes information.
Some individuals may combine these categories (2006, p. 28) as the categories are not
distinct. Table 1 summarizes the specialized brains and their characteristics as suggested by
Grandin.
20
Table 1
Specialized Brain Characteristics as Observed by Grandin
Specialized Brain Characteristics of Thinking in
Detail
Source
Visual Think in photographically
specific images.
Duties should not have a lot of
math or short-term memory
recall; long-term memory recall
is better.
Grandin, 2006, pp.
28-29.
Grandin & Duffy,
2004, pp. 88-89.
Music and math
thinkers
Excel in math, chess, and
computer programming. Notice
patterns and relationships.
Often play music by ear, are
good with numbers, facts, and
music. Written language is not
required for pattern thinking.
Grandin, 2006, pp.
28-29.
Grandin & Duffy,
2004, pp. 88-89.
Verbal logic thinkers Love history, foreign languages,
weather statistics, and stock
market reports.
Strong long-term memory is
better than short-term memory
recall. Good with words, lists,
and numbers.
Grandin, 2006, pp.
28-29.
Grandin & Duffy,
2004, pp. 88-89.
Learning and Communication Styles Model
Categories of learning styles have been identified by Wolf, Brown, and Bork (2009) and
suggest learners should identify their style(s) to facilitate the appropriate way to navigate
education and the workforce. Wolf et al. (2009) state that the learning styles “should not be
goals in and of themselves, but should provide a baseline, with the ultimate goal of enabling
the student to independently apply the steps and procedures identified in each setting he
21
may encounter” (p. 178). These same goals can be applied to the workplace. Table 2
summarizes these two learning style categories.
Table 2
Learning and Communication Styles Identified
Learning Styles Communication Style Source
Verbal
Explanation and written Wolf, Brown, & Bork,
2009, p. 11.
Visual Demonstrations, flow chart and
guides
Wolf, Brown, & Bork,
2009, p. 11.
Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learning Styles
Lisle (2007) assessed the various styles of learning for adults with intellectual
difficulties and suggested “the use of learning style assessments and consequential
synchrony with learning opportunity can help remove obstacles to learning generally and can
be beneficial to and supportive for adult learners with intellectual difficulties” (p. 24). In this
study, an assessment was created and used to identify various modalities of learning styles.
The VAK looks at visual, auditory, and kinesthetic styles of learning and assesses and
enhances multiple modalities of the learner (Lisle, 2007); these modalities are summarized in
Table 3.
Table 3
Summary of VAK Modalities
Modalities Characteristics Source
Visual learners
Prefers images, diagrams, charts and
other visual information
Lisle, 2007, p. 30.
Auditory
Uses aural communication, sounds,
dialogue, discussion, rhythmic
patterns and reading materials
Lisle, 2007, p. 30.
Kinesthetic Active listeners, prefers practical
tasks and activities
Lisle, 2007, p. 30.
If a learner has a primary and secondary learning style, the VAK would be able to identify
the styles and enhance the learning for both (Lisle, 2007).
Commonality among Styles of Learning for Autism Spectrum Disorders
Through this comprehensive analysis of the Autism Spectrum’ styles of learning, it
was determined there are commonalities among the various models, summarized in table 4.
There is some overlap for the AS styles of learning. The three models, Specialized Brains,
Learning and Communication Styles, and VAK model include visual learning, which takes
place when information is given through pictures, charts, images, and color (Grandin, 2006;
Grandin & Duffy, 2004; Lisle, 2007; Wolf et al., 2009). The Specialized Brains and Learning
and Communication Styles models identify that some individuals on the spectrum learn
through verbal interactions, such as language and explanation (Grandin, 2006; Grandin &
Duffy, 2004; Wolf et al. 2009). Lisle (2007) described this style of learning as auditory, where
a person learns through communication and sounds.
Table 4
22
Summary of Styles of Learning for Autism Spectrum Disorders
Learning Style Specialized Brains Learning and
Communication
Styles
VAK Model
Visual X X X
Music/Math X
Verbal X X
Auditory X
Kinesthetic X
All three models concur that learning takes place through verbal or auditory methods,
even though the authors use different terminology. The VAK model has the kinesthetic as an
additional learning style, which does not be aligned with the other styles. A person with a
kinesthetic learning style learns from listening and participating in activities and tasks
(Lisle, 2007). Lastly, the Specialized Brains model has music/math as a style of learning that
the other two models do not include, where learning through math related tasks (Grandin,
2006; Grandin & Duffy, 2004).
All four of these styles are present in the diversity of people in the workplace.
Managers and co-workers should incorporate these styles into daily communications and
interactions to ensure learning with all employees. The styles have characteristics that
managers and co-workers should be familiar with for effective communication and
performance management.
Autism Spectrum Disorders and Associated Behaviors
In addition to the styles of learning that emerged from the literature, two associated
behavioral theories were discovered. The two theories reviewed were Theory of Mind
Thinking and Positive Behavior Support. These theories are described in the following
sections, as they can influence learning.
Theory of Mind Thinking
Dr. Grandin (2008) discusses, in her book The Way I See It, various research studies
that analyze how people on the spectrum engage in their social worlds. She states that
people on the spectrum struggle with Theory of Mind (ToM) thinking. This is the ability to
perceive what is being said or to interpret a situation from the “other’s” perspective
(Grandin, 2008, p. 133; Rotheram-Fuller & Kasari, 2011; Spek, Scholte, & Berckelaer-Onnes,
2009). These skills are developed at such an early age, except individuals on the spectrum
may not be able to interpret the nonverbal and interpersonal communication that completes
the whole message foe most other people (Grandin, 2008, p. 133; Rotheram-Fuller & Kasari,
2011). This lack of interpretation is part of the social skill interaction that can cause
frustration and anxiety among employees and management within the workforce. Key pieces
of information may be missing from messages, due to each person’s communication and
learning styles as missing or not attending to non-verbal cues or facial expressions.
Each person has his/her own learning and communication styles. Individuals on
the spectrum may be more concrete thinkers than others (Grandin, 2008, p. 143). For those
who are concrete thinkers, interpreting “logic or involve emotions and social relationships
are difficult for us to grasp, and even more difficult to incorporate into our daily lives”
(Grandin, 2008, p.143). Grandin (2008) suggests four “cornerstones of social awareness” that
aid in social thinking and functioning. Managers should know these various cornerstones as
they provide some basic tools for engaging all employees in the workplace. By knowing and
23
practicing these cornerstones, a manager can assist an employee with various social
interactions, while understanding when an employee uses a cornerstone to engage with
others. The cornerstones are:
Perspective-taking – making sense of the world by understanding the
differences in people’s emotions and thinking
Flexible thinking – being able to accept change and being flexible to changing
situations and knowing alternatives
Positive self-esteem – having a “can-do” attitude to be successful in many
situations
Motivation – moving toward goals and understanding that things happen, yet
striving to be successful.
Grandin shares the “single most important aspect of functioning that determines the level of
social success” is being able to perceive what another person is thinking (2008, p.143). For
an individual who is navigating the workplace, these perceptions can be used to engage with
others in social situations. Employees can advocate for themselves based on how they
perceive a social situation by using the cornerstones as a guide for social interaction.
Positive Behavior Support
Schall (2010) presents a case study about the Positive behavior support (PBS)
intervention model for supporting positive behaviors in the workplace. Despite good job
training, attention to detail, a high degree of accuracy, and a dedication to work, people on
the spectrum are frequently underemployed and serially unemployed (Schall, 2010, p. 109).
“Symptoms most associated with the AS include impairments in verbal and non-verbal
communication, deficits in social interaction, insistences on maintaining routine, stereotyped
motor movements, and vocalizations, and unusual responses to sensory stimuli” (Schall,
2010, p. 110).
The PBS model identifies what behaviors are problematic, create positive behaviors
for those situations, and identify behaviors to use in the workplace when stressful or anxiety
producing situations arise. The end goal for PBS is “replacement [of] behavior that will
functionally replace the problem behavior” (Schall, 2010, p. 112). Managers can focus on
work productivity by minimizing distractions for the employee so they can focus on the tasks.
If an employee is distracted by noise in order to complete tasks, a manager may have
employee work in a closed office versus a cubical. By implementing the PBS model, Schall
(2010) was able to demonstrate that an employee had choices that were not disruptive to the
work environment and allowed the employee to make choices during stressful situations.
Supporting positive behaviors in the workplace is critical to employees and organizational
success.
What can be learned about Autism Spectrum Styles of Learning
The styles of learning can be summarized in how individuals on the spectrum take in
and process information. The behavioral theories provide managers and co-workers with
information about an individual on the spectrum might interact socially within their
environment. Managers and co-workers should understand that behaviors influence how
someone may learn. If an employee is under stress or in an anxiety laden environment,
learning may not take place.
The behavioral theories described here-- Theory of Mind Thinking and Positive
Support Behaviors--are ways individuals on the AS may interact with their social situation
24
and with what is learned. Employees on the Autism Spectrum need to be supported, yet
people interacting with these employees, should have an understanding of their social
deficits (Mawhood & Howlin, 2009). The ToM and PSB theories can aid managers and
practitioners in understanding day-to-day interactions with those who are on the spectrum
through training and coaching. Perception of the situation of the “other” in the workplace or
social situation is the main theme of the ToM theory. Additionally, the PSB identifies
behaviors that will help in stressful situations and assist with positive work situations.
Managers and co-workers need to learn and develop a common understanding in how
individuals learn and behave. Mangers should incorporate the basic characteristics of the
styles in communication materials and exchanges. As managers may not know the preferred
style of learning for their employees, they can observe how someone receives information.
The styles of learning can be used to communicate expectations and check for understanding;
is the message sent the message received?
Summary
These styles of learning do not only apply to employees with an Autism Spectrum
Disorder. As employees on the spectrum may have a preferred styles of learning, managers
and co-workers should know that all the styles are present in the workplace. Each employee,
whether or not they are on the spectrum, have a preferred style of learning. Managers and
co-workers may not know if an employee is on the spectrum, so by recognizing and utilizing
how the styles influence people’s learning and behaviors in the workplace an environment for
employee success can be more readily created and maintained. The styles do not define
people nor should they label people rather the styles can be used to help communicate
expectations and help manage employee performance.
REFERENCES
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) (2014). Retrieved from Center for Disease Control and
Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html.
Barnhill, G.P. (2007). Outcomes in adults with Asperger syndrome. ˆFocus on Autism and
Other Developmental Disabilities, 22(2), 116-126. doi:10.1177/10883576070220020301.
Conti, G. (2009). Development of a user-friendly instrument for identifying the learning
strategy preferences of adults. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(6), 887-896.
doi:10.1016/j.tate.2009.02.024.
Dew, D.W., & Alan, G.M. (Eds.) (2007). Rehabilitation of individuals with autism spectrum
disorders (Institute on Rehabilitation Issues Monograph No. 32). Washington, DC: The
George Washington University, Center for Rehabilitation Counseling Research and
Education.
DSM-5 Overview: The Future Manual (2011). Retrieved from American Psychiatric
Association DSM-5 Development:
http://www.dsm5.org/about/Pages/DSMVOverview.aspx.
Frith, U. (1991). Asperger and his syndrome. In U. Frith (Ed.), Autism and Asperger
syndrome. (pp. 1-36). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from
http://sites.google.com/site/utafrith/publications-1/autism.
25
Frith, U. (1993). Autism. Scientific American. 268, 108-114. Retrieved from
http://sites.google.com/site/utafrith/publications-1/autism.
Grandin, T. (2006). Thinking in pictures: My life with autism. New York, NY: Random
House.
Grandin, T. (2008). The way I see it: A personal look at autism and
Asperger’s. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.
Grandin, T., & Duffy, K (2004). Developing talents: Careers for individuals with Asperger
syndrome and high-functioning autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger
Publishing Co.
Hendricks, D. R. & Wehman, P. (2009). Transition from school to adulthood for youth with
autism spectrum disorders: Review and recommendations. Focus on Autism and Other
Developmental Disabilities, 24(2), 77-88. doi: 10.1177/1088357608329827.
Hurlbutt, K. & Chalmers, L. (2004). Employment and adults with Aspergers syndrome.
Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 19(4), 215-222. doi:
10.11177/10883576040190040301.
Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential learning: Experience at the source of learning and
development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Kolb, A. & Kolb, D. (2005). Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential
learning in higher education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(2).
193-212.
Lisle, A.M. (2007). Assessing learning styles of adults with intellectual difficulties. Journal of
Intellectual Disabilities, 11(1), 23-45. doi:10.1177/1744629507073997.
Mawhood, L., & Howlin, P., (1999). The outcome of a supported employment scheme for high-
functioning adults with autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Autism, 3: 229-254.
doi:10.1177/1362361399003003003.
Robinson, K.A. & Smith, V. (2010). A specific vocational training program for an adolescent
with autism. Developmental Disabilities Bulletin. 38(1-2), 93-109
Rotheram-Fuller, E. & Kasari, C. (2011). In Hollander, E., Kolevzon, A., & Coyle, J .(Ed.),
Textbook of Autism Spectrum Disorders (555-564). Arlington, VA: American
Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
Schall, C.M. (2010). Positive behavior support: Supporting adults with autism spectrum
disorders in the workplace. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 32, 109-115. doi: 10-
3233/JVR-2010-0500.
Spek, A, Scholte, E., & Berckelaer-Onnes, I. (2009). Theory of Mind in adults with HFA and
Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism Development Disorder, 40, 280-289.
doi:110.1007/s10803-009-0860-y.
26
Van Wieren, T., Reid, C. & McMahon, T. (2008). Workplace discrimination and autism
spectrum disorders: The National EEOC American with Disabilities Act Research
project. Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, and Rehabilitation, 31(2008), 299-
308.
Wolf, L., Thierfeld Brown, J., & Kukiela Bork, G (2009). Students with Asperger syndrome: A
guide for college personnel. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Co.
27
An Innovative New Venture in the Dakota Badlands
Leo Dana
During World War II, members of the Oglala Lakota Nation (a subdivision of the
Sioux Nation) were forcefully removed from their historic homeland, to create a bombing
range for the United States military. Thereafter, relations were very tense between the
United States government and this indigenous people whose land was left littered with
unexploded ordnance. In 2012, the Oglala Lakota Nation signed an agreement with the
National Park Service that agreed to give back land from which people were evicted.
Included is at least 50% of the Badlands National Park, which it was agreed would be
transformed into the first ever, tribal national park meeting federal regulations – but
operated by the Oglala Lakota Nation.
For many years people have been learning American history as interpreted and told by
the mainstream majority. Gerard Baker, a Mandan-Hidatsa Indian from North Dakota,
innovated social change that may have very positive outcomes for not only the Sioux tribe
discussed above but also others tribes of American Indians who have lost their lands. As
concluded by Anderson, Dana and Dana, “the just settlement of indigenous land claim might
be a effective way for states to address the socioeconomic circumstances of its indigenous
people (2006, p. 54).”
If the new concept of tribal national park is successful, that in South Dakota may
serve as an example for others. Increasingly, American Indians may explain history from
their perspective, teaching mainstream society alternate explanations. That would make
Gerard Baker an entrepreneur in the Barthian (1963; 1967) sense, i.e., an agent of social
change.
28
No Where to Run. No Where to Hide. The Roots of the Escalating Violence in Latin
America that Keeps Investors from Fully Embracing a Burgeoning Market.
Juan Gonzalez
Latin America as a potential business market is on the rise. Lawrence W. Tuller
writes in his text, An American’s Guide to Doing Business in Latin America, “With some
exceptions, I think that it’s safe to call Latin America a maturing region, no longer destined
to be treated as a backwater frontier, but rather very close to taking its place with the more
economically developed regions of the world” (18). Yet, Tuller also avers, “Latin American
Business Associations rank crime as the number–one issue holding back increased trade and
infrastructure investment” (35). Regular news headlines reconfirm the perception that crime
is running rampant in many regions of Latin America from Mexico southward, and in many
sectors it is escalating. Drug cartels regularly conduct gang warfare on the streets of some
metropolitan cities in which many innocents suffer as collateral casualties. Kidnappings of
prominent and even less prominent individuals is a thriving trade.
What are the roots of the present violence and lawlessness in Latin America? North
America is by no means free from violence. However, the differences of approach to
colonization between North and South America are revealing with regard to the present
situation and what it portends for future business development and investment in Latin
America. Historical, cultural and political precedents have certainly set the stage for the
dynamic of violence afoot in our neighbors to the South. Although Columbus first set foot in
the Caribbean, why the differences in present levels of social violence?
Beyond differences in the outward approach to colonization, which this presentation
will delineate, there is what I call the interiorization of post-colonial fallout that has
embedded itself in the national psyche and contrasts the way in which Latin Americans
perceive themselves and their fellow compatriots when compared to their northern
counterparts. I assert that the origin and present manifestation of this inward post-colonial
residue is the systematic violence that profoundly influences the social interaction that Latin
Americans have with one another and sustains a type of cainismo, i.e., a disdain of one’s
countryman or woman.
This presentation will explore the roots of social violence in Latin America with the
intent of shedding light upon the dynamic of present Latin American violence as a step
toward understanding. The conference address will also offer a forecast of what the future
holds for the region with regard to business and investment.
29
The Decision To Centralize Or Decentralize Decision Making In Foreign
Operations: Should Versus Does
Thomas C. Head
Therese Yaeger and Peter F. Sorensen, Jr.
One of the primary strategic decisions a multinational organization must make with
regards to its international holdings is the degree to which it either centralizes or
decentralizes significant decisions. The literature surrounding this focuses upon how
strategic and structural variables require one method or the other. These approaches are
steeped in the rational econologic traditions of their paradigms. These models present an
excellent set of guidelines as to how organizations, if they were to operate rationally, should
approach the centralization/decentralization decision. However in recent years organization
behavior researchers have suggest that organizational decision making involves more
political, and less rational, processes. Assuming that the organization behaviorists are
correct the authors have developed a decision tree model, very similar to that of Vroom,
Yetton, and Jago, that suggests the executives' thought processes with regards to
centralizing or decentralizing decision making in foreign operations. Acknowledging that this
approach assumes conscious thought (and therefore again suggests how should decisions be
made) the authors also explore likely consequences of when the "wrong" decision making
style is adopted (by individuals who either made the decision subconsciously or never saw it
as a decision to be made).
30
JOBS Act: Has it Brought Back the IPO?
Marlin R.H. Jensen
Beverly B. Marshall
John S. Jahera, Jr.
Abstract
On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.
The purpose was to increase job creation and stimulate economic growth. Title I of the JOBS
Act was to improve access to public capital markets by alleviating or eliminating restrictions
on emerging growth companies going public through an IPO offering. Previous research has
shown IPO offerings have plummeted in the U.S. from historic norms and global firms have
stopped coming to the U.S. as well. This study examines whether the CFOs have started taking
their firms public in the U.S. again and whether CFOs of global firms have reentered the U.S.
market since the passage of the JOBS Act. This study will also address whether global firms
have reentered the U.S. market using dual class shares at the IPO to maintain control of the
firms they have created.
Introduction
It has been two years since President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business
Startups (JOBS) Act into law, April 5, 2012. Title I of the JOBS Act was intended to reopen
the American capital markets to emerging growth companies (EGCs) by allowing firms
considering an IPO to make less onerous disclosures. Rapoport (2012 July) reports that 55
percent of investment bank executives thought the JOBS Act would increase the number of
IPOs on U.S. exchanges. Walsh (2013) points to a study done by BDO USA, LLP (U.S.
professional services firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory and consulting services)
showing the majority of capital markets executives at investment banks believe the JOBS Act
is not having a positive impact on increasing the number of IPOs on U.S. exchanges. However,
28 per cent believed it was too early to evaluate the impact of the JOBS Act. At the beginning
of 2014, Walsh (2014) quotes Wendy Hambleton, a Partner in the Capital Markets Practice of
BDO USA, “Investor optimism has finally rebounded from the financial crisis and the
investment banking community is predicting even more deals and higher proceeds in 2014.”
However, the catalyst for the increase in IPO offerings in 2013 was not viewed as the JOBS
Act by all capital markets executives at investment banks. There were three other possible
catalysts mentioned for the recent increase in IPOs: low interest rates increasing investor
demand for higher yielding assets, increased confidence in the U.S economy, and positive IPO
performance encouraging more businesses to make offerings. In a later survey, Kvitko (2014)
reports, from BDO USA, that following a strong year for IPOs overall in 2013, the majority of
capital market executives (73 per cent) at investment banks predict an increase in IPOs in
2014 especially from the technology industry. In addition, technology CFOs believe the
technology sector will continue to accelerate in 2014 and overall 93 per cent of CFOs anticipate
31
IPO activity will remain the same or increase in 2014. The question is whether the JOBS Act
is bringing about the IPO increase through the more lenient disclosure regulation on EGCs or
whether it is simply other positive factors in the marketplace leading to the increased IPO
activity.
Bushner (2012) points out foreign IPO issuers should be interested in the U.S. market
after the passage of the JOBS Act. He states foreign issuers will benefit from Title I of the
JOBS Act through liberalized communications, accommodations in the IPO process and relief
from certain disclosure obligations as a reporting company post IPO. If the foreign company
qualifies as an EGC, the liberalized rules on research reports apply to foreign firms the same
as U.S. domestic firms. Besides these changes, the U.S. market has other features that appeal
to foreign issuers. Demos (2014) points out the U.S. market is a deep retail market which
basically guarantees that about 20 per cent of an IPO offering can be committed prior to the
road show. In addition, investors in the U.S. are more willing to buy an IPO offering for growth
potential and don’t seem as worried about the leverage the firm has accumulated. U.S. market
investors are not also as concerned about the issuing firm listing without having turned a
profit and the U.S. market offers far more liquidity than most other capital markets. In
addition, some foreign companies are interested in maintaining control of their firm. A number
of foreign countries do not allow an IPO with a dual class structure but the U.S. market does
allow foreign issuers to have a dual classification of shares.
IPO activity fell off dramatically in 2012 and the hope was that the passage of the JOBS
Act will help bring back the IPO market for both U.S. and foreign firms. Bunge (2012) quoted
NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer saying the early results of the JOBS Act are very
positive. However, Chasan (2013) reports a BDO USA study showing only 14% of capital
market executives at investment banks believe the JOBS Act is boosting the number of IPOs.
Case (2014) states the JOBS Act self-executing IPO on-ramp is making a real difference on the
number of firms going public. He bases his view on reports from Renaissance Capital that 103
companies have filed to go public in the first few months of 2014. In addition, he reports on a
more recent survey by BDO USA securities attorneys showing 74% gave significant credit to
the JOBS Act for the increase in IPO offerings. The main reason given for the JOBS Act being
effective at increasing IPO offerings was the provision allowing simple pre-filing disclosures.
Previous surveys done by BDO USA and Renaissance Capital have stated either the
JOBS Act has helped or has not helped in the process of bring back IPOs to the marketplace.
The objective of this research is to look back to see whether the JOBS Act changes has indeed
led to more companies going public both domestic and foreign, or whether U.S. market
conditions brought back the resurgence of IPOs in the U.S.
IPO Task Force
In response to the declining number of companies going public, the U.S. Treasury
Department in March of 2011 formed the Access to Capital Conference to research and make
recommendations of how to make capital markets more accessible to EGCs. EGCs were
defined as any non-reporting issuer with total annual gross revenue of less than one billion
dollars. From this conference, the IPO Task Force (2011) was created to examine what caused
the IPO decline and to make recommendations to bring the EGCs back to the public markets
through IPOs. “The mandate of the IPO Task Force was to examine the root causes of the
current U.S. IPO crisis and quickly develop reasonable and actionable steps that can restore
access for emerging growth companies to the capital they need to create jobs and expand their
businesses globally,” (Kate Mitchell, chairman of the IPO Task Force).
32
The IPO Task Force concluded that there were likely a number of regulatory actions
rather than just one event that caused the IPO market to decline. One event mentioned by
the Task Force was the End of the Four Horsemen (the merger of the investment banks Alex
Brown, Montgomery Securities, Robertson Stephens, and Hambrecht & Quist into banks) by
1999. These investment banks were instrumental in helping smaller companies go public.
Also listed was Regulation Fair Disclosure in 2000, decimalization in 2001, Sarbanes-Oxley in
2002, the Global Settlement in 2003, Regulation NMS in 2005, Regulation NMS in 2007, and
Frank-Dodd in 2010. All these actions were intended to help the individual investor.
However, many feel that these events actually increased the burden for firms trying to go
public.
The final recommendations of the IPO Task Force were designed to alleviate these
burdens. The main recommendations were to reduce regulatory costs for EGCs trying to go
public and to increase the visibility of EGCs while maintaining transparency for investors.
The IPO Task Force argued this could be done without compromising investor protection or
disclosure.
JOBS Act 2012
Based on the recommendations of the IPO Task Force and the perceived need to reduce
barriers to growth and investment, the JOBS Act was enacted in April of 2012. The task force
showed that when EGCs go public, research shows that more than 90 percent of their job
creation happens subsequent to the IPO.
Under the JOBS Act, an EGC is a company issuing stock that has total annual gross
revenues of less than $1 billion during its most recent completed fiscal year and that has issued
less than $1 billion in debt securities. The effective date for firms meeting the definition was
the first sale of registered common stock after December 8, 2011 (Verschoor 2012). Rapport
(2012) reports that 74 per cent of investment-bank executives believe the EGC exemption will
help CFOs decide whether to take their firm public. Confidential submissions of draft IPO
registration statements and amendments was not permitted for domestic issuers and only on
a limited number of foreign issuers prior to the JOBS Act. The JOBS Act now allows issuers
to submit documents for review prior to a public filing. Before the JOBS Act, there was limited
ability to communicate with investors about a securities offering and now EGCs can engage in
communications with investors. This provision will allow companies to avoid disclosing
potentially sensitive information to competitors. The companies will still have to release the
financial documents 21 days before they try to persuade institutional investors to buy into the
IPO during the road show.
Prior to the JOBS Act, underwriters of an IPO could not publish research on the issuer
until 40 days after the completion of the IPO and now research on an EGC can be made
anytime. Communications by analysts with firms issuing securities were restricted while
investment banking representatives were present. Under the JOBS Act, analysts may meet
with EGC management with other representatives present. Title I of the JOBS Act went on
to relax auditor attestation of effectiveness of internal controls. In addition, EGCs are not
required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards, EGCs are not required
to rotate audit partners every 5 years, financial statements are only needed for two years prior
to issuing securities rather than 3, executive compensation disclosure requirements are
reduced, and EGCs do not need to hold non-binding advisory shareholder votes on executive
compensation. These EGCs will be given five years before being subjected to the full weight of
federal regulation such as section 404 of SOX regarding the redundant external audit of
internal audit of their business processes. However, after the five year period, all companies
33
will have to comply with all regulations in place and regulators will still have antifraud
enforcement authority when the firms go public. The bottom line of the JOBS Act was to scale
back prior regulation and to hopefully bring back IPO offerings to the marketplace.
State of the IPO Market
Jensen, Marshall and Jahera (2012) and Luchetti (2011) both report a decline in IPO
activity in the U.S. as well as a decline in global IPOs choosing to go public in the U.S. through
2011 supporting a need for the JOBS Act. Both studies argue IPOs in the U.S. were declining
due to U.S. exchanges not being as competitive due to relatively high listing costs and the high
compliance costs of listing in the U.S. Stephens (2011) also points out the lack of IPOs in the
U.S. is due to the excessive regulation and compliance and subsequent costs that are required
of public companies. Scott (2011) discusses how these high costs explain why U.S. companies
prefer to remain private and why foreign firms look at other ways to raise funds in the U.S.
Scott noted that in 2010, 79.3 per cent of the funds raised in the U.S. by foreign companies in
foreign IPOs were raised through the private Rule 144A market.
Since the passage of the JOBS Act, the U.S. IPO market has made a strong rebound.
Bispham, Braukman and Pierre (2014) indicated that 2013 was the best year since 2000 for
companies going public. They report 128 companies going public in 2012 and 222 companies
going public in 2013. Demos (2014) reports from Dealogic that the U.S. had a good year luring
foreign companies to go public in the U.S. in 2013, with 2014 shaping up to be even better.
Through March of 2014, the U.S. has accounted for 28 per cent of IPOs globally, with 60 out of
211 deals, which is the best since 2000. Hoffman and Demos (2014) report that 2014 is on
track to be the busiest year since 1996 for foreign firm filings for IPOs.
Data
The data for this study is taken from several sources. The IPO data taken two years
before and after the JOBS Act is from the SEC’s EDGAR website and the Securities Data
Corporation (SDC) database. The IPO data excludes offers with share prices below $1,
financial firms with a 6000 SIC code, offerings less than one million dollars, and if the market
exchange for the IPO is unknown. Revenue, industry, employees, and dual classification
information is taken from Morningstar, Yahoo Finance and FactSet Mergerstat.
Findings
Exhibit 1 provides a distribution of the number of U.S. IPOs from two years prior
through 2 years after the JOBS Act, April of 2010 through April of 2014. The number of IPOs
after the JOBs Act have increased as shown in Exhibit 1. As Exhibit 1 indicates, the percentage
of global IPOs to the total U.S. IPOs remains somewhat constant going from prior to the JOBS
Act to after the JOBS Act. At first glance it would appear the U.S. is not losing any more of
its competitive edge attracting foreign IPOs. Chinese based IPOs were the predominant
foreign based offering prior to the JOBS Act but declined rapidly because of Chinese firm
accounting issues that flared up in 2011. If you exclude the China based firms, the percentage
of foreign based offerings to the total U.S. IPOs actually increased from 14.4% from before the
JOBS Act to 16.3% after the JOBS Act. Jensen, Marshall, and Jahera (2012) report foreign
based offerings to total U.S. IPOs in 2011 to be only 5.5% for offerings less than $75 million.
(See Exhibit 1, IPOs Before and After the JOBS Act)
Exhibit 2 separates IPO offerings into whether they met the criteria to be an EGC before
and after the JOBS Act passage to show whether EGCs have increased or changed due to the
JOBS Act. Murphy (2014) reports that approximately 80 per cent of companies that have filed
for an IPO since the JOBS Act meet the requirement for EGC status. Kathleen Smith, a
principal at IPO research firm Renaissance Capital says it is likely all of them have taken
34
advantage of the confidentiality provision in the JOBS Act. Approximately 83% of the IPO
offers after the JOBS Act in Exhibit 2 fit the EGC status. Exhibit 2 further compares EGCs
versus all other IPOs based on, revenue, offer size, number of employees and the percentage
of shares offered during the IPO to the total number of firm shares. As would be expected,
EGCs have less revenue, smaller offer size, and have fewer employees than firms not meeting
EGC status. Examining the number of EGC IPO offers before and after the JOBS Act, shows
that the number of offers increased in the second year after the JOBS Act. Exhibit 2 also
shows EGCs are offering a greater percentage of shares to total shares outstanding after the
JOBS Act.
(See Exhibit 2, IPOs Before and After the JOBS Act based on Emerging Growth
Company)
Another concern regarding the JOBS Act is whether the relaxed rules will lure more
foreign firms to list in the U.S. Hoffman and Demos (2014) contend overseas companies will
want to list in the U.S. because they can maintain control of their companies by not issuing
enough shares for control or by using a dual share classification. In addition, they argue many
foreign firms are exempted from some disclosure requirements and they are not required to be
profitable at listing as is the case with most other foreign markets. Exhibit 3 compares the
characteristics of foreign IPOs to U.S. IPOs. One can see the decline in foreign IPOs two years
prior to the JOBS Act but with a recovery in foreign IPOs two years after the JOBS Act. The
offer size of the foreign IPOs appears to be smaller than the offer size of the U.S. IPOs after
the JOBS Act. Interestingly, the foreign IPOs after the JOBS Act are selling a larger
percentage of total shares outstanding which is opposite of what Hoffman and Demos state.
(See Exhibit 3, IPOs Before and After the JOBS Act Comparing Foreign and U.S.
Offerings)
Exhibit 4 compares characteristics of firms using a dual class share offering to those
using single share offerings. In general, the major advantage of dual offerings is the ability
for one group of shareholders to maintain a strong control position. There have been more dual
offerings after the passage of the JOBS Act. However, of the 29 dual IPO offers after the JOBS
Act, only 7 are by foreign firms. Although they are not using the dual structure, Hoffman and
Demos (2014) report the giant Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is
interested in going public in the U.S. because the U.S. will allow a small group of company
insiders to retain the right to nominate a majority of board members once the firm does goes
public. As one would expect, a distinct difference between dual and single class shares is the
majority of noncontrolling shares are sold by dual class IPOs. The companies doing dual class
IPOs also appear to larger companies (not EGCs) as shown by the larger revenue, larger offer
size and more employees.
(See Exhibit 4, IPOs Before and After the JOBS Comparing Dual and NonDual
Offerings)
Conclusion
Part of the mystery behind whether the JOBS Act is working the way it was intended,
is that due to the confidential filing for an EGC, then number of firms thinking of going public
is not known. Dorchardt (2013) reports the SEC stating that more than 100 companies filed
under the confidentially process in 2012. The confidentiality provision has caused the IPO
pipeline to be understated. According to the JOBS Act, companies do not have to disclose
anything about their financials until 21 days before the start of the road show. This provision
helps companies feel more confident that even if they don’t go public after they filed, their
financials would not have been publicized for competitors to view. Now a firm files
35
confidentially and if a crisis occurs or the firm can’t get ready in time, the market doesn’t know
about it. Before the JOBS Act, the firm would face the scrutiny of the market and possibly
take a hit to the firm’s reputation. Chasan (2013) reports some CFOs have embraced the
confidentiality feature of the JOBS Act to avoid letting competitors access to their financials
for months or until there is a decision to issue.
Some argue the confidentiality feature allows CFOs taking their firm public the time to
straighten out issues such as what happened to Groupon after stating their intention to go
public. Chasan (2012) reports Audit Analytics data indicating that from 2004 to 2011, 1,827
firm went public in the U.S. and 563 of those firms have had a financial restatement. The
question is whether these firms with financial restatements could have avoided the issue by
filing confidentially under the JOBS Act. Rapoport (2012 April) reports Groupon went public
in 2011 but had well-publicized disagreements with the SEC over its accounting. If Groupon
could have filed under the JOBS Act, Groupon could have possibly fixed the disagreements
with the SEC behind closed doors before going public. Clearly, the confidentially that the JOBS
Act brings could have possibly avoided the very public situation. On the other hand, the JOBS
Act confidentially may simply mask problems till after the company went public. Maybe EGCs
should not be exempt from the array of accounting and corporate governance requirements
contained in the JOBS Act.
In summary, the more recent IPO resurgence can indeed be attributed in part to the
provisions of the JOBS Act that provided for more relaxed regulations and disclosure
requirements. Of course, from the corporate point of view, the increase in IPOs in 2013 and
2014 means greater competition for investment dollars. That is, a consideration for firms
considering an IPO may include that competitive environment and how a specific firm is
positioned to undertake an IPO. Nonetheless, the IPO process has been made less burdensome
under the JOBS Act. That, combined with somewhat of a recovery in the economy, is leading
a larger number of firms to raise capital via the IPO process.
36
References
Bispham, B. H., Braukman, L. D., and Pierre, Y. J. (2014 February). The JOBS Act – Where
Are We Now – 2014? ReedSmith Corporate & Securities, February 27. Retrieved from
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-jobs-act-where-are-we-now-2014-93278/.
Borchardt, D. (2013 January). The JOBS Act Epic Fail. The Street, January 1. Retrieved
from http://www.thestreet.com/story/11825960/1/the-jobs-act-epic-fail.html.
Bunge, J. (2012 June). NYSE’s Niederauer Gives Some Praise for JOBS Act. The Wall Street
Journal, June 20. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/06/20/nyses-
niederauer-gives-some-praise-for-jobs-act/.
Bushner, D. (2012 May). The JOBS Act for Foreigners: Are Foreigners Interested? Business
Law Today, May 25. Retrieved from
http://apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/blt/content/2012/05/article-07-bushner.shtml.
Case, S. (2014 April). Case: Hey, Washington, the JOBS Act You Passed is Working. The
Wall Street Journal, April 2. Retrieved from
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230441840457946931217449955
6.
Chasan, E. (2012 March). Newly Public Companies Fumble Financials. The Wall Street
Journal, March 27. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2012/03/27/newly-public-
companies-fumble-financials/.
Chasan, E. (2013 July). Bankers: The JOBS Act Isn’t Doing its Job. The Wall Street Journal,
July 9. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2013/07/09/bankers-the-jobs-act-isnt-
doing-its-job/.
Darrough, M., Huang, R. & Zhao, S. (2013) The Spillover Effect of Fraud Allegations against
Chinese Reverse Mergers. SSRN Working paper. Retrieved from
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2144483.
Demos, T. (2014 March). U.S. Taking Biggest Share In IPO Race Since 2000. The Wall Street
Journal, March 25. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/03/25/u-s-
taking-biggest-share-in-ipo-race-since-2000/.
Hoffman L & Demos, T. (2014 March). Easier Rules Lure Foreign Firms to List in the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal, March 21. Retrieved from
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230402630457944970296853780
2.
IPO Task Force. (2011). Rebuilding the IPO On-Ramp, Putting Emerging Companies and
the Job Market Back on the Road to Growth, Issued by the IPO Task Force and
presented to The U.S. Department of the Treasury.
37
Jensen, M. R. H., Marshall B. B. & Jahera, J. S. (2012). Global Trends: U.S. IPO Market
Declines. The Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance, 23(6), 17-28.
Kvitko M. (2014 February). Tech CFOs Optimistic About Future of IPO Market, According to
BDO USA Survey. Press Release Wednesday, February, 19. Retrieved from
http://www.bdo.com/news/pr/3070.
Murphy, M. (2014 February). Confidential Discussions of IPO Plans Kept Brief. The Wall
Street Journal, February 18. Retrieved from
http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2014/02/18/confidential-discussions-of-ipo-plans-kept-brief/.
Rapoport, M. (2012 April). In Wake of Groupon Issues, Critics Wary of JOBS Act. The Wall
Street Journal, April 2. Retrieved from
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230402350457731793245587485
6.
Rapoport, M. (2012 July). Investment Bankers See JOBS Act Helping, and Hurting, IPOs.
The Wall Street Journal, July 10. Retrieved from
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/07/10/investment-bankers-see-jobs-act-helping-and-
hurting-ipos/.
Scott, H. S. (2011 April). Capital Market Regulation Needs an Overhaul. The Wall Street
Journal, April 20. Retrieved from
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405274870452920457625676153912553
4.
Stephens, W. (2011 August). Business Regulation vs. Growth: The View from Middle
America. The Wall Street Journal, August 25. Retrieved from
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405311190346130457652445102181209
0.
Verschoor, C. C. (2012). Will JOBS Act Enable More Securities Fraud? Strategic Finance,
June, 13-15.
Walsh, J. (2013 July). Popularity of JOBS Act continues to Fall Among Capital Markets
Community According to BDO USA, LLP. Press Release Tuesday, July 9. Retrieved
from http://www.bdo.com/news/pr/2713.
Walsh, J. (2014 January). Capital Markets Executives at Leading Investment Banks
Forecast a Continued Increase in U.S. IPOs in 2014 According to BDO USA, LLP.
Press Release Tuesday, January 7. Retrieved from http://www.bdo.com/news/pr/3006.
38
Exhibit 1
IPOs Before and After the JOBS Act
The following table represents the total number of U.S. IPOs each year prior to the JOBS Act
passage and after the JOBS Act passage separated by whether IPO is from a foreign based
firm or US based firm, whether they used a dual stock classification and the size of the
issuance.
Before JOBS Act After JOBS Act
Year -2 Year -1 Year +1 Year +2
Total IPOs 157 128 118 250
Foreign Based 59 27 21 50
China Based Only 35 10 2 9
US Based 98 101 97 200
Foreign/Total 34.2% 21.5% 17.8% 20.0%
Total Dual
Offerings 5 0 7 22
Dual Foreign
Based 1 0 1 6
Dual US Based 4 0 6 16
Size < $75 Million 64 37 39 81
Size > $75 Million 93 91 79 169
< $75 Million/ Total 40.8% 28.9% 33.1% 32.4%
39
Exhibit 2
IPOs Before and After the JOBS Act based on Emerging Growth Company
The following table represents firm characteristics based on whether the firm doing an IPO
would have fit into the emerging growth company (EGC) category as defined by the JOBS Act.
Before JOBS Act After JOBS Act
Year -2 Year -1 Year +1 Year +2
Total IPOs by
EGCs N = 133 N = 104 N = 88 N = 205
Total of other IPOs N = 20 N = 20 N = 22 N = 38
Revenue by EGCs
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 133
$185
$111
N = 104
$178
$101
N = 88
$181
$89
N = 205
$134
$53
Revenue other
IPOs
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 20
$12,513
$2,606
N = 20
$4,687
$2,097
N = 22
$5,076
$3,350
N = 22
$8,103
$2,750
Offer Size EGCs
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 133
$112
$83
N = 104
$154
$110
N = 88
$129
$81
N = 205
$137
$87
Offer Size other
IPOs
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions
N = 20
$1,440
$312
N = 20
$399
$318
N = 22
$1,129
$378
N = 38
$584
$409
Employees EGCs
Mean
Median
N = 126
1,250
373
N = 94
574
313
N = 78
638
204
N = 192
745
143
Employees other
IPOs
Mean
Median
N = 20
28,391
5,175
N = 18
20,206
3,150
N = 20
15,944
3,345
N = 35
18,520
4,500
EGCs % of total
shares offered
Mean
Median
N = 132
30%
26%
N = 104
30%
23%
N = 87
39%
33%
N = 205
40%
30%
Other IPOs % of
total shares offered
Mean
Median
N = 20
34%
25%
N = 20
39%
31%
N = 22
38%
24%
N = 37
31%
21%
40
Exhibit 3
IPOs Before and After the JOBS Act Comparing Foreign and U.S. Offerings
The following table represents firm characteristics based on whether the firm doing an IPO is
a foreign company or a U.S. based company before and after the JOBS Act.
Before JOBS Act After JOBS Act
Year -2 Year -1 Year +1 Year +2
Total IPOs Foreign N = 59 N = 27 N = 21 N = 50
Total IPOs U.S. N = 98 N = 101 N = 97 N = 200
Revenue Foreign
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 55
$582
$168
N = 23
$879
$227
N = 13
$2,314
$386
N = 44
$1,231
$209
Revenue U.S.
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 98
$2,479
$151
N = 101
$733
$118
N = 97
$1029
$164
N = 200
$1,446
$75
Offer Size Foreign
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 59
$136
$85
N =27
$287
$92
N = 21
$105
$50
N = 50
$180
$126
Offer Size U.S.
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 98
$367
$90
N = 101
$162
$120
N = 97
$357
$100
N = 200
$212
$100
Employees Foreign
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 56
2,881
806
N = 25
5,112
582
N = 18
8,970
339
N = 47
2,813
746
Employees U.S.
Mean
Median
N = 94
6,076
375
N = 90
3,225
356
N = 83
2,926
368
N = 186
3,943
187
Foreign % of total
shares offered
Mean
Median
N = 59
25%
20%
N = 27
23%
18%
N = 21
52%
42%
N =48
50%
30%
U.S. % of total
shares offered
Mean
Median
N = 98
36%
30%
N = 101
33%
25%
N = 96
39%
29%
N = 200
36%
28%
41
Exhibit 4
IPOs Before and After the JOBS Act Comparing Dual and NonDual Offerings
The following table represents firm characteristics based on whether the firm doing an IPO
does a Dual offering or not.
Before JOBS Act After JOBS Act
Year -2 Year -1 Year +1 Year +2
Total IPOs Dual N = 6 N = 0 N = 7 N = 22
Total IPOs
NonDual N = 150 N = 128 N = 110 N = 226
Revenue Dual
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 5
$700
$574
N = 0
n/a
n/a
N = 7
$4,904
$640
N = 22
$3,327
$378
Revenue NonDual
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 147
$1,834
$150
N = 124
$949
$227
N = 101
$914
$162
N = 221
$1,208
$75
Offer Size Dual
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 6
$350
$203
N =0
n/a
n/a
N = 7
$2,536
$233
N = 22
$402
$253
Offer Size NonDual
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 150
$279
$85
N = 128
$214
$140
N = 110
$172
$90
N = 227
$186
$96
Employees Dual
Mean (millions)
Median
(millions)
N = 6
1,230
918
N = 0
n/a
n/a
N = 7
1,546
1,550
N = 22
4,475
1,061
Employees
NonDual
Mean
Median
N = 143
5,044
447
N = 115
4,554
479
N = 96
4,186
337
N = 213
3,640
188
Dual % of total
shares offered
Mean
Median
N = 6
60%
100%
N = 0
n/a
n/a
N = 7
57%
53%
N = 22
77%
99%
NonDual % of total
shares offered
Mean
Median
N = 149
30%
25%
N = 128
33%
24%
N = 109
40%
32%
N = 226
35%
27%
42
When Congress Fails to Act: State/U.S. Territory Legislated Minimum Wage Laws
and Their Implications
James K. Kennedy
Keun Lee
Given the failure of the U.S. Congress to enact any changes in the Federal minimum wage
from its current paltry $7.25 per hour level, various states/U.S. territories have taken it upon
themselves to enact higher current minimum wage levels that further incorporate indexing
and other automatic increase adjustments into the future. Using data from the National
Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), our paper examines state-by-state and U.S.
territory-by-territory minimum wage laws, recent law changes, and other trends to discern
patterns across the nation. Specifically, the paper examines general directions of current
minimum wage level, future scheduled increases, and the indexing of automatic adjustments
to the states’/U.S. territories’ minimum wage levels into the future. One conclusion is that
legislation enacted by certain states/U.S. territories should provide blueprints as well as
incentives to the U.S. Congress to take meaningful action on the Federal minimum wage
issue now and in the future.
43
Testbed implementation of Cassandra distributed database solutions
Karl Konz
Bill Bruggenthies
Erika Koes
Mark B. Schmidt
The advent of the internet has reshaped the world of business, information retrieval and
reception continues to evolve both in an enterprise environment and for the Internet itself.
The amount of information and data that a company needs to store and analyze is ever
increasing and new techniques are constantly being developed to better handle these
changes. Increases in optimization have been observed through distributed database
implementation. There are many distributed database solutions, this paper will focus on one
of the most commonly used called Cassandra. It can be run off of cheap hardware, it is easy
to implement and is highly scalable. The software is open source and can be downloaded
through Apache.
44
How Do I Keep My Employees Motivated?
George Langelett
Section I: an explanation/overview of empathy-based management.
People often associate empathy with “walking in another’s shoes”. This definition of
empathy is incomplete. Empathy becomes possible, not by identifying with another person,
but rather when we understand what the other person is feeling, thinking, and experiencing;
what the underlying problem is; and why the person is behaving a certain way. Often people
confuse empathy with sympathy. In the simplest terms, the goal of sympathy is to comfort;
the goal of empathy is to understand. Thus, empathy or understanding of another’s
perspective is required for effective management of employees.
Empathy-based management is a protocol in which a manager’s ability to empathize is
a prerequisite to effectively performing the duties of management, including planning,
organizing, leading, and controlling. This managerial protocol is built on the manager’s
practice of understanding and honoring the thoughts, perceptions, ideas, experiences, and
concerns of all stakeholders in the organization, including customers, employees, suppliers,
and investors. From the manager’s ability to effectively communicate understanding, comes
the ability to validate each person’s experiences. Through validating each person’s
perspective, empathy-based management creates an emotionally secure organization in
which all stakeholders can use their cognitive and creative energies to problem solve and
contribute to the success and well-being of their own careers and the organization as a whole.
Section II -Why empathy is critical for effective management
Empathy is the key to bridging all boundaries between any two individuals or groups.
Only through empathy can a person understand another person’s perspective. Likewise,
empathy is also critical to creating ethical behavior between individuals and groups. If we
view ethics as how we treat other people with our behavior, the key to ethical behavior is an
understanding of how our behavior affects the lives of other people. The better a person
understands how his or her actions affect other people, especially if it creates hardship in
others’ lives, the more likely the person will behave ethically towards fellow human beings.
The purpose of empathy based management is to understand another person’s
perspective and then respond in a way that honors the other person’s perceptions.
Conversation is approximately 1/3 verbal and 2/3’s nonverbal. With the ability to empathize,
all humans not only focus on the words used but also the nonverbal language including tone
of voice and body language. Cranial nerves play an important role in how body language
reveals the true intentions of the human brain during any conversation and their role will be
explained in detail during this workshop. Therefore this workshop will cover in depth how
both verbal and non-verbal language affects the perceptions and reactions of everyone
involved in a conversation, and how a manager can use verbal and non-verbal behavior to
strengthen one’s relationship with each stakeholder.
45
Section III – Three different parts I could present at the conference (or I could shorten and
present all three aspects)
Part 1 – The importance of incorporating empathy into one’s management practices.
The underlying assumption of empathy-based management is that connection to other
people—rather than correction—is required for professional growth and long-term
motivation to occur. Therefore, during every interaction with each employee throughout each
day, build on your relationships and provide the emotional support required for each person
to be engaged and succeed at their jobs. The goal is to have each employee: 1. Be productive
and enjoy their accomplishments; 2. Grow both personally and professionally; 3. Be
successful on the job and in life; 4. Be ethical; and 5. Become motivated to achieve self-
actualization or reach one’s potential in life. Having employees grow, mature, and reach their
potential is in the best interest of the company. Competent, capable, ethical, and committed
employees will make any organization successful. And these goals become possible through
incorporating empathy into your organization’s management practices.
Part II. The neuroscience behind empathy-based management
If a manager speaks in a harsh or critical tone of voice, displays threatening body language,
or attempts to use mind games in order to motivate an employee, the brain of the
subordinate is designed to immediately focus on the supervisor’s nonverbal behavior, rather
than the intended message. This will cause a chemical reaction in the brain of the employee.
As the employee perceives the manager’s behavior to be threatening, within the brain, the
amygdala will be triggered, and cause the adrenal glands to release the stress hormones
adrenaline and cortisol. This is also known as the “fight- or- flight” response. These stress
hormones will inhibit thinking from occurring in the cortex of the brain, and an emotional
response will consume the brain. The stress hormones concentrates the human brain’s
attention on the threating behavior and any thinking that occurs will focus on possible ways
to avoid or escape the perceived threat.
After the emotional confrontation with the manager, the employee’s brain will remain in
“fight- or- flight” mode. With elevated levels of stress hormones in the bloodstream, s/he will
spend the rest of the work day mentally dwelling on the event and the damaged relationship
with the manager. If the employee feels misunderstood, or the manager’s behavior is
perceived to be unfair, s/he will invest large amounts of emotional energy being angry with
one’s supervisor. As the human brain is consumed by negative emotions, the employee is
unable to focus on the work at hand.
From a neurobiological perspective, a manager displaying empathetic behavior will
trigger a different chemical reaction when the manager understands and honors the
employee’s perspective, and the worker feels unconditionally accepted and understood. The
pituitary gland within the worker’s brain releases oxytocin, and oxytocin calms down the
amygdala, and in turn calms any negative emotions occurring within the limbic region of the
human brain. Oxytocin has the opposite effect of the “fight- or- flight response.” It calms
down the limbic region, and allows the employee to use the cortex of the brain for thinking
and problem solving. From this chemical reaction, the employee can spend his/her day
focused on work and problem solving. Equally important, over time, in an emotionally-secure
work environment, the prefrontal cortex of the human brain is able to regulate the limbic
system, so that workers can remain calm and focused. But the opposite is true for the human
brain of employees who work in an emotionally unstable environment. The human brain is
wired first and foremost for survival. The amygdala is easily triggered, and stress hormones
46
released by the limbic system will shut down thinking and problem solving in order to
survive the perceived threatening behavior(s) by the manager.
Part III Learning how to practice empathy-based management
There are two steps involved in the basic model of empathy-based management. The first
step is to ask appropriate questions, and then listen in order to understand the emotional
state of each employee. The second step involves the manager’s verbal and nonverbal
response to each employee’s emotional state. If everything is going well for your employee,
give your employee a simple empathetic statement to communicate that you understand and
support the employee. Most days, for the majority of your employees this will be the case.
On the other hand, if something happened to an employee, s/he will tell an empathetic
manager what happened. If the employee becomes emotional as she explains what happened,
turn the worker’s reaction into an intersubjective experience with the employee; go through
the five steps of the intersubjective experience with your employee. If your employee is not
emotional while explaining a difficulty that has occurred, use the empathetic choices model
in order to guide your employee to make the correct decision or display appropriate behavior.
Beyond the two-step model, I can also explain two issues that are integral parts of
empathy-based management. The first issue is when a problem arises between the manager
and an employee, and requires the empathetic manager to repair any breaks in the
relationship with the employee. The second issue is when the manager must handle
employee misconduct in an empathetic manner.
Thus, in summary, this presentation on empathy will teach managers the theory and
practice of empathy-based management, and how to use empathy to create an environment
that is foundational for employee growth and motivation.
Notes: let me know if any part of empathy based management would be most useful for
conference participants. Also, I could present this material in 1,2, or 3 sessions. If the
conference is full of submissions, I can shorten this material and present it in one session.
47
Course and Program Design to Support Measurable Intercultural Competency
Development
Naomi Ludeman-Smith
Within our programs and course in this collection of disciplines represented at this
conference, we likely all include leadership preparation. And within these units and course, I
trust that many of us include a strong component on intercultural leadership. What do we
know from empirical research, though, about course and program design that supports and
demonstrates measurable student growth in intercultural competencies as a result of taking
our courses and graduating from our programs?
Allow me to ask another question that may seem even more nebulous? What exactly
are the intercultural competencies that we as educators can realistically aim for to prepare
our future business leaders for their global work?
In this presentation, we will address these two questions based on empirical research
with a focused discussion on an approach that employs the Intercultural Development Model,
one of the leading international theories and tools developed and tested to support
intercultural competency development.
48
More Ethnic Diversity within an Urban Setting could Result in Greater Economic
Stability
Lauren Marshall
Allen C. Barclay
Abstract
Based on past research by Putnam (1993), less trust exists when diversity is high in
an urban setting. This miss-trust leads to less economic activity among people living in the
area. However, less economic activity is not valid reason to state that these settings see less
economic stability. Some research has shown that in densely populated areas with more
ethnic diversity show that there is less fluctuation in economic factors. This paper intends to
compare urban areas with high rates of ethnic diversity, as defined here as multicultural
urban centers, tend to have greater economic stability as other less ethnically diverse areas.
This will include the factors such as the quality of government support, economic policies,
crime, and population size.
Also looked at in this paper are ethic fragmentation, socioeconomic distribution and
geographic location of distinct cultural group to compare the relative dynamics of economic
stability. The authors have completed a meta-analysis of the research to provide an
explanation of how ethnic diversity impacts economic stability in urban areas and analyzes
the theories of Putnam. This paper looks at the history of economic stability and discusses
possible ideas for future research and study.
Keywords: Ethnic Diversity, Economic Stability, Urban Socioeconomics
Introduction
We know that many factors affect the economy, but how each factor affects it varies.
Culture has a huge impact on not only the economy of its own country, but also on a larger
and smaller scale. Ethnicity is the state of belonging to a set of cultural traditions. From this
we can assume that ethnicity affects the economy as well. The question is, does it affect the
economy positively or negatively? When we say “positive” we mean that it makes the
economy more stable and efficient. That is that question we hope to answer in this paper.
First we should establish parameters. We have researched various theories and case
studies, each having evidence for both sides of the argument. Many of these theories we have
researched have data for countries as well as individual cities. For the purpose of this paper
we will be focusing on the data for cities.
Next we must define ethnic fragmentation and fractionalization in the way they will
be used throughout this paper. When we say “ethnic fragmentation” we mean the absence or
the underdevelopment of connections between the society and the groupings of some
members of that society on the lines of a common ethnicity. When we say “fractionalization”
we mean the division of ethnicities.
We want to focus on the direct effects that ethnic diversity has on the economy; which
is through individual preferences and by influencing the strategies of these individuals
(Ferrara, 2004). After analyzing this we must then decide if diversity benefits society in an
economic sense or not.
49
We will be discussing Putnam’s “hunkering down” theory and a counter argument for
it. We will also be discussing ethnic fragmentation and its effect on the economy. Then we
will state our decision on whether ethnic diversity benefits the economy or hinders it. Lastly,
we will describe what future research could be done to further validate our decision.
Analyzing Putnam’s Theory
According to Putnam, diversity has different effects on the economy depending on how
far out in time you are looking. He says that in the short and medium run diversity will have
a negative effect due to its impact on social capital but in the long run it can stabilize the
economy by helping to create new identities within communities. Putnam states that while
most immigrants do not alter their ethnic mix after migration, we must express the fact that
immigration and diversity are not the same. He then goes on to make the argument that
creativity is enhanced by diversity and this leads to new ideas and new industries which
create new jobs, thus positively affecting the economy.
He then contradicts this argument by saying that diversity encourages social isolation.
He begins to do so by explaining the “contact hypothesis”. The “contact hypothesis” is the
idea that if we spend more time with someone who is different from us ethnically or racially,
we will begin to trust them. This will remove our ethnocentric way of thinking and create
out-group trust.
He makes another contradiction by explaining the “conflict theory”. In which the
contact with a person of a different ethnicity or race is distrusted because they are in the out-
group and the in-group becomes stronger. He claims that the in-group and out-group trust is
negatively correlated; as your trust in one goes up, your trust in the other goes down.
In terms of social capital, Putnam describes bridging versus bonding. Bridging is the
ties to people who are unlike you in an important way, such as ethnicity. While bonding is
the ties to people who are like you in an important way. He then explains how we tend to
think that since the contact and conflict theory are negatively correlated then bridging and
bonding are as well. This is not the case. High levels of bonding can be present when there
are high levels of bridging.
Now we can tie all of this together. According to Putnam, the contact theory explains
that diversity breaks down in-group and out-group distinctions while enhancing the strength
of the out-group or bridging social capital. While the conflict theory suggests that ethnic
diversity strengthens the distinction between the in-group and out-group while enhancing
the in-group solidarity or bonding social capital. This will heighten ethnocentrism while the
pervious act will lower it (Putnam, 2007). After stating this Putnam reveals that no actual
data has been collected on in-group attitudes, only on out-group attitudes. People have just
assumed that in-group data is inversely correlated to it. If there is no empirical data to show
this correlation, we are not convinced that in-group and out-group attitudes are inversely
correlated. Thus, diversity could possibly reduce the solidarity of in-group (bonding) and out-
group (bridging) solidarity (Putnam, 2007). Putnam calls this the “constrict theory”. In our
opinion, this puts a bit of a hole in Putnam’s argument. If diversity can negatively affect both
groups/types of social capital couldn’t it affect them both positively as well?
Putnam explains the sampling method for his experiment on how diversity affects
social capital. He sampled large cities around the country including LA, Chicago, Huston,
and Boston. He also collected data for more rural areas such as Yakima, Washington and
rural South Dakota.
50
Insert Figure 1 and Table 1
Figure 2 is a map of the cities used in the sample and Table 2 is the list of cities with
the number of people sampled from that city (N). His reasoning for including metropolitan
areas as well as rural areas is the fact that they differ greatly in diversity (LA and San
Francisco at 30-40 % white and rural South Dakota at 95% white). To determine a person’s
ethnicity, Putnam adopted the basic categorization used by the U.S. census.
Insert Figure 2
Figure 3 shows the cities sampled according to their diversity and average level of
inter-racial trust. Each person sampled was asked how much they trusted whites, blacks,
Asian-Americans, and Hispanics (Putnam, 2007). According to figure 3, inter-racial trust is
high in rural South Dakota and low in San Francisco and LA. Since rural South Dakota is
homogenous and San Francisco and LA are heterogeneous in terms of diversity, this would
mean that the more ethnically diverse a city or community is the less trust there is among its
residents. This also supports the conflict theory discussed previously.
Insert Figure 3
Figure 4 is similar to figure 3 but it measures the trust in people who live in your
neighborhood instead of the general trust in other races. It is interesting that the two figures
display the same pattern considering that most Americans have neighbors of the same
race/ethnicity as them. According to figure 4, about 30 percent of people who live in LA or
San Francisco (more diverse areas) say they trust their neighbors. While 70-80 percent of
people who live in North and South Dakota (less diverse areas) say that they trust their
neighbors (Putnam, 2007). This data shows that people who live in more diverse
communities tend to trust their neighbors less.
Insert Figure 4
Figure 5 does not follow what the conflict theory states. The figure shows that in more
diverse settings, people tend to distrust people of the same race/ethnicity as well as those
who are different from them (Putnam, 2007).
Insert Figure 5
Figure 6 shows how ethnocentric trust related to ethnic diversity. Meaning that is
shows that there is no correlation between them (Putnam, 2007).
According to Putnam, after analyzing figures 3-6, we can come to the conclusion that
neither contact theory nor conflict theory can be used to explain the social reality in America.
Putnam introduces his idea of the “constrict theory”, meaning that people who live in more
diverse communities trust other things less; not only their neighbors but the local
government and local news media as well. This could lead to less people registering to vote,
less people volunteering and giving back to the community, etc. (Putnam, 2007). The idea of
“hunkering down” is that there is less social activity and this lack of activity within the
community is what causes the economy to become less stable. Let me repeat this statement,
it is the lack of activity, not the diversity itself. The question we have is that if there is an
argument for this “constrict theory” or “hunkering down” is there an equally plausible
argument for the opposite?
Counter Argument for Putnam’s Theory
While analyzing the literature for a counter argument, we came across a piece that
explains how diversity may benefit communities by replacing the negative stereotypes with
positive thoughts through experiences with other races (Patrick Sturgis, 2011). Sturgis pulls
direct quotes from Putnam’s paper (the same one we have used) and uses them against him.
Like this one for example, “contact theory suggests that diversity erodes the in-/out-group
51
distinction and enhances out-group solidarity or bridging social capital, thus lowering
ethnocentrism.” (Putnam, 2007).
There is a similar argument made against the conflict theory. Sturgis says that
if the conflict theory is true then there would be more negative effects than Putnam stated.
These effects would be especially prominent in areas with less stable economies (Patrick
Sturgis, 2011).
The point that Sturgis makes which really contradicts Putnam’s argument is the
heterogeneity of the approaches. He explains how there have been many approaches taken to
try and decipher if there is a correlation between diversity and economic well-being. Some
have focused specifically on cities as we are doing and others have used national numbers.
There has also been some debate over what type of trust is being measured. There has also
been debate over how trust can be measured considering that there are different types of
trust (Patrick Sturgis, 2011).
These all seem like valid reasons to rethink our opinion about Putnam’s theory. He
uses evidence from studies that were done on a national level to explain his theories and we
are trying to focus in on just the cities. He also doesn’t seem to take into account the
opposing argument of his “hunkering down” theory. If there is a possibility that people could
completely pull away from society and not partake in any activities in the community, then is
it not possible that people could dive into their community and do more things within it?
We see this as the Achilles heel to Putnam’s argument. What if people are more active
in their community when it is diverse? What if diversity is essential to the formation of
communities themselves? What if ethnic diversity makes an economy stronger and more
stable?
Ethnic Fragmentation and Productivity and Income Level
To measure productivity and income level we will look at population growth.
Population growth will more accurately measure this because within the US people move to
where the jobs are, hence the more economically stable places (Ferrara, 2004). According to
Ferrara (2004), the more racially fragmented a city is, the smaller the population growth.
This would mean that places with high population growth like New York and LA should have
better economies than a place like Aberdeen, South Dakota where there is not much growth
in the population. (find population growth stats for Aberdeen and New York)
Insert Tables 2 and 3
These tables show that fractionalization has a negative effect on population growth in
poor countries and a less negative, possibly positive, effect on richer countries when
population growth is used as the dependent variable (Ferrara, 2004).
It has also been shown that people who live in larger cities with a more diverse
population play higher rent and earn higher wages. This shows that diversity has amenity
effects on consumption and production (Ferrara, 2004). This would mean that people
consider it an amenity to live in a city with diversity. This helps to disprove Putnam’s theory.
If people don’t like being around others who are unlike them why would they consider
diversity an amenity? If you consider diversity as an amenity for a moment, it makes sense.
A city with a large and diverse population, such as New York, has more activities to attend.
This would include things like plays, music concerts, art shows, and nightlife. These types of
activities would have a huge positive effect on the local economy. So, it would seem that the
larger and more diverse the population of a city, the better of it would be economically.
52
Ethnic Fragmentation and Public Policies
According to Ferrara (2004), public employment, in terms of population, is higher in
cities that are more racially fragmented. Also, they present the idea that racial divisions
have stronger effects on economic policy than ethnic ones do. Ferrara claims that one reason
public policies are worse in racially fragmented areas is because of the lack of social capital.
The two key parts of social capital are members of the community participating in social
activities and groups and trust within and between groups (Ferrara, 2004). Their paper goes
on to explain how people of different ethnic background are less likely to take part in social
activities in a diverse community. They then claim that there are two explanations to this;
individuals have different preferences about what the group should do which can be based on
their race or ethnicity or that they believe there is a cost of sharing the group with others of a
different race.
This argument seems to support Putnam’s “hunkering down” theory that we have
discussed earlier in the paper. The idea that social capital is affected by the idea of an in
group and an out group seemed a bit odd to me at first but after some consideration it fits
together better. If a white person is more comfortable around other white people than it
would make sense that they would be less likely to do well in a diverse situation. Take a
university classroom as an example. There are 20 or so students in the room. Say this is a
discussion based class and there are many foreign exchange students who have all sat on one
side of the room and the students from the host country have sat on the other (ethnic
fragmentation). The students have created an in group and an out group, which is which
depends on the group you are a part of. For the exchange students, they are the in group and
the same for the students from the host country. Since the class is discussion based, the
productiveness of the class is dependent on the students’ discussion of the topics. If the in
group and out group theory is correct, then there would be no discussion among the students
due to their not wanting to associate with individuals of different races, thus making the
class unproductive. So this should hold true for a city as well, correct?
Ethnic Fragmentation and Community Formation
Seemingly contradictory to other arguments like the one in the previous section,
Ferrara (2004) explains that sociological literature emphasized the fact that the division of
ethnicities is vital to the formation and organization of American cities. This is very
interesting considering that there is sufficient evidence for the argument that diversity is
bad for a local economy. This seems to throw that whole argument in the trash. How can
diversity be bad for an economy and yet still be essential for community formation?
Think for a moment about the Great Migration. African Americans migrated from the
southern United States to the north because that’s where the jobs were. They moved into the
cities such as Chicago and created their own neighborhoods. They worked in the factories
and some even stared their own businesses. This boosted the economies of the cities these
migrants moved to and helped to create better stronger communities.
Take into account ethnic neighborhoods. All cities have them even though some are
larger and more prominent than others. In smaller towns, like Aberdeen, South Dakota,
there are not many ethnic neighborhoods but there are a few and they are small. If Aberdeen
did not have these ethnic neighborhoods, though small and few they are, the town would not
have the ethnic restaurants and stores that they do. These ethnic stores and restaurants
help to fuel the local economy.
These examples are evidence for the argument that diversity strengthens the
economy. Without the diversity the cities in these examples would not have grown the way
53
they did and still continue to do. They would have remained stagnant. So according to these
facts, we can say that diversity is good for the economy, right?
Future Research
We are finding ourselves with as many, if not more, questions than we started with.
We plan to continue reading theories and case studies in order to come to a more definitive
conclusion. We want to dive deeper into the research specifically on cities and how larger
cities compare to smaller ones.
We would like to see if we can find more theories that focus more on the local level vs.
the national level. That would help us narrow our parameters as well. We would also like to
find more recent case studies to compare to older ones and analyze the trends.
Conclusion
After reading over various papers and analyzing many theories, we are leaning
towards the side which argues that diversity has a positive effect on the economy at the local
level. However, there is compelling evidence to suggest otherwise so we cannot come to ta
definitive conclusion. We plan to further our research through the pathways outlined above.
54
Appendix
Figures
Figure 1: Social Capital Benchmark Survey Locations
55
Figure 2: Racial Homogeneity and Inter-Racial Trust
56
Figure 3: Racial Homogeneity and Trust of Neighbors
57
Figure 4: Racial Homogeneity and Intra-Racial Trust
58
Figure 5: Racial Homogeneity and Ethnocentric Trust
59
Tables
Table 1: Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey Sites
60
Table 2: Fractionalization and Population Growth in U.S. Counties
61
Table 3: Fractionalization, Income and Population Growth in Counties
62
Works Cited
Ferrara, A. A. (2004). Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance. 1-44.
Patrick Sturgis, I. B.-S. (2011). Does Ethnic Diveristy Erode Trust? Putnam's "hunkering
down" Thesis Recondsidered. 1-46.
Philip Nyden, M. M. (1997). The Emergance of Stable Racially and Ethnically Diverse Urban
Communities: A Case Study of Nine U.S. Cities. Housing Policy Debate, 491-534.
Putnam, R. D. (2007). E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first
Century The 2006 Johan Prize Lecture. Nordic Political Science Association, 137-174.
63
Let It Grow:
The Issue of Sustainability and How Gardening can help us Evolve
Taylor Melius
Kristi Bockorny
“Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of
personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A
person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a
piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat
independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the
meaning of food and the pleasure of eating.”
-Wendell Berry
With an environment at its possible breaking point, the World is searching for a
solution and fast. One solution has been around longer than the technology that has
distracted us into the problems of sustainability issues. This solution is gardening.
The line between the definitions of gardening and farming is increasingly blurred as
small urban farms spring up across the country. Some people now refer to small farms as
“garden farms” and others refer to gardens as “hobby farms”, which further complicates the
definition of gardening. Experts have begun questioning the terms to better fit the new
movements in urban settings, asking is it a matter of size, profit, or diversity of plants.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to set an exact definition because the difference between
gardening and farming is immeasurable. This is because the main purpose of gardening is
just as much as enjoyment as profit while farming is profit driven. Gardening offers some
cushion in this way because without a focus on money, a gardener can instead focus on the
enjoyment, environmental, and health benefits of the hobby. Reducing the pressure reduces
the stress and that is one main difference between farming and gardening: gardening
involves less financial stress because its main purpose is to be a hobby (Crawford, What's the
Difference Between a Garden and a Farm?, 2014).
Gardening leads to many economic, health, and environmental benefits that can
reduce the impact of the main sustainability issues the world faces today in significant ways
and through several different problem areas. The main issues of sustainability that will be
covered in this paper will be rapid urbanization, poor waste management, pollution, climate
change, and starvation.
The Problem: Issues of Sustainability
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Sustainability is
based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being
depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment” (US EPA, n.d.).
Sustainability is looking into current common practices and questioning what do these
practices mean for future generations and even for the nearby future. The issues of rapid
urbanization, overflowing landfills, pollution, climate change, starvation and poverty are
insidious problems that must be met with solutions.
Rapid Urbanization
The world population is growing exponentially in ways that are unsustainable. In fact,
population growth mixed with rapid urbanization means the need to create the equivalent of
one new city with a population of one million every five days between now and 2050. More
64
than half of the world’s population lives in cities; and by the end of the century, it is
predicted the number of people living in cities will increase by another 3 billion
(International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, 2012).
While urbanization in itself doesn’t present a problem, it does create one. The problem
lies within how these people are getting food. A quick study of food miles that will be
discussed later in this paper will show one way this inefficiency is negatively affecting the
environment. The world, in its landform, isn’t getting any larger. This means individuals
need to find innovative ways within the city to feed all of these people more efficiently.
Poor Waste Management
When it comes to waste management, perhaps, it is appropriate to start close to home.
The United States produces more than its fair share of waste. Although Americans make up
only 5% of the world’s population, they produce 30% of the world’s waste and use 25% of the
world’s resources (Wehr, 2011). Americans generated around 251 million tons of trash in
2012 while recycling and composting almost 87 million tons or about 34.5% of their total
waste (USEPA, 2014).
One way to make these numbers more relatable is in studying them on an individual
level. The average American generates 4.38 pounds of trash every single day (USEPA, 2014).
The average United States citizen has a life expectancy of 78.7 years and this number is
increasing with medicine and technology (CDC, 2014). According to this calculation, the
average person’s trash generation in their lifetime is about 126,000 pounds. Several factors
will increase the impact of our waste including increased life expectancy, household sizes,
lifestyles and the population of the future.
Pollution
Pollution comes in many different forms including water, air, soil, noise, and many
others, each with different consequences. In India, where water pollution is salient, about
1000 children die daily due to diseases from polluted water (The Economist, 2008). A 2010
study in the United States showed that children who lived near freeways were two times as
likely to have autism as kids further from freeways. Scientists believe this is due to exposure
to pollutants associated with freeway traffic (Saltzman, 2010).
Humans aren’t the only species affected; annually one million seabirds and 100,000
marine mammals die due to plastic pollution (Leahy, 2004). These are only a few examples
of the terrible consequences of inconsiderate actions that could easily be avoided. Throughout
this paper it will become apparent that pollution is closely tied to other main sustainability
issues including; waste management, urbanization, and climate change.
Climate Change
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Climate change is a change in the
weather patterns of the world that lasts for an extended period of time (USEPA, 2014).
Climate change is caused from both natural processes and human activity. The current
anthropogenic climate change has been called global warming. The Earth is warming by 1.4
degrees Fahrenheit over the past century and is projected to rise exponentially more over the
next one hundred years. While the temperature changes may seem unsubstantial the
changes in temperature lead to changes in weather and climate patterns (USEPA, 2014).
The reason the world is warming is greenhouse gasses, which are increasing due to
the burning of fossil fuels, changes in land use and deforestation. Climate change and the
greenhouse effect are depleting the glaciers at a fast rate. Our glaciers have thinned on
average by over 10 meters since 1980 (Climate Change Conference: advocacy toolkit, 2010).
This causes animals, including the orange-spotted filefish, polar bear, adelie penguin, North
65
Atlantic cod, and the golden toad, to change their natural routines and behaviors in ways
that are harmful and could lead to the loss of species (Dell'Amore, 2014). The world
population needs to cut back on pollution in order to slow the effects of climate change.
Starvation and Poverty
Starvation is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “suffering or death caused
by having nothing to eat or not enough to eat” and poverty as “the state of one who lacks a
usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.” These two terms are
often related to each other because starvation is a result of poverty (Shah, 2010) Worldwide
870 million people are undernourished and 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty of less
than 1.25 U.S. dollars per day (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
2012).
Tying the above statistics to a country that wastes much more than necessary, makes
them all the more astounding. Approximately 50 million Americans do not have access to
enough food and 45.3 million live in poverty (USEPA, 2014). This number is shocking
especially when tied with the waste issue that is also in the US. The United States
population needs to work toward more thoughtful ways of using and recycling resources
with other fellow Americans in mind.
The Solution: Gardening and Its Benefits
While all of these issues seem to be unmanageable, they can indeed be remedied by
just using our resources more wisely. As stated in the thesis, all of these issues can be tied to
one solution: creating more gardens. The overall benefits of gardening can be categorized as
follows: environmental, health, and economical.
Environmental
While the economic and health benefits of gardening may be more important to any
one person, the environmental benefits of gardening are probably the most important
globally. This is truly the most significant part of this research. World-wide results are what
the world needs to see in order to address the sustainability issues that daunt the populous
today.
While gardening cannot remedy rapid urbanization, it can help to remedy the
problems that are associated with urbanization. Urban gardening creates a more efficient
and self-sufficient urban populous. One obvious way to study this is found when researching
food miles. The amount of food miles, the distance food travels from where it is grown to our
plates, are increasing and becoming ridiculously inefficient. “Today, the typical American
prepared meal contains, on average, ingredients from at least five countries outside the
United States” (Food miles: How far your food travels has serious consequences for your
health and the climate, 2007). Consumers aren’t the only ones paying the price of our food’s
plane ticket. As a result of all of this unnecessary travel, fossil fuels are being burned and
our environment is paying a price. Gardening and at the very least buying food from local
sources and making food mile conscious decisions will help to change the patterns of our food
economy.
One way gardening can change the poor waste management, pollution and climate
change issues is in composting instead of sending those resources to the landfill. In 2009, the
EPA concluded that as much as 42 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions could be
avoided through strategies like recycling and composting (Global Alliance for Incinerator
Alternatives: Global Anti-Incinerater Alliance, 2009). Compost is organic matter that has
been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer. This is a main part of organic gardening.
66
One way to compost food scraps is to mix it with dry leaves, wood chips, twigs,
sawdust, dead plants, or shredded paper. Then top it off with a layer of wood chips and dirt.
The mixture should heat naturally which is a sign that it is decomposing. After stirring the
compost to keep oxygen in the pile and adding some water your compost should be good to go.
The main ingredients are oxygen, water, nitrogen (from the green materials like green grass
clippings), and carbon (from the dry and brown material like dry leaves and hay). Before
long, the food scraps have turned into plant food. Starting a no-fertilizer-needed garden all
starts with something as simple as food scraps (California Department of Resources Recycing
and Recovery, 2012). This can combat pollution by reducing waste and using it in compost.
This compost can fertilize plants that create food for those who are starving and by growing
without fertilizer we will be cutting the use of fossil fuels once again. With the common
gardening techniques and composting, all of the environmental sustainability issues are
covered.
Economic
While the environmental and health benefits of garden are motivational enough for
some, perhaps one of the most motivational benefits of gardening would be economic return
from such a resourceful hobby. On average an investment on a 600 square foot garden is only
$70 and it yields a return of about $600 (Rooney & McLendon, 2011). Imagine a $530 return
on investment, the peace of mind that comes with knowing where the food is being produced,
and the taste of garden fresh vegetables. At this point most people would ask, “What’s the
catch?” or “Why aren’t more people gardening?” Common excuses include lack of time, space,
and money.
To all of these concerns a wise response would be to ask if these non-gardeners have a
lawn. Chances are they do indeed keep a lawn along with most Americans. The average
homeowner spends about $220 and 150 hours every year on their lawn, which is more than it
costs per acre to grow corn, rice, or sugarcane (Wood, 2006). Although these economic figures
are indeed high, the most concerning cost would be due to injury. According to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics from 2004, you are more likely to be fatally injured mowing your lawn than
working as a police officer (U.S. Departemnt of Labor, 2004).
The cost in time, money, injuries and sometimes even fatalities are only for grass
clippings that most people merely dispose of and a lawn that’s purpose is only for aesthetics.
Instead, the focus of energy should be on something productive. The truth is that instead of
growing a lawn, America could be feeding families, planting a row of vegetables for the
starving, and saving the planet by cutting down on fuel emissions and packaging. Yet,
consumers consistently spend more money on grass lawns than on a financial priority higher
than vegetable gardening. Good advice would not be to till a whole lawn and start a garden
from scratch. However, small changes can lead to a change of perspective.
Health
In this paper, health is divided into three categories; social, physical, and cognitive.
The biggest social aspect of gardening is the feeling of self-satisfaction. Gardening and
landscaping is truly becoming an art form. Planning, planting and watching your own garden
grow can fill a person with pride. It is amazing how gardeners, especially introverts, interact
with other people more fluently and thoughtfully after working and caring for their garden.
That alone time in the garden definitely is a benefit to the people in a gardener’s life. Many
social benefits of gardening come with community gardening.
Community gardens can be gardens were once vacant lots that a community of
neighbors decided to take care of and share in the benefits and produce that the lot will
67
provide. They can also be formed in someone’s backyard, who decided to turn to their
neighbors for help, involvement, a learning experience, or even just for a reason to socialize.
Either way the community garden helps people to problem solve and negotiate with others,
create a sense of belonging and purpose, and also create connections with people that would
otherwise be strangers. Because of this connection with strangers, community gardens have
actually been known to prevent crime (Krauser, 2012). People are less likely to steal or
commit other crimes when they know and connect with the people that are on their block. A
published study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine backs up
the new assumption that gardening can actually be a crime fighter. The study compared
thousands of greened vs. non-greened vacant lots over 9 years and the results suggest that
vacant lot gardening was associated with less gun assaults and vandalism and an increase in
safety (Krauser, 2012).
Weeding, planting, watering and the overall care of flowers and plants are all a form of
exercise. It gets people outside and moving. The benefits of fresh air and exercise are
apparent. Another physical benefit is in the diet that a gardener can consume. The more
varieties of vegetables and fresh fruit available will lead to healthier choices. The result is
taste buds evolve to enjoy the foods that are the very best for the consumer’s well-being.
Finally the cognitive health benefits of gardening will be discussed. Gardening creates
a learning experience. There is so much to learn about gardening and it is a nearly constant
learning experience so much so that once you start, it is difficult to stop researching and
finding out better ways to grow produce. It offers a chance to teach children a valuable lesson
about having sustainable and reliable food systems. Adding a new hobby always adds some
expertise and knowledge, a skill that a person didn’t have before and this is no different
when it comes to gardening. You can teach and learn about better waste management
techniques when it comes to composting table scraps and other waste. When it comes down
to it the benefits of gardening cannot be fully measured and they may be different for each
and every person but it will always be a learning experience for those who try.
There is exciting and encouraging news. According to the National Gardening
Association, 1 in 3 US households are now growing food (National Gardening Association,
2014). This is the highest participation and spending levels that the US has seen in a decade.
There has been an increased interest in gardening by the youth. Eight million Millennials
(18-24 year olds) were food gardeners in 2008 and that number increased to 13 million by
2013. Urban gardening participation also rose from 7 million in 2008 to 9 million in 2013
(National Gardening Association, 2014). Joining the movement is easy, but starting small is
recommended. A good start would be in research techniques and starting a small windowsill
garden or an herb garden. The chance that a one-time gardener, who lacks a green thumb, is
unsuccessful at producing a product will still be noticed by friends and neighbors as trying to
make a difference in his or her life, as well as in society. This garden could spark the
interest and curiosity of even just ten of that person’s closest friends and family. This process
could spark the interest of their closest friends and continue exponentially. Posting to social
media would speed the entire process.
Hopefully the environmental, health and economic benefits researched here have at
least sparked an interest. Overall gardening has benefits that the world cannot wait for. The
Earth’s breaking point may be right around the corner and the future should be on upmost
importance. What planet do we want to leave for future generations? Even though climate
change, urbanization, overfilling landfills, starvation and pollution are impending upon the
68
environment, individuals can be the change they want to see in the world simply by starting
more gardens.
69
References
California Department of Resources Recycing and Recovery. (2012, November 7). Backyard
Composting Households. Retrieved from
http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/homecompost/
CDC. (2014, February 13). Life Expectancy. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lifexpec.htm
Climate Change Conference: advocacy toolkit. (2010, November 29). Retrieved from
http://www.climatecentre.org/
Crawford, Andrea. (2014, February 12). What’s the Difference Between a Garden and a
Farm? Retrieved from
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2014/02/farm_vs_garden_the_definition_depend
s_on_whether_you_ask_the_usda_or_the.html
Dell'Amore, C. (2014, March 31). 7 Species Hit Hard by Climate Change—Including One
That's Already Extinct. Retrieved from
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140331-global-warming-climate-
change-ipcc-animals-science-environment/
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2012, October 9). New Hunger
Report. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/161819/icode/
Food miles: How far your food travels has serious consequences for your health and the
climate. (2007, November). Retrieved from nrdc.org/policy
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives: Global Anti-Incinerater Alliance. (2009).
Incinerator: Myths vs. Facts. Retrieved from http://www.no-
burn.org/downloads/GAIA%20Incinerator%20Myths%20vs%20Facts.pdf
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. (2012, April 10). The Rise and Rise of Urban
Expansion. Retrieved from
http://www.igbp.net/news/features/features/theriseandriseofurbanexpansion.5.705e080
613685f74edb800014.html
Krauser, M. (2012, August 22). Infrastructure: The Urban garden as Crime Fighter.
Retrieved from http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/the-urban-garden-as-crime-fighter
National Gardening Association. (2011, June 06). Infographic: Home gardening in the U.S.
Retrieved from http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-
gardening/stories/infographic-home-gardening-in-the-us
Rooney, C., & McLendon, R. (2011). Home Gardening: Don't just go local, grow local.
Retrieved from http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/news/newsreleases/2011/june-20-2011/try-
gardening-for-health-and-
food/plonearticle_image_popup?image_id=4b84ddcbfeec01cf5f847d827bc49b5c
Saltzman, S. R. (2010, December 17). Autism: Air Pollution May Be to Blame, Studies
Suggest. Retrieved from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nonstick-pollutants-may-
cut-efficiency-vaccines-kids
Shah, A. (2010, October 03). Causes of Hunger are related to Poverty. Retrieved from
http://www.globalissues.org/article/7/causes-of-hunger-are-related-to-poverty
The Economist. (2008, December 11). Creaking, Groaning: Infrastructure Is India's Biggest
Handicap. The Economist.
U.S. Departemnt of Labor. (2004, September 9). Fatal Occupational Injuries. Retrieved from
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0196.pdf
70
Urban Agriculture: Community Gardening. (2014, March). Retrieved from
http://www.mrsc.org/subjects/parks/comgarden.aspx
US EPA. (n.d.). What is sustainability? Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm#sustainability
USEPA. (2014, February 28). Municipal Solid Waste. Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/waste/nonhaz/municipal/
USEPA. (2014, March 10). Reducing Food Waste for Businesses. Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/foodwaste/
Wehr, K. (2011). Green Culture: An A-to-Z Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Wood, D. (2006). Green Green Grass. En Route.
71
The Reaction of Lebanese Banks’ Stock Prices to the 2008 Financial Crisis
Nehale Farid Mostapha
By the end of 2008 the stock market collapsed after several months of tension and
struggle. The financial crisis due to a downturn in housing prices, wrong uses of monetary
and fiscal policies, and irresponsible behavior of private lenders and borrowers was one
more episode in the financial turmoil that affected emerging market economies.
The term financial crisis is applied broadly to a variety of situations in which some
financial institutions suddenly lose a large part of their value. Many economists have
offered theories about how financial crises develop and how they could be prevented. There
is little consensus, however, and financial crises are still a regular occurrence around the
world.
The spreading crisis in emerging markets raised concerns about the financial
stability of the banking system as a whole. Some analysts pointed out the risk of a contagion
among international banks and, also, the systemic repercussions that the failure of a large
creditor bank might have on the domestic banking sector.
A historical view of financial crisis
There were lots of financial crisis during the twentieth century :
-The DOT-COM crash 2000:
On Friday 14th April, Wall Street experienced its biggest one-day fall in history, ending a
week in which US markets lost $2 trillion in value — the equivalent to Germany's entire
economy. Worst hit was NASDAQ, the stock exchange favored by hi-tech companies such as
Microsoft.
72
Options, Strategies and Trade-Offs in Resource Mobilization
Arbab Naseebullah Kasi
Using a resource dependency perspective, this paper covers strategic options, choices
and trade-offs associated with resource mobilization towards sustainability. Generally
speaking, the goal in changing the resource profile is to reduce dependency on foreign aid by
diversifying towards domestic sources.
There are major shifts in resource supply and demand that shape the NGDO
operating environment. The overall picture is of an uneven change in availability of aid
resources for NGDOs that is often not being made good by domestic sources, especially from
government. Hence, there is the fear that some NGDOs will not survive.
Environmental changes are to the disadvantage of some types of NGDOs and to the
gain of others that are already better resourced and more capable. There is a squeeze on
weaker, middle-sized NGDOs and those that do not have a clear ‘niche’, to the benefit of
large, often northern, organizations. Increasing humanitarian demands are reinforcing this
differential impact of changes in resource levels and conditions for NGDO access.
Six concepts assist in understanding the factors NGDOs take into account when
assessing options. They are:
•Vulnerability: an NGDO’s ability to suffer costs imposed by external events affecting the
resource;
•Sensitivity: the degree and speed at which changes in a resource will impact on the NGDO;
•Criticality: the probability that an existing resource can be replaced by another for the
same function;
•Consistency: an ability to alter a resource profile without compromising mission and
identity;
•Autonomy: the degree to which the resource affects free decision-making and ability to
negotiate terms and say ‘no’ when necessary;
•Compatibility: the degree of similarity in organizational demands between new and
existing resources.
NGDOs face a primary division in the types of resources they can mobilize. They can
choose between non-financial and financial sources and, within the latter, between
generating funds themselves or tapping into finance generated by others. A comparative
table suggests that the first two options are most likely to bring positive change in the above
six factors. The latter option is more prone to cheating contrary effects and to introduce
organizational stress. However, the extent to which this occurs depends on which sub-
source is accessed.
An important trade-off for NGDOs is one which links the profile of resources to its
position in society in terms of its role and ‘civicness’, or distance from government. The
external environment is tending to push NGDOs to more welfare roles and closer proximity
to government and business. Countering or accommodating this trend is an important
feature of strategic decision-making.
73
Lead the parade: a case study depicting the use of traditional and online
marketing strategies to expand into the hyper-growth market in the Bakken region
of North Dakota.
Dan Nelson
Deb Tech
This case study analyzes the use of traditional and online marketing strategies by a
Real Estate Investment Company (REIT) to develop a hyper-growth market of the Bakken
region in North Dakota. The strategic objectives of the REIT is discussed as related to this
initiative. An environmental analysis of the Bakken region is provided. Marketing
strategies including traditional sales, event marketing, and the use of traditional and social
media are depicted. The case study concludes with a reporting of initial results and
questions for further exploration.
74
Concussions: The Marketing Nightmare that Faces the NFL and Youth Sports
Thomas Orr
For many years the National Football League (NFL) held a position that did not
recognize the serious issues surrounding concussions. Financial pressure was applied to the
league by a group of players who had gained a greater understanding of concussions and
their horrific consequences. On August 22, 2013, the National Football League and the NFL
players association settled on their concussion lawsuit for $765 million dollars. On January
14th US District Judge Anita Brody, denied the settlement on grounds that the agreement
didn’t do enough to address players not named in the original lawsuit which included 20,000
retired players. (Rovell, 2014). The judge eventually cleared a revised settlement which
eliminates a cap on claims and raises the payout to 870 million. This settlement is not being
supported by the family of Dave Duerson and many other key stakeholders and does not
appear to be conclusive or the end of the judicial process.
Researchers uncovered a myriad of serious health issues related to head trauma and
concussions. According to recent research done on the brains of deceased NFL players the
long term effects of concussion is more serious that thought. “Concussions that were once
thought of as part of the game and a minor injury are only now being understood in terms of
their long term issues as many ex-athletes are having severe problems with brain
functioning.” (Jamieson & Orr, 2009) Suicides and abuse issues associated with current and
former athletes has triggered speculation from many sources that these consequences have
deadly consequences.
The mentality of playing through injuries and the push to make young athletes
bigger, faster and stronger in hopes of a future pay day has led to a trickle-down effect of
concussions at the youth level. Parents saw their children as an investment, as big pay days
were thought to be the reward for the many hours of supporting children playing sports.
Parents were willing to pay for special instructors, camps, all-star leagues, trips for extra
tournaments and top sport gear and equipment. Sport retailers and production companies
were able to bask in profits and many companies such as Nike, Adidas, and Under Armor
have enjoyed a prominent position amongst non-sport related peers for their business
successes on aggregate and individual levels. Parents found room in their budgets, or found
credit to make sure that their children were able to keep up with the competition.
Parents basked in reflective glory and hoped to achieve fame and fortune as their
children could potentially reach all of the goals they had not reached in their own lives.
BIRG Theory (Basking In Reflective Glory) explains this concept and many examples are
found in the sport milieu. “If the child has the same passions and drive this situation may
work out very well. Unfortunately, when looking at cases of burnout, or worse, parents
living vicariously through kids’ experience, can often be found as a reason that too much
pressure was placed on the athlete. The child that is already on a path of systematic pursuit
of becoming a professional through serious sport and leisure should be a concern to those
who care about that person’s long term moral, personal and even athletic development.
Participation in sport should not be viewed as a career for young athletes.” (Jamieson &
Orr, 2009, p. 165)
The pursuit of team success, accolades, statistics and big plays to showcase to coaches
and potential scouts create an incredible need for players and parents to want their kids to
play as much as possible. Personal pride and general fitness could also be seen as a reason
to insist in more playing time. Learning how to fight through injuries and accomplishing
75
your goals with resiliency can be seen as a very strong benefit of playing youth sports.
Scenes of Olympic athletes fighting through injuries or MLB stars like Kirk Gibson limping
around the bases or Curt Schilling and his bloody sock resonate in culture and contribute to
the sport ethic to play through pain and injury in order to be the hero. Concussions have
made even the most hardened coaches re-consider this attitude as second impact syndrome
and skull fracture issues become prevalent. Concussion research has shown that young
athletes have an increased risk for long-term side effects of concussions which is even more
problematic for youth sports (Valovich, Schwartz, Bay. 2007; Field, Collins, Lovell, &
Maroon, 2003).
The culture of football is especially interesting in the context of concussions, as noted
in a research article in The Sport Psychologist, “The sport of American football is believed to
perpetuate ideologies of masculine superiority by valuing, encouraging, and sanctioning
instrumental aggression (Gage, 2008; Messner, 1990, 1992; Pringle & Markula, 2005).
According to Kreager (2007), “Masculinized sports then become socially sanctioned stepping
stones toward privilege and power—sites where coaches, peers, parents, and the media
encourage masculine identities founded on physical aggression and domination” (p. 706). As
a result, football provides myriad opportunities to explore on-field aggressive sport
behaviors among the young men who participate in this influential institution of
masculinity socialization (e.g., Foley, 2001; Steinfeldt, Steinfeldt, England & Speight, 2009;
Wong, Steinfeldt, LaFollette, & Tsao, 2011).” (Steinfeldt, Rutkowski, Orr & Steinfeldt, 2012)
The future of the NFL as an economic juggernaut amongst its peers will have a major
impact from how it handles this problem. The court of public perception does not want to see
the NFL abandon its players and they also want to know about the safety of children and
non-professionals who play sport. The NFL, High School Coaches, and youth league
directors do not want to read headlines like, “Parents Weigh Risks of Youth Football Amid
Concussion Debate”, as the USA Today proclaimed in a pointed article (Mihoces, 2012). The
Wall Street Journal stated that, Football faces another hurdle: growing concern that
concussions and other contact injuries can cause lasting physical damage” when they ran an
article entitled, “Youth Participation Weakens in Basketball, Football, Baseball and
Soccer.”(Wallerson, 2014)
This meta-analysis focused on the impact concussions may have on NFL and Youth
Sport Marketing efforts. Brand equity of the NFL has been under review by their fans and
many stakeholders. Brand equity is; “The added value, or equity, that a certain product has
by the virtue of its brand name.” (Mullin, Hardy & Sutton, 2014, p.155) With the suicide
murder of Javon Belcher preceding the violence and abuse issues of Adrian Peterson, Ray
Rice and Greg Hardy, the NFL has some serious issues to deal with when it considers
sponsors and the impacts of poor behavior off the field coupled with the problems of
concussion and their potential role in influencing the behavior of the athletes.
Seventeen million fans attended NFL games in 2010 and paid 54 to 117 dollars per
ticket (Burke, Hendrickson, & Roberts, 2011). “The total “gross football product” from
everything from naming rights and broadcasting rights to sponsorship and ticket sales was
estimated at $9.3 billion, which was almost as much as the combined financial impact of the
other three major professional leagues (MLB $6.7 billion, NBA 3-4 billion, and the NHL 1
billion).”(Fried, DeSchriver, Mondello, 2014, p. 34) Sponsors like Budweiser and Papa Johns
generate big pay days on game day and also contribute back to the NFL by purchasing
sponsorship in exchange for visibility and access to customers. Budweiser was very vocal
about their desire to have the NFL keep their image up when they faced multiple scandals
76
including the concussion issues and lawsuit. The threat of losing sponsors and fans did
appear to impact the way that players were punished for transgressions and several rule
changes have been geared at protecting players from concussions. Many other rules remain
debatable such as eliminating kickoffs and other dangerous plays.
The number of football participants not in the NFL far outweighs the number of
participants in the NFL and further magnifies the risks and opportunities for individual
law suits. There was an estimated 3.1 million touch football players and 3.8 million tackle
football ages 6 and above in the United States during the 2012 year. (Pederson & Thibault,
2014) These numbers demonstrate the need for safe training and equipment for athletes
who are at risk for head injuries and concussion. Flag football is looked at as a potential
alternative at the youth levels but the entertainment of the big hit would be a tough loss at
the collegiate and professional levels of play. When we allow our youth to learn how to hit is
a debatable topic with pros and cons of each side being present. We do not want athletes to
suffer concussions at an early age and start their concussion clocks early and deal with long
term health consequences.
New concussion helmets and protective equipment should be of high quality and
leagues will have to find a way to pay for it so that their core product is safe. Training
programs that allow athletes to build neck strength and build physical traits to avoid
concussions are helpful. Learning how to avoid taking a big hit at a young age is helpful.
Testing procedures to make sure athletes are safe before returning to the field should be
used and all care needs to be taken so the athlete or coach cannot manipulate the test in
order to return to the field. It is important that a medical trainer can decide to pull a
concussed player and not face retribution from a coach. Each of these safeguards need to be
implemented so that the marketing campaign of these organizations can be honest and
ethically align with a marketing message that conveys football as a safe and reasonable
sport to play and watch.
Potential financial implications and marketing strategies to mitigate the damage
along with other solutions to the core issue are important for the NFL and youth sport
providers to understand and enact. We have also considered other youth sports that have
concussion injuries and how the atmosphere of a team and the hubris of the athletes relate
to incident rates. Football is on an economic perch and represents the deepest pockets of the
major sports and has been the first target of concussion lawsuits and medical review.
Paying nearly a billion dollars for a lawsuit may only be the start of the problems for the
NFL as highlighted in this paper. Other professional sports will eventually face scrutiny, as
will the NCAA and their member organizations, high schools, youth sport clubs, and the
myriad of related sport organizations. Any weaknesses and exploited areas of the NFL and
sport of football will be used against other organizations who do not take head of the
precedent being set and each will be at risk of equal or greater condemnation if appropriate.
77
REFERENCES
Burke, D., Hendrickson, B., & Roberts, D. (2011). The Gross Football Product. Sports
Illustrated, 114, 11.
Field, M., Collins, M., Lovell, M., & Maroon, J. (2003). Does Age Play a Role in Recovery
from Sports-related Concussion? A Comparison of High School and Collegiate
Athletes. Journal of Pediatrics, 142(5):546-533.
Fried, G., DeSchriver, T., & Mondello, M. (2013). Sport Finance. Champaign: Human
Kinetics.
Foley, D. (2001). The great American Football Ritual: Reproducing Race, Class, and Gender
Inequality. In A. Yiannakis & M.J. Melnick (Eds.), Contemporary Issues in Sociology of
Sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Gage, E. (2008). Gender Attitudes and Sexual Behavior. Violence Against Women, 14, 1014-
1032.
Jamieson, L. & Orr, T. (2009). Sport Violence; A Critical Examination of Sport. London:
Elsevier.
Kreager, D. (2007). Unnecessary Roughness: School, Sports, Peer Networks, and Male
Adolescent Violence. American Sociological Review, 72, 705-724.
Messner, M. (1990). When Bodies are Weapons: Masculinity and Violence in Sport.
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 25, 203-220.
Messner, M. (1992). Power at play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity. Boston: Beacon
Press.
Mihoces, G. (2012). Parents Weigh Risks of Youth Football Amid Concussion Debate.
USA Today, Retrieved from
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/football/story/2012-05-16/Parents-weigh-
youth-football-risks/55150850/1
Mullin, B., Hardy, S., & Sutton, W. (2014). Sport Marketing. Champaign: Human
Kinetics.
Pederson, P., & Thibault, L. (2014). Contemporary Sport Management. Champaign: Human
Kinetics.
Pringle, R., & Markula, P. (2005). No Pain is Sane After All: A Foucauldian Analysis of
Masculinities and Men’s Experiences in Rugby. Sociology of Sport Journal, 22, 4
72-497.
Rovell, D. (2014). Judge Fears $765 Million not Enough. ESPN Website. Retrieved
September 7, 2014 from http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10292549/judge-rejects-
preliminary-approval-765-million-nfl-settlement-concussion-case
Steinfeldt, J., Steinfeldt, M., England, B., & Speight, Q. (2009).Gender Role Conflict and
Help-seeking Stigma Among College Football Players. Psychology of Men and
Masculinity, 12, 312-323.
Steinfeldt, J, Rutkowski, L., Orr, T, Steinfeldt, M. (2012). Masculine Norms and Moral
Atmosphere in College Football. The Sport Psychologist, 26, 320-333.
Valovich-McLeod T., Schwartz, C., Bay R. (2007). Sport-related Concussion
Misunderstandings Among Youth Coaches. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine,
17:140-142
78
Wallerson, R. (2014). Youth Participation Weakens in Basketball, Football, Baseball and
Soccer. Wall Street Journal Online, Jan 31, 2014, Retrieved from
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240527023035194045793508926292299
18
Wong, G. (2012). SN Concussion Report: NFL Could Lose Billions in Player
Lawsuits. Retrieved from http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2012-08-22/nfl-
concussion-lawsuits-money-bankrupt-players-sue-head-injuries
Wong, Y, Steinfeldt, J., LaFollette, J., & Tsao, S. (2011). Men’s Tears: Football and Player’s
Evaluations of Crying Behavior. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 11, 170-182.
79
A Cross-Cultural Study on Sense of Brand SNS Community
Cheol Park
Xiaowu Wang
Social networking service (SNS) as a new marketing activity tool is being used all
over the world. This research as an initial study about SNS marketing analyzes the
antecedents and consequences of sense of brand SNS community using Uses and
gratifications theory and brand community theory in China and South Korea. The results
suggest that informativeness, playfulness, cohesiveness, homophily, relationship base have
a positive impact on the sense of brand SNS community which has a positive impact on
brand SNS attitude, brand attitude and purchase intention. Culture comparison suggests
that Chinese and South Korean have a lot of differences between each other. This research
firstly uses the variable of relationship base to reflect characteristic of brand SNS
community. Implications are discussed for social factors and hedonic factor are very
important for brand SNS community, and there are differences between Chinese and South
Korean.
Key words: SNS Marketing, Sense of Community, Facebook, Renren, Brand Attitude,
China, Korea, Social Media,
80
Mindfulness at the workplace - a lifeline for all of us?
Michael Pülz
Abstract
This paper describes training of mindfulness as a technique to increase stress resilience at
the work place. Stress is an increasingly common companion in our modern life - and the
usage of modern technologies does not relief the pressure on our shoulders.
Ancient eastern methods are recently being rediscovered in modern societies. Some of the
most progressive companies (such as Google, Salesforce.com, eBay, Twitter, and Facebook)
invite Buddhist monks to train their employees in mindfulness or set up internal training
programs to train their employees in mindfulness. Doctors and teachers discover trainings
in mindfulness in their daily work, both to help patients or pupils to handle their difficulties
as well as to strengthen their own mental well-being in their stressful jobs.
The positive effect of meditation on people's ability to cope with demanding situations is
subject of current research. Prolonged meditation practice leads to changes in the wiring of
the brain (neuroplasticity), thus resulting in increased control of one's thoughts, emotions,
and reactions. Results show positive effects on decision making, attention, memory, and
sleep. Meditation can even replace blood pressure medication and it can play a role in pain
management.
The paper will briefly discuss what mindfulness is, what the effects of trainings in
mindfulness are, and how to apply mindfulness training in our modern work environment.
81
Table of contents
1. What is mindfulness?............................................................................................. 82
2. Neuroplasticity ....................................................................................................... 84
3. What are the effects of mindfulness training? ...................................................... 85
4. How to apply mindfulness at the workplace? ....................................................... 86
5. So what? ................................................................................................................. 87
References ..................................................................................................................... 90
82
What is mindfulness?
"The mindful revolution" was the title of the Time magazine on February 3, 2014. Articles
about mindfulness can be found in the press every other week. Bookshops at airports
provide titles on mindfulness. What is behind this topic?
Mindfulness has its root in Buddhism and other Asian traditions which go back more than
2'500 years. The idea of mindfulness is to learn to be in the present moment, in the "here
and now". It is about training our mind through meditation practice to not constantly being
dragged away. It is about taming the mind.
In order to do so, one should learn to detach from thoughts and emotions. This is referred to
as "de-attachment". Most of the time our mind runs on auto-pilot, being dragged away by
thoughts about the past (often regrets) or the future (often worries, hopes, etc.). Regular
mindfulness training helps to disengage from such automatic thoughts, habits, and
unhealthy behaviour (Brown & Ryan, 2003).
The effects of mindfulness training through meditation are claimed to be
deep freedom (in the sense of freeing ourselves from attachments to "toxic" thoughts),
profound happiness (in the sense of the happiness that is within our calm mind),
serenity, wisdom, and
peace within one's mind.
Eventually this will lead to more well-being.
In order to develop mindfulness, one needs to practice mindfulness meditation. Meditation
practice is at the heart of the old Asian traditions and religions. The practice of mindfulness
means to learn and apply analytical skills. It means to study the nature and attributes of an
object with the highest precision possible. This object can be our breath, which is often the
basis for meditation practice. The breath is always with us (if not, we are dead), it has its
own rhythm, it changes when our state of mind or body changes. This approach is quite
analytical. Similar self-studies have been performed by philosophers in the west, such as
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (e.g. in "Les rêveries du promeneur solitaire", 1782). Without
Rousseau calling it "meditation", he describes astonishingly similar experiences as those
described by experienced eastern meditators.
There are different ways of how to practice mindfulness, but meditation is at its centre.
Depending on the origin of the meditation practice, methods differ slightly. A profound
misunderstanding in the west is that meditation is in some way mystical or esoteric, which
it is not. It is not about giving up all thoughts, about reaching some super-natural state of
mind. Rather, it is simply a practice to focus our mind.
The ultimate goal is to tame our mind, not to be the slave to our wandering thoughts,
feelings, emotions - but rather to study them, to accept them as they are, to observe how
they arise seemingly out of nowhere and just by themselves, to realize that they also go
away by themselves. Through meditation, we can learn not to hang onto them, not to attach
ourselves to them, not to identify us with them.
Meditation is not about eliminating our thoughts and feelings. It is rather about
understanding their true nature - which is impermanence. They come - and they go. They
come seemingly spontaneously, and they go spontaneously. By just recognizing them,
without judging them, they lose their power over us. Through this practice, we can learn
that we are not identical with these thoughts. Rather they are phenomena in our mind.
They are not us, they are not our self. By learning this through practicing meditation, our
mind can become free. This kind of freedom has nothing to do with the conventional concept
83
of freedom in the sense of having the ability to do whatever we want. Inner freedom reached
by meditation practice and mindfulness is more profound and stable.
One traditional way of practicing meditation is Zazen, which is sitting meditation. One sits
(usually on a cushion), legs crossed in one of several ways (the lotus, half-lotus or the
Burmese way), knees on the ground, so that the lower body is forming a stable triangle on
the ground. The upper body is straight, with the head somewhat pointing towards the
ceiling. The eyes should be half closed and looking without focus in a 45 degree angle to the
ground or wall in front of us. The hands form an oval, with one hand resting in the other,
thumbs slightly touching.
Through this posture, one can be firm and relaxed at the same time. It is supposed to be a
natural way of sitting. One can describe it as resembling a mountain, which is stable rested
in the ground, despite the clouds and winds that might appear around its top.
One then focuses on the breath, without influencing it. Simply recognizing the natural flow
of breathing in and breathing out will have the effect of calming our mind. When our mind
wanders off, we simply bring it back to our breath once we realize that it went off.
There are some basic ideas in Buddhism which underpin mindfulness training. These are:
"life is not fair",
impermanence,
de-attachment,
non-judgement, and
non-self.
When analysing our lives we have to arrive at the conclusion that life is not fair. Not
everyone has the same conditions, health, wealth, etc. It does not mean that we simply have
to accept the conditions we face, but there will be differences in the way life treats different
people.
Everything is impermanent, including ourselves, our thoughts and worries, our
materialistic wealth, even the entire universe. Everything is in constant flux. Holding on to
impermanent "things" creates unhappiness and is in fact the main source of our anxieties.
De-attachment from our thoughts, feelings, and emotions are at the heart of meditation
practice. It does not mean to stop them, not to feel anything anymore - that would be
impossible. But we should learn that these occurrences in our mind are not "us". They
simply appear, like clouds in the sky, and they disappear again. In meditation we learn to
recognize them (such as "I am feeling angry"), but not to identify ourselves with them (such
as "I am angry").
By recognizing these objects in our mind in a de-attached way, we should also be non-
judgemental. This means we recognize the nature of a thought or a feeling, but we do not
judge it. We can realize that we are having an angry feeling right now, but should refrain
from thinking "I should not be angry". We cannot help to feel a certain feeling in a certain
moment. But by practicing de-attachment and non-judgement, we can learn to recognize the
feeling and then to decide freely how to react, instead of automatically being dragged to
some spontaneous reaction.
In Buddhism one even says that the notion of a separate, in itself existing "self" is an
illusion and a cause for suffering ("non-self"). This is because since everything is changing,
our "self" is non-permanent as well. Another concept is interconnectedness. It refers to the
observation that everything is connected to something else, nothing exists in itself.
Meditation practice thus helps to develop a non-judgemental awareness and to balance our
thinking with awareness. At least we should become aware of how judgemental we are
(Kabat-Zinn, 2010).
84
Neuroplasticity
When I went to school (in the 1970s and early 1980s), during the biology class I learned that
nerve cells do not grow or change their connectivity once a person is grown up. It was
common knowledge at that time that human beings cannot profoundly change anymore once
they became adults. The belief was: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
This has changed. Researchers know now that the brain is flexible, and that it never stops
developing. Even new brain cells can grow through prolonged training, however this seems
to be restricted to certain areas of the brain (Singer and Ricard, 2008, p.31). In the
prefrontal cortex, the adult brains adopts through changes in the synaptic connections of
the neurons (ibid., 2008, p.65). This is the area of the brain which seems to play an
important role when practicing meditation and mindfulness training.
Buddhism beliefs that change is possible, and that it is the most important task for us as
human beings to develop further, and that this is our own responsibility. The method to do
this is through meditation practice.
Studies have shown that meditation practice has an effect on the wiring of our brains (e.g.
Davidson, 2008). Researchers now talk about neuroplasticity. The notion of neuroplasticity
frees us from the slavery of a constant, permanent self. We no longer have to defend this
ego, but we can rather start a journey of development towards mindfulness.
On the course of this journey, we also have to change our notion of happiness. Our
conventional idea of happiness is that it is something deriving from materialistic
satisfaction, such as a nice vacation, a bigger car, etc. However, by studying the true nature
of these things, it becomes apparent that they carry the seed for unhappiness within them.
The nice vacation will be over, the bigger car will decay and rust - and one of the neighbours
eventually will have an even bigger car. This is true for everything we seem to derive our
happiness from. It will not last, it is impermanent. Our conventional idea of happiness is
superficial.
Happiness as defined by eastern philosophy and Buddhism can only be found in the here
and now. It will appear naturally when we focus on the present. This is mindfulness.
Meditation practice teaches us how to bring our mind back to the here and now, and by
doing so, we realize that happiness is just here, naturally, without any effort. It has always
been here. In fact - if we take our analysis a step further - we will realize that there is only
the here and now. We only live in the present moment, which is followed by the next present
moment. The past is gone; the future does not exist yet. All phenomena which we experience
are happening in this very moment.
Yet, most of the time our mind wanders off into the past and into the future. Thinking about
the past, we get caught in regrets and remorse. But the past does not exist anymore. It is
just a memory in our mind. Or we worry about the future. Or we hope for future events that
provide us with the happiness we crave for. But the future does not exist either. It is just an
idea in our mind. The only moment that exists is the present moment. And we usually miss
it while being caught up in thoughts about the past or about the future.
Practicing mindfulness teaches us to value the present moment. To stay with the present
moment as much as possible - not in a tense and cramped way, but in a natural and open
way. Being in a mindful state of mind does not mean that there will not be unpleasant and
disturbing feelings, thoughts, and emotions. But it means that we recognize them as what
they really are, and that we see them coming and going. Meditation does not mean to
oppressively influencing these phenomena in our mind. They come and they go, without
leaving traces in our mind - like clouds in the sky.
85
Our mind has the ability to study itself. Practicing mindfulness is exactly this. We have
emotions, but we can learn not to become slaves of our emotions. Through practice we can
learn to become emotionally more stable, not to overreact in situations that - without
training - would trigger reactions which might be offending or which we might regret later.
This does not mean that we get rid of our emotions. It means to stabilize ourselves and to
provide an anchor in the present moment.
What are the effects of mindfulness training?
Research has been conducted on long-term practitioners of meditation, such as Matthieu
Ricard, son of the French philosopher Jean-François Ricard alias Revel. Matthieu Ricard
was a molecular biologist with a Ph.D. from Pasteur Institute in Paris and became a
Buddhist monk in the late 1960s. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and EEG
(electroencephalography) have been used, among other measurement tools.
The results show that meditation has profound effects on the brain. Left-sided anterior
activation - which is supposed to be linked to positive emotions and control over ones
thoughts - is increased with long-term practitioners (Davidson et al., 2003). Self-induced
gamma-band oscillations is seen in long-term practitioners (Lutz et al., 2004), which is
supposed to indicate increased cognitive activities like attention and memory. These
activation asymmetries are plastic and can be shaped through training.
Another effect is an increase of gray-matter density in the lower brainstem of long-term
practitioners compared to age-matched non-meditators (Verstergaard-Poulsen et al., 2009).
This seems to indicate higher resistance to stressful stimuli, increased attentional skills,
etc. A whole range of positive effects on the parasympathetic nervous system are detectable.
The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the unconscious control of our
organs, blood stream, heart rate, metabolism, etc. and plays a vital role in stress relaxation.
Thus, research detected strong evidence for positive effects on our nervous system in long-
term practitioners. But positive effects are detectable even after a short and less intense
period of meditation practice. Studies suggest that structural brain changes are detectable
after only 3 months of meditation (Draganski et al., 2004).
In the late 1970s, Jon Kabat-Zinn has developed a training program called Mindfulness-
Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts (later founding the
Center of Mindfulness). MBSR integrates mindfulness meditation into clinical and
psychological medicine. It is a clinical, 8 to 10 weeks structured group program on
mindfulness meditation for patients with chronical diseases. The conditions that these
patients suffer from include AIDS, cancer, heart disease, chronic pain, hypertension, sleep
disorders, and depression.
Results of studies on the effects of MBSR show that it is helpful for stress relaxation to a
wide range of patients (e.g. Grossman et al., 2003). MBSR has been successfully applied
ever since its introduction and it has found its way into other non-clinical settings.
Some of the positive effects of mindfulness meditation that have been detected in a variety
of studies are:
an improved immune system (Davidson et al., 2003),
reduction of anxiety (Miller, 1995),
increased attention (Verstergaard-Poulsen et al., 2009),
positive effects on the stress-related cortisol level (Tang et al, 2007), and
reduction of cognitive decline (Pagnoni/Cekic, 2007).
Brown and Ryan (2003) constructed the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
and applied in five different studies. The results support the role of mindfulness in fostering
86
well-being and in self-regulatory behaviour. Correlation of MAAS measures with other
scales is detectable especially regarding well-being.
One of their studies with Zen practitioners showed that in order to achieve the desired
results, the duration of practice (years) is more important than the actual amount of time
spent meditating.
Another of their studies was conducted in a clinical environment with cancer patients. As a
side-effect, the results showed that the baseline MAAS scores (without meditation practice)
among these patients were higher than in the average population. The authors speculate
that this indicates that the experience of a life-threatening disease might induce personal
growth and mindful living in itself.
So there are positive effects of mindfulness practice, measurable even after a relatively
short period of training. The effects on the nervous system seem to be scientifically proven.
And: it is not so much the intensity and the amount of time spent practising, but the
regularity. These findings suggest that it should be possible to integrate mindfulness
training into our normal everyday life.
How to apply mindfulness at the workplace?
We do live in a stressful world. According to the American Psychological Association, 2007
(cited in Fries, 2009):
33% of Americans reported extreme levels of stress
48% believed that their stress had increased over the past five years
77% experienced physical symptoms, such as fatigue, headache, upset stomach, muscle
tension, etc.
73% experienced psychological symptoms, such as irritability, anger, nervousness, lack
of energy, tearfulness, etc.
48% did lie awake losing on average 21 hours of sleep per month
43% overate or ate unhealthy food; 36% skipped meals during the last month because
of stress for 74% work contributed to their level of stress
50% reported negative impact of stress on their personal and professional lives
52% considered or made a decision about leaving their job because of workplace stress
55% felt less productive at work as a result of stress
40% did not use vacation time
According to this study, the leading causes of work stress are low salaries, heavy work load,
lack of opportunities, uncertain job expectations, and long hours.
Traditional employee assistance programs focus on employee's behavior, assuming that if
the employees change their attitudes and behaviors, they will be better able to cope with the
stress at work and thus become more productive. Courses on time management add to the
pressure in the sense that it seems to be the obligation of the employee to function even
more effective and efficient.
However, some companies are starting to become aware of the ceaselessness of this
"traditional" approach. They start to realize the positive effects of mindfulness training on
the stress level of their employees. These companies include Internet technology firms such
as Google, Salesforce, eBay, Twitter, Facebook - but also more conventional companies such
as Target.
87
Google has introduced a coaching course called "Search Inside Yourself" in which employees
can learn meditation practice to eventually better cope with stress. The author of this course
has also published a book describing the motivation and the course content (Tan, 2012).
A number of studies have shown the positive effects of mindfulness practice in workplace
settings:
Klatt et al. (2008) studied the effects of a "low-dose" MBSR program on working adults
with full-time employees at Ohio State University, which included reductions in
perceived stress and improved quality of sleep.
Walach et al (2007) tested MBSR for personnel development in a service center in
Germany, which is a high-stress professional setting indeed: payments depend on the
number of calls made or are proportional to the number of contracts following these
calls. The employees appreciated MBSR and rated it as being positive for themselves.
Poulin et al. (2008) found similar effects of a brief MBSR program for nurses compared
to a conventional relaxation program.
Studies have been performed on the effects of mindfulness training in education, for
example:
Shapiro et al. (1998) investigated the effects of an MBSR-intervention on stress in
premedical and medical students during exam periods. The results show that anxiety
was reduced and overall psychological distress (including depression) was decreased.
Chang et al. (2004) performed research on participants in a continuing education
course. The effects they have discovered included: reduced perceived stress, enhanced
positive states of mind, and improvement in non-judgmental awareness.
Poulin et al. (2008) investigated into a mindfulness-based wellness education elective
course in a Bachelor of Education (for teachers in training), focusing on stress and
burn-out. The latter is a well-known problem in the teaching profession (Montgomery
and Rupp, 2005). The results were somewhat inconclusive. Students displayed
problems with keeping up with the practice and thus the results were somewhat
compromised. They also tended not to keep up with their practice after the course.
So what?
When successfully practicing mindfulness, there seems to be a fair chance that the above
described effects would surface in an individual. Acting in a group of people - such as a
family or a group of colleagues at work - such an individual will have an impact on the
interactions with the other group members. Mindfulness should result in higher-quality
interactions between the trained person and his or her counterparts. Thus even a single
person will influence the group he or she is in.
Likewise, a person trained in mindfulness will have higher resilience. He or she will be able
to better deal with emotional stress, with negative feelings, etc., which are quite common
when acting with others. Being able to better cope with the negative effects of stressful
situations should be beneficial for the individual as well as for the group. Thus, even if only
a limited number of employees are trained in mindfulness, this should have an impact on
those around them and thus eventually on the whole organization.
Stressful situations are quite common for most of our contemporaries. They stem from
factors such as time pressure, 7 x 24 availability, information overload, decision making
under conditions of uncertainty, constant communication over different channels - many of
88
them synchronous, thus awaiting immediate response -, job insecurity, a constant need to
learn and develop, increased competition, and so forth. Most of us have to face these
challenges. A basic training in mindfulness can thus help to prepare us for our modern lives.
It can equip us with a backpack of useful tools that we can apply right away, every day.
Especially challenging situations - such as meetings with your boss, with a difficult
customer or employee - are the ones in which the tools of mindfulness are most useful. So
there are endless opportunities to practice mindfulness in our normal daily life, but it needs
some training.
One can distinguish between two steps in mindfulness training:
The first step is the foundation of practicing meditation and to integrating this practice
in our daily routine.
The second step is to apply the ability to act mindful in all aspects of our life, be it
during our leisure time, during work, or during travels - whether we are alone or with
other people.
The second step does not come by itself. It is based on step 1. Without constant and
prolonged daily practice of mindfulness training, our mind will not start to change. It will
not learn to become detached from our constant chatter of thoughts. It will not learn to
recognize these thoughts without attaching to them. It will not learn that they will
disappear by themselves. It will not learn that these thoughts are not identical with us -
that they are impermanent. Only by practicing meditation as a daily routing will we lay the
foundation for step 2, which is applying mindfulness in our life, ideally in everything we do.
Since most people have little free time, step 1 seems to be almost impossible to implement.
However, it is not necessary to leave our life behind and to become a monk or a hermit. In
sports, it is not necessary to become a professional athlete in order to improve our physical
condition. What is necessary is to change our daily routine a little. Taking the bicycle to
work instead of the car has, when done regularly, a profound impact on our body. It is the
same with the practice of meditation. 10 to 15 minutes a day - every day - will have an
impact on our mind. If we practice for example in the morning just after getting up, and in
the evening just before going to bed, meditation can provide a framework to our day. This
can be put into practice by everyone.
Continuity is key. It is better to practice a short amount of time every day, than to not do
anything for a long time, and then go on a meditation retreat for a few days, doing nothing
again afterwards. One might compare it to learning vocabulary of a foreign language. It is
no use to study 50 words for a whole day and a night - it might be enough to get you through
a vocabulary test the next day, but it will not be enough to store the words in long-term
memory. You might even develop an aversion towards that language. Coming back to the
sports example: better to move your body half an hour daily, than to do nothing, running a
half marathon on a Sunday, and then doing nothing again while recovering from pain and
loathing running for the rest of your life.
Maybe we should therefore all start training our minds, in the same way as we should all go
to the gym to exercise our bodies. We have seen above that continuity is key - and not so
much the length of the individual practice sessions.
We should probably also think about integrating mindfulness training into our schools and
college curriculums in order to prepare the students for the stress they are going to be
facing - during and after school.
At our workplaces, we should think about integrating mindfulness training - as a line of
defense against burn-out.
89
And finally: mindfulness training is not about getting anywhere – it is about the potential,
the freshness, and the recreation of simply being in the present moment. Let us not misuse
it as yet another optimization tool to further increase the pressure on ourselves and those
around us. That would be the complete opposite of the basic idea of practicing mindfulness.
90
References
Beard, A. (2014). Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity. Harvard Business Review. March
2014.
Brown, K.; Ryan, R. (2003). The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in
Psychological Well-Being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84 (4): 822-848.
Chang, V.; Palesh, O.; Caldwell, R.; Glasgow, N.; Abramson, M.; Luskin, F.; Gill, M.; Burke,
A.; Koopman, C. (2004). The effects of a mindfulness-based stress reduction program on
stress, mindfulness self-efficacy, and positive states of mind. Stress and Health 20: 141-147.
Chiesa, A.; Serretti, A. (2009). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management
in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis. The Journal of Alternative and
Complementary Medicine 15 (5): 593-600.
Cohen, S.; Tyrrell, D.; Smith, A. (1991). Psychological stress and susceptibility to the
common cold. New England Journal of Medicine 325: 606-612.
Confino, J. (2013). Google seeks out wisdom of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. The Guardian
5 September 2013.
Confino, J. (2014). Thich Nhat Hanh: is mindfulness being corrupted by business and
finance? The Guardian 28 March 2014.
Dalai Lama (2005). Mehr Licht im Labor. Die Zeit 38/2005.
Davidson, R.; Kabat-Zinn, J.; Schumacher, J.; Rosenkranz, M.; Muller, D.; Santorelli, S.;
Urbanowski, F.; Harringtn, A.; Bonus, K.; Sheridan, J. (2003): Alterations in Brain and
Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine 65: 564-
570.
Davidson, R.; Lutz, A. (2008). Buddha's Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation. IEEE Signal
Processing Magazine, 1 January 2008, 25(1).
Draganski, B.; Gaser, C.; Busch, V.; Schuierer, G.; Bogdahn, U.; May. A. (2004).
Neuroplasticity: Changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature 2004; 427:311-312.
Fries, M. (2009). Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for the Changing Work Environment.
Journal of Academic and Business Ethics (2): 1-10.
Gelles, D. (2012). The mind business. Financial Times, 24 August 2012.
Grossmann, P.; Niemann, L.; Schmidt, S.; Walach, H. (2003). Mindfulness-based stress
reduction and health benefits. A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 57: 35-
43.
Jazaieri, H.; Jinpa, G.; McGonigal, K.; Rosenberg, E.; Finkelstein, J.; Simon-Thomas, E.;
Cullen, M.; Doty, J.; Gross, J.; Goldin P. (2012). Enhancing Compassion: A Randomized
Controlled Trial of a Compassion Cultivation Training Program. Journal of Happiness
Studies, Springer.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1982). An outpatient program in behavioral medicine for chronic pain
patients based on the practice of mindfulness meditation: theoretical considerations and
preliminary results. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 4: 33-47.
Klatt, M.; Buckworth, J. Malarkey, W. (2008). Effects of Low-Dose Mindfulness-Based
Stress Reduction (MBSR-ld) on Working Adults. Health Education & Behavior published
online DOI 10.1177
Lutz., A.; Greischar, L.; Rawlings, N.; Ricard, M.; Davidson, R. (2004). Long-term
meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. pnas
191,46:16369-16373.
91
Miller, J.; Fletcher, K.; Kabat-Zinn, J. (1995). Three-year follow-up and clinical implications
of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention in the treatment of anxiety
disorders. Gen Hosp Psych 17: 192-200.
Montgomery, C.; Rupp, A.A. (2005). A meta-analysis for exploring the diverse causes and
effects of stress in teachers. Canadian Journal of Education 28 (2): 458-486.
Pagnoni, G.; Cekic, M. (2007). Age effects on gray matter volume and attentional
performance in Zen meditation. Neurobiology of Aging 28: 1623-1627
Poulin, P.; Mackenzie, C.; Soloway, G.; Karayolas, E. (2008). Mindfulness training as an
evidenced-based approach to reducing stress and promoting well-being among human
services professionals. International Journal of Health Promotion & Education 46 (2): 35-43.
Rousseau, J.-J. (1782). Les rêveries du promeneur solitaire. Flammarion.
Shapiro, S.; Schwartz, G.; Bonner, G. (1998). Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
on Medical and Premedical Students. Journal of Behavioral Medicine 21 (6): 581-599.
Singer, W.; Ricard, M. (2008). Hirnforschung und Meditation. Ein Dialog. Suhrkamp.
Tan, C.-T. (2012): Search Inside Yourself. Harper One.
Tang, Y.; Wang, J.; Fan, Y.; Feng S.; Lu, Q. (2007). Short-term meditation training improves
attention and self-regulation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104: 17152-17156.
The Economist (2013). The mindful business. 16 November 2013.
Vestergaard-Poulsena, P.; van Beekc, M.; Skewesa, J.; Bjarkamb, C.; Stubberupd, M.;
Bertelsend, J.; Roepstorffa, A. (2009). Long-term meditation is associated with increased
gray matter density in the brain stem. NeuroReport 20: 170–174.
Walach, H.; Nord, E.; Zier, C.; Dietz-Waschkowski, B.; Kersig, S.; Schüpbach, H. (2007).
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction as a Method for Personnel Development: A Pilot
Evaluation. International Journal of Stress Management 14 (2): 188-198.
92
Configuring a MYSQL database for efficiency and security within a cloud
environment
Natalie Shofner
James Niehaus
Barrett Holien
Mark B. Schmidt
There are numerous benefits a cloud environment a cloud computing environment
can provide. Specifically, a cloud is an excellent architecture to support large scale
applications and ensure both high reliability as well as excellent performance. However,
clouds are a still emerging architecture and there are significant risks from a security
perspective [1]. Data encryption is the main focus of any data security strategy. However,
because of the segmentation, isolation and inheritance strategies used in a cloud, it is
important to supplement with other strategies such as layering to ensure the data is not
compromised [13]. Some of the difficulty in understanding the vulnerabilities in cloud
computing stems from the fact that a cloud is a multi-dimensional computing environment
that is broken into zones and virtual machines (VM) and a data base could be segmented or
replicated in several places logically.
93
LeBron James: The Image Roller-Coaster
Joshua Shuart
LeBron James has in recent years twice been the most coveted free agent in the
National Basketball Association. On both occasions, multiple teams chose to spend several
seasons clearing salary cap space in anticipation of making him a contract offer. And both
times, coverage leading up to his signing has dominated all forms of media.
However, the two scenarios could not have been any different. In 2010, James was
vilified for his choice. In 2014, he was celebrated and adored. Somewhere in between he
played the role of villain, as well as hero. In a July 2014 Harris Poll, he was named for the
first time as the most popular athlete in America (Rovell, 2014).
This multiphasic study encompassed several important facets of celebrity
endorsement, and culminated in the development, testing, validation and analysis of an
original 67-item survey instrument. A 7-point Likert scale was employed. A sample has
been drawn yearly for the past decade from adults aged 17-42. Most agreed that LeBron
James has achieved “celebrity” status in U.S. society, but his status as a “hero” wavered
depending upon his team’s performance and the way in which he dealt with the media. This
study encompasses his entire career, with a year-by-year look at his popularity and
marketability, and accounts for the 2 free agency periods mentioned above. Further
analysis will be discussed in the presentation, as well as the impact that winning has had
on the endorsement successes and future potential.
94
Secured Chiropractic Database
Liza Strate, Mariah Ahlert, Brahn Olson, Brandon Ding, and Brittany Paulson
Secured Chiropractic Database Cobra Consulting is working with a chiropractic clinic
to bring an IT based patient database system as well as a website shell. We are working to
help them not only convert their paper filling system to a space-saving database; we are also
designing a website so he can begin advertising on the web. We hope by doing so we can
create a more efficient way of patient check-in, storing the patient information, and promote
business by expanding his current word-of-mouth system to include a web-based advertising
solution with a website. Due to the database containing HIPA protected private information
we are also going to great lengths to secure the database we create. We plan to use Access
Database to create the database. To protect the sensitive information we plan to set strict
permissions and log-in screens to enter the database with frequent password updates. We
also plan to restrict the access through the permissions with only certain tables being
available based upon your clearance level. We plan to implement other security constraints
through the implementation process as we debug.
95
An Evolution of Fertilizer Marketing Vision
A Case study of Tiger Fertilizer Company
Numair Ahmad Sulehri
Asif Khurshid
Abid Saeed
Abstract:
This case study explains the marketing to the agriculture base of Pakistan and its
dependence upon fertilizer. The fertilizer had remained the main concern of farmers in
developing countries, being the main input for the grand crop, but the market was not
familiar with the customer focus and was not having any strategy to address customer. The
fertilizer companies were not using marketing as the tool to gain grounds in the
competition.
Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) had managed develop the marketing vision and access to
better product for the customer which had made the company as the leader of fertilizer
industry in the country.
Key Words: Fertilizer, Urea, Agricultural services, product distribution.
1.0 The Fertilizer industry in Developing Countries:
Due to increased food demand and population growth the food consumption is triggered and
the steepest increase was in 1950 to 1990. Agriculture had remained the major sector in all
of the developing world. Even with the advances in the globalization most of the developing
countries are unable to embrace the mechanization and industrialization in the agriculture
industry fully. The farmers are facing the dilemma of limited choice of farm chemicals for
their crops and thus ultimately lose the yield (Din & Jafry, 2007) due to unawareness and
capital requirements.
Food availability is decreasing due to conditions and lack of knowledge of farmers, most of
the crops are required in the developing world but is grown in the developed world. Because
of their technological superiority these countries are been able to learn increased
productivity of the crops but are not been able to resolve the world food requirement. For
this the collaboration, between the farm chemical companies, around the world is required.
The companies had remained gradual and slow in sharing the knowledge with developing
world and very few licensing agreements were signed. This situation had made limited use
of modern agriculture in most parts of the world.
Governments in developing countries try to overcome problems but due to imperfect market
conditions, the results are not encouraging most of the time. Thus the yield of small farmers
fail to match the competitive market price, which in turn discourage the cultivation. These
farmers pay more price in terms of physical labor and get less output.
Farmers were the customers of the farm chemical manufacturing companies (Saeed, 2014)
and these customers were ignored due to sale oriented approach of the companies. Although
these companies were getting a lot of profit but never focused on consumers for (Mangi &
Anthony, 2014) for customer life time value.
With few manufacture companies the farm chemical industry had remained oligopolistic in
across the world, including US. These companies had manipulated the choices of farmers
which lead to less food than population. This trend is worst in underdeveloped countries
96
which had very limited access to these farm chemicals. The technological adoption in
developing countries had remained slow and the population growth remained more than the
resource growth.
Few agriculture oriented ventures in developing countries had joined hands with the
governments to cover the requirements of these farmers, but due to market gap companies
had adopted selling approach with short term focus (Din & Jafary, 2007). That selling
approach had been dealing with produce and sale thought, forgetting the availability to
every farmer at the right price. The farmers were compelled to use available materials with
little promise of the grand output.
Fertilizer industry backs the agricultural outputs with increased per acre yield (Farooq,
2012). In early 70’s it was the start of a new era of urea fertilizer in Pakistan ( Qureshi &
Jamil 1970). Fertilizer manufacturers were strong and running in capital intensive
industries with a lot of demand and the flow of product through the third party in the
market with no intention of controlling the product because of whatever was produced was
sold in the market.
Under the mentioned circumstances there were few companies, like Fauji Fertilizer
Company (FFC), in the developing world who had remained customer focused and used
strategic marketing focus while taking the strategic decisions. These companies had become
more favorable for increasing the yield and reinforcing the farmer by training and
development. Thus they had become the choice of the farmers for premium brand.
The global outlook of fertilizer is expanding with the consumption of 163mntpa in 2011
(Din & Jafary, 2007). This had increased the role of farm chemical industry even in the
agricultural countries which rely on traditional methods of farming. The agriculture output
remained dependent upon the in time production and distribution of farm chemicals.
1.1 The Scenario:
It was the start of the Rabi season with the unusual spirit of the farmers smoking (huqa)
and planning for their new crops. They discussed about getting every support for the crops.
They planned fields, water, seeds, during the midday lunch break. While they were relaxing
after the preparation of their fields in the Rural Punjab (Pakistan), they were been
approached by a young smart agricultural Graduate (who had been employed by FFC to
help farmers in getting the grand crop). This was something new for the farmers who
always were in pursuit of help for their crops. The reason of his arrival was customer
oriented approach of his company. FFC was also busy with the final phase of plant initiation
in rural Sindh .
Pakistan is an agriculture based country since its founding, with most of the cultivated area
in the province of Punjab and Sindh. Over the years the farmers were not educated and in
most cases financially weak (Akbar,Ahmad, & Muhammad, 1990). This scenario gives them
no bargaining power against the third party market forces . In absence of perfect market
situation the sellers are manipulating the crop yield through the supply of vital inputs, like
fertilizer, at the time of need.
1.2 The History:
Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited (FFC) is a strategic business unit of Fauji Group (SBU
details in Annexure III), which was formed under British Empire for welfare of war
veterans after World War II in 1945 (Anthony, 2014). FFC manufacturers Sona brand of
urea. It was a technical and a capital joint venture between Fauji Pakistan and their
European counterparts . FFC was established to fill the gap demand and supply through
97
indigenous production (Figure 1). Although Kisan Urea (by National Fertilizer Corporation),
Engro Urea (by Exxon Chemicals) and Buber Sher (by Dawood group) were already in the
market and were selling all of their production. FFC had started by the brand name of Sona
and had actually made the shiny image into the minds of farmers.
The capital structure FFC shares are distributed among Fauji (the Parent Holding) 53%
and different investment companies, financial institutions and individuals (Group
Shareholding Pattern in Annexure III). Under an agreement FFC is marketing the entire
production of others strategic business units under its own brand name Sona.
Source: State Bank of Pakistan (unit = 000 Ton).
1.3 The Problem:
This particular Fauji was the third in the industry in Pakistan and the competitors had
already established as Engro in the market and were well established in the minds and
Areas of the farmer community . The survival in the competitive space was difficult because
of surplus of Urea . Having this scenario the group had focused into a strategic vision of
marketing with the best human resource in the market to gain the competitive edge in the
market.
The company had sufficient of raw material to produce the allocated limit of urea. The
manufacturing plant is run by the best experts in the country and they had plenty of funds
to run and distribute fertilizer across the country.
Historically most difficult task was to put the product in the market and establish the
future of the company in the local market which doesn’t recognize the Sona vision. It was
even more difficult in the absence of national distribution network. The local distributors
were domination the sales of other companies and used to sell the product on personnel
preference. The large land owners used to get the bulk share of the fertilizer and the small
farmers were deprived from the fertilizer.
FFC had under stood its customer before everyone and develop the marketing strategy to
become the market leader (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012). This had increased the brand equity
even when others were focused on selling concept. Engro had followed them in this ideology
and is another successful company out of the footsteps in fertilizer industry in Pakistan.
1.4 Strategic Vision of the company.
They had studied the market and from the past and developed their marketing strategy.
First they had changed the area selling approach (urea manufacturers were selling in the
adjacent areas of their plants). FFC had developed the country wide distribution and
warehouses which made their product available across the country. Secondly the sale
oriented market approach was changed by FFC. They had approached the customer directly
and instead of selling only the product they had coordinated and developed the farms of
their customers through constant support. Thirdly the farmer feedback was blocked by
intermediary dealer. These independent dealers were strong enough to manipulate farmers
and the companies together. FFC had interacted directly and used its own dealerships to
better handle the needs of all the farmers. Wider dealership and distribution network had
ensured two things. First the availability of the product at the time of need secondly the
right price across every dealership. This had eased the purchase of urea bags for every
farmer.
98
FFC marketing strategy had made them the market leader over the period of time and
other companies had started following them by adopting the same approach. FFC long term
vision had increased the brand loyalty among the farmers and the field services had further
increased the confidence of the end users (Riaz , 2010) thus they have gradually penetrated
the market and had captured most of the market share.
In the marketing strategy FFC had made a farmer friendly image in the rural areas of the
country which are known as main agriculture hubs. They not only had introduced the
product, but also had strengthen the brand loyalty by displaying the Model farms of crops at
the lands owned by local farmers.
FFC brand awareness and positioning strategy had evolved gradually over the years and
adjustment of the strategy with the market signals had made more customer focused plans.
Fig 2: Valuation of FFC stock at Karachi Stock Exchange, Source: BMA Capital.
FFC planned Agriculture based services by the name of Farm Advisory Services. This was
the strategic collaboration of FFC with of MIS Enj Chem Agricoltura S.P.A of Italy for
“Mobile Farm Extension Services (M.F.E.S)” for improving productivity of the land, in
central and Sothern Punjab (Akbar, Ahmad, Malik & Muhammad, 1990). They collectively
had expanded the technical facilitation mobile laboratories to farmers. Currently FFC is
single handedly running the farmers education and support to far flung areas. Under the
program the agriculture laboratories are made mainly for soil testing.
The experts guide the farmers on their fields and display the plants on the fields of farmers
so the product is displayed in the fields for the impact in the minds and the right choice for
the grand crop.
The model farms on the farmer own lands and guiding them for increased productivity by
modern methods, had worked for FFC for high yield image. The farm advisors, which were
mostly fresh agricultural graduates and were having deep knowledge of agricultural
productivity, were dealing directly with the farmers on the farms for advising and training
farmers with modern methods and use of fertilizer.
Secondly, in response to defensive marketing strategy by the competitors FFC had
expanded its network all across the country. The decision was financially tough because of
limited resources and extended area, but had served as a pivotal point in the long term
strategic implication by providing consistent product at consistent rate across the country.
1.5 The Success:
FFC is the market leader of urea manufacturing in the Pakistan. It fulfills the required
needs of approximately 60% of locally produced urea (FFC, 2014), at present, fertilizer
market sales and production, within the boundaries of the Country. FFC had the
considerable share in Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (Annexure) which produces DAP
for Pakistan. Thus strategically aliening with sister concern, the company is the market
leader in urea manufacturer of the country. Since agriculture dynamics of Asia is very
different from Africa, which is mainly based on collaboration with competition (Peter &
Hazell, 2010) , the company had adopted the customer centric approach and providing
consistent product (Riaz, 2010) at the right price and time.
FFC is the only nationally integrated company with more than three thousand dealer
network and warehouses (Riaz, 2010). The focus strategy on farmers had gained competitive
edge for the company, making it the highest taxpayer and socially responsible one in the
country, with a lot of investment in Customer Relationship Management (FFC, 2013).
99
The company had always believed in marketing a program to the farmer rather than just
selling the product. The farm Advisory services , one of the most appreciated program in the
farming community, was designed keeping in view the same concept.
FFC had started with the Slogan of “Feeding the people through the plant” and had traveled
a long way with the customer focus and product improvement. Their success can be seen
from the fact that previous expansion of the plant was denied to FFC, by Competition
commission of Pakistan for the creation of Monopoly in Pakistan Urea market . One of the
most successful companies in all the stock exchanges in Pakistan, with market
capitalization of $ 60bn (FFC, 2013). FFC is also providing the stock ownership to its own
employees and are allowing the capital base into a number of other successful projects.
The companies have not only gained success in the Sona Urea brand only, but it is
successful in marketing Sona DAP .Another venture of Fauji Fertilizer is the overseas plant
for the manufacturing of micronutrient which is added in the urea in small quantities to
enhance the ability of the fertilizer. The company is also in the process of helping African
farmers by setting their operations there (Anthony, 2014).
1.6 Methodology:
Because of lack of past literature on the subject the qualitative method with exploratory
research was adopted and the interviewing technique was adopted. Due to the concern from
the company the identity of the interviewee are kept hidden in the research. Notes were
taken during the interviews to keep track of content of the interviews.
17 Interviews were carried out with 40 to 65 minutes duration with top level and middle
level management. It include GM, Managers, deputy managers and assistant managers. 7
interviews were from marketing department. 3 were field managers, 2 were fertilizer depot
in charge and 2 were from head office. 6 interviews were with the research and
development. Remaining four managers were each from corporate relationship department,
HR department and administration department.
The age of the respondents were between 36 to 62 years with the average of 52 years. The
employment period was between 2 to 28years with the company. The education of the
respondents were between 18 – 24 years with two PhD’s in the chosen sample. These
respondents
Keeping in view the diverse nature of work and experience of the interview subjects, open
ended semi-structured interviews were carried out.
After the completion of interviews a set of four questions were emailed to the company with
anonymous feedback to control the researcher biasness in the process. These questions were
again open ended. The questions for interviews are mentioned in Annexure.
The answers were analyzed and matched with the prior responses and were incorporated in
the conclusion section. The sentence based analysis of concept mapping technique was
adopted for this research (Jackson & Trochim, 2002). This technique explains the patterns
based on common sentence content in the interview responses.
1.7 Discussion
The interview responses were based on the individual experiences of the employees and
their interaction with the society, mostly the farmers.
In response to the first question regarding the superiority of the company marketing
strategy and the gain in the competitive position in the market the respondents were in
agreement to the superior performance of the company over the years. They also were
contributing to the society by consistent focus on the total farmer community, not just in
100
specific areas near the production plant. According to the respondent from marketing in the
middle management.
“….. When our competitors had consolidated their positions near the factory by targeting
the farmers in the adjacent villages. We (FFC) had invested a lot in sending urea to every
region of Pakistan”.
This response points out the expansion strategy of FFC exactly to the response of
consolidation by other market player. Although the market conditions during the time of
high distribution and production cost were same. This highlights the long term focus on the
consumer by making the product available.
The availability had remained the major problem for the farmers and the distributors had
played the role of monopolist in the different regions. The farmers were unable to get the
urea and the small farmers were ignored totally. The distributors used to favor the large
land lords. But FFC strategy had gradually enabled the small and medium farmers to get
the urea from their distribution point and cultivate a healthy crop. This response from the
company had improved the image of the company in the minds of the farmers.
The distribution and marketing had remained prominent in the overall business vision.
According to respondent from sales.
“…… our distribution network is the strongest and is spread all across the country. The
distribution system is monitored by the company for timely and evenly availability of our
fertilizer”.
The company ensures the product distribution by road and train to all of its distributors.
This is done with efficient product distribution at the time of need that even the small
farmer will get the fertilizer. Other competitors had followed the distribution example of
FFC as the leader in distribution strategy. With this the market imperfection for the
availability got better after the Year 2000 in the country.
Due to the rising shortages of raw material for the fertilizer sector the companies are
searching for new areas of investment. FFC had invested in the wind energy project in the
province of Sind (FFC, 2013).
The fertilizer industry had always played the central role for the agricultural needs of the
countries. This need had enabled the companies to accumulate the managerial knowledge
and market power to develop themselves. This status had enabled the horizontal growth of
the companies. After the raw material shortage these companies had had continued the
fertilizer business along with the new ventures.
It is the norm of fertilizer industry to accumulate management and technical expertise due
to capital intensive industry. Which had enabled it to expand business in energy sector.
They had taken over Askari Bank Limited and are utilizing the capital base more efficiently
to increase return on investment.
In response to question regarding management the following was said.
“The company had always taken care of their employees and this is the reason
that the life styles of company employees are attractive for the experts needed in the
company. The company not only employs the best workforce but also train and empower
them to serve their customers”.
The worker welfare fund of the company looks after the employees need even after the
retirement. The education, health needs are funded from Sona Welfare Fund which enables
basic workers children to get the best education available. Secondly the employee’s
residential colony is also available near the factory.
Respondent factory area had also appreciated the company as
101
“Company provides to its employees for the better image in the society, the FFC employees
are considered as more respectable in the society because of their living conditions”
During the last two year period with the start of corporate communication the company is
actively advertising and improving the image of the Fauji group. It now educating its
customers better than before similarly Engro and Fatima fertilizer are using the External
focus on the customers. This trend indicates the recognition of marketing strategy as
effective tool by the businesses in Pakistan.
1.8 Conclusion
The prompt thinking of setting up a Marketing division of the company right from the start
of the company, unlike its rivals in the market, had added to its goal of achieving the right
marketing approach for the farmers and they had perceived the company who had taken
care of their needs.
FFC success has also contributed positively gearing of agricultural techniques like
introduction of laser land leveling, drip Irrigation systems and soil analysis. These had not
only made the soil better productive, but also had enhanced the brand loyalty. The
consumer focus had enabled the company to build the customer loyalty among the farmer
community in the agricultural concentration areas across the country.
The success of the company is contributed to the subsidized and abundant supply of the feed
stock gas, which is the major raw material for the production of urea fertilizer (Aliani,
2013). Fertilizer sector is facing declining profit, due to shortage of feed stock gas, in current
financial year 2013-2014. But the brand image that the fertilizer marketing companies had
gained in the minds of the public, had enabled these companies to expand their business in
other sectors, mainly in the food sector.
Secondly these companies are expanding their footprint in other parts of the world including
Midwest Fertilizer Corporation, Indiana with $ 300 mil (Mangi & Anthony, 2014).The
marketing initially was based on the promotion and uniform availability until recently,
when the companies had started the mass advertising all across the country (Saeed, 2014).
The Fatima Fertilizer will produce CAN fertilizer and will reduce the imported fertilizer in
US, by creating more jobs for the economy (correspondent, 2014).
On other hand FFC still is the leading market shareholder and is optimistic for its future
vision and has the highest Asian return on equity in farm chemical category (Anthony,
2014). The new customers in the energy and food sector rely upon the company’s brand
equity in the fertilizer sector.
For the collective success and food provisions in the developing countries the farm chemical
companies had to collaborate and adopt technology constantly from industrially advanced
countries (Peter & Hazell, 2010). Since the developing countries have more farm land the
food can be grown in abundance by helping the farm chemical companies in Asia and Africa.
The top level management is appointed for 3 to 5 years and board of director’s also looks
after the long term strategic decisions but most of the decision making power remains with
managing director. With the change of managing director considerable portion of top level
management changes and the strategic goals also experience degree of change. The
company’s most of the top and middle level management are retired officers of Pakistan
Army, who are not trained according to the corporate environment and are running the
company under the strict centralized control of the top level management. This is however
102
managed with on and off job training. With the presence of industry experts the minor and
major strategic decisions are taken according to the vision of the company.
The commitment of the company had worked and the company had started moving into the
leading position. The farm advisory service is also educating and guiding the farmers in
increasing the productivity with the use of modern methods.
103
1.9 Refrences.
Aliani, F. (2013). Fauji Fertilizer Company Defensive play with astounding yield ! (pp. 1–2).
Karachi.
Anthony, F. M. (2014, July 9). Pakistan’s Fauji Fertilizer Plans Africa Plant. Retrieved from
www.bloomberg.com.
Aliani, F. (2013). Fauji Fertilizer Company Defensive play with astounding yield (pp. 1–2).
Karachi.
Barkat Ali Qureshi, M. J. (1970). Economics of Fertilizer Application to Wheat Crop : The
Results of a Survey in Lyallpur District. The Pakistan Development Review, 10(1), 88–99.
Farooq, O. (2012). Economic Survey of Pakistan (pp. 17–33). Islamabad.
Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited. (2013). FFC Annual Report. Rawalpindi. Retrieved from
http://www.ffc.com.pk/uploads/docs/ar_2013.pdf
Jackson, K. M., & Trochim, W. M. K. (2002). Concept Mapping as an Alternative Approach
for the Analysis of Open-Ended Survey Responses. Organizational Research Methods, 5(4),
307–336.
Jamil Akbar, Jamil Ahmad, Niaz Malik, Muhammad, Y. K. & S. M. (1990). Education
Triggers Up The Use Of Recommended Plant Protection Measures Among The Farmers.
Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 27(4), 354–357.
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2012). Principles of Marketing (14th ed., p. 740). Pearson
Prentice Hall.
Peter, S. H. and, & Hazell. (2010). Successes in African Agriculture: Lessons for the Future
(p. 436). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
Riaz Muhammad. (2010). The role of the private sector in agricultural extension in
Pakistan. Rural Development News, 1, 15–20.
Sobia Muhammad Din, & Jafary, S. H. (2007). Pakistan Fertilizer Sector Review (pp. 1–52).
Retrieved from www.igisecurities.com.pk
Annexures.
The survey Questions.
Q1: Why the company’s marketing is better than other agriculture chemicals companies in
Pakistan and what does it had achieved for the company?
Q2: How can company use management competencies in achieving the market leadership in
other businesses than fertilizer?
Q3: How company had sustained the image of a socially responsible company?
Q4: How company is building the perception of Sona Urea and corporate image in the
minds of the customers (Farmers)?
104
Historical Origins of China’s Post-1978 Economic “Miracle”
Stephen Thomas
Ji Chen
Since 1978, China has achieved one of the most remarkable economic growth records
in world history. China’s economic development success is especially impressive in light of
its huge population and the many obstacles, both domestic and foreign, that China has
faced. Since 1978, China’s GDP has grown an average of about 9 percent annually. Per
capita income has risen from USD 220 in 1978, to USD 400 by 1989, to over USD 6,000 by
2014. As of 2014, China’s economy has become the world’s largest in purchasing power
parity (PPP), according to a 2014 World Bank estimate.
What are the economic development lessons that post-1978 Chinese economic leaders
have drawn from China’s 1842 to 1943 “Century of Humiliation,” from China’s economic
development experiences from 1949 to 1978, and from the examples of the four East Asian
Tiger economies in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore? How have these
historical lessons influenced and guided the economic development policies that China has
so successfully designed and pursued since 1978?
To answer, we will first identify the lessons drawn from China’s 1842 to 1943
“Century of Humiliation” during which China lost significant areas of economic and political
sovereignty. Qing China lost many areas of sovereignty in the 1842 “unequal treaty”
resulting from China’s defeat by the British in the first “Opium War” of 1839 to 1842.
China thereafter lost still more areas of sovereignty in unequal treaties resulting from
additional military defeats in 1860, 1895, and 1900. Together these losses of sovereignty
reduced China from its 1800 position as a world economic superpower, to one of near
colonial status during its 1842 to 1943 “Century of Humiliation,” so that by 1949 China had
become one of the world’s poorest and weakest countries. We will then describe how the
negative consequences of China’s pe-1949 lack of sovereignty have influenced China’s 1949
to 1978 and post-1978 economic development polices.
Second, we will describe how from 1949 to 1978, Chinese communist leaders used
China’s newly gained full sovereign powers to design and implement successful economic
development policies. From 1949 to 1960, Chinese economic leaders drew partly on China’s
pre-1949 experiences and partly on a Soviet-style communist state-planned economic
development model that including Soviet technological and financial support. From 1960,
after the Sino-Soviet split, to 1978, Chinese economic planners pursued a more “self-reliant”
development policy. The economic development outcome for these two periods was an
annual economic growth rate from 1949 to 1978 of from 3 to 5 percent, China’s first
successful economic development record since 1842. China’s post-1949 economic
development occurred despite the disasters of the GLF and the Cultural Revolution and the
economic damage that resulted from the US-led Western economic embargo of China from
1949 to 1969. China’s economic development record was successful compared with other
large poor developing countries during the same period (see World Bank report on China,
1978).
Third, we will describe China’s successful post-1978 market reform policies, and show
how they have drawn partly on China’s pre-1949 lessons, partly on China’s 1949 to 1978
policies, and partly on the successful economic development policies of the market-oriented
105
economies of the four East Asian countries of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and
Singapore, the most successful Newly Industrialized Economies (NIEs) since World War II.
Many analysts doubted that market reforms would work in a communist country like
China, given the relatively less successful economic development records (compared to the
Western market economies) of the Soviet Union, Eastern European communist countries,
North Vietnam, and Cuba, and the economic disasters of North Korea and Kampuchea. But
China’s mix of economic development policies has succeeded. In our paper, we will show
how lessons from China’s pre-1949 “Century of Humiliation,” from China’s relatively
successful economic development policies from 1949 to 1978, and from the example of the
four East Asian Newly Industrialized Economies (the NIEs), have been mixed together to
help create the successful economic development policies that have led to China’s post-1978
“economic miracle.”
106
Cloud Security 101: A Primer
Nigel van der Burg
Scott Peterson
Abstract: Cloud computing is a convenient and innovative approach to providing
applications and storage for consumers and firms alike. However, unlike organizations with
IT management and in-house resources, consumers and individuals who rely on these cloud
services often do not have the expertise (nor do they take the time) to consider the security
implications. Recent headlines bear this out. This paper seeks to outline basic steps for
implementing security over cloud services.
What is meant by the term “cloud” means different things to different people. In the
context of modern computing, the cloud is simply a place to do computing, store data and
share network resources. Many are familiar with local area networks where files, printers
and other computing resources can be shared and accessed. The cloud is just a different
place. In many cases, that place is a data center located in some nondescript part of the
world. Cloud computing, by extension, is simply accessing resources and doing computing in
a different place.
According to NIST, cloud computing “is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient,
on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g.,
networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” (Mell, P., &
Grance, T. 2011).
Consumers, students, faculty, staff and others rely on cloud resources in daily life. We
access music, videos, documents, and the like. We also share and collaborate in a wide
variety of ways. Music stored in Apple’s iTunes accounts are based on cloud technology.
Email accessed via Google’s gmail, Google Apps for Education and even Facebook are all
examples of cloud computing.
Before proceeding, it should be noted that historically, there are many forms of
security, some of which are applicable to the cloud and others of which are not. Generally
speaking, security in a network or computer sense refers to physical security, logical
security, and tangentially, social / people security. Often the weak link in the security chain
is the people part. We call attacks against this part “social engineering.” It is critical to
defend against this form of attack.
As consumers and firms move their systems, storage, and even networks to the cloud,
it is crucial to understand that the means to protect and defend these assets requires a
different mindset and approach compared with defending and protecting locals networks,
for example. The primary reason is that we no longer have physical control of those cloud
resources.
Physical Security
As the value of data on computing networks increases and become more secure,
physical attacks on computing systems to steal or modify assets become more likely. This
technology requires constant review and improvement. The term ‘physical security’ is often
used to describe the protection of assets from fire, water, theft or natural disasters. But
107
now, while the security measures to protect data and computing systems rises, physical
security is also used to protect these assets from unauthorized access. Indeed, as systems
are migrated to cloud platforms, the physical layer of protection is suddenly changes
substantially. Neither the end-users nor the systems administrators have the same degree
of physical control of assets. For example, as application servers, such as database servers,
are moved from data closets housed on premise to distant datacenters, there is no longer a
need to physically lock those data room doors. So, how does one secure access?
Physical security can be seen as a barrier placed around a computing system to deter
unwanted and unauthorized access. Physical security is complementary to logical security.
According to Weingart (2008) “there is one main difference; physical security concentrates
on the physical access of the computing system itself, logical security is the mechanism by
which operating systems and other software prevent unauthorized access to data.” Both
methods are complementary to environmental security; the protection of the system by
virtue of location such as guards, cameras, badge readers, access policies, etc. For example;
it may be that a person has access to the building (physical security) but may not have
access to some (or all) of the data stored on a computing system in that location (logical
security).
In the past few years physical security for consumers and end users has become more
important, as Weingart says; “computing systems are moving out of environmentally secure
computer rooms and into less environmentally secure offices and homes” (Weingart 2008).
The rise of mobile devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones which connect from
home environments to corporate networks are an example of this phenomena. Another
reason that physical security is becoming popular; cloud computing. Cloud computing takes
time and place away from information and data. When a company makes use of cloud
computing, it no longer has control over the physical security of its assets; this is in control
of the cloud provider.
Technical Security
Technical security includes a vast array of controls and procedures. At the macro
level, system administrators enforce user authentication, limit login attempts (more on this
later), require “complex” passwords, require periodic password changes, create access
controls and monitor logging information.
With respect to cloud-based computing systems (not unlike any computing system),
the most vulnerable aspect regards malicious use (either intended or unintended) by its own
users. This has always been true and is more true with technically savvy users. These users
interact with the outside world and can be a great threat to the system. For example, a
corporate executive can access company email and resources with a laptop in a coffee shop
half-way around the world. And when attackers cannot access the computing systems in a
direct fashion, they use employees as proxies by means of phishing tactics or malware.
Therefore it is very important that all activity on a computing system and its network are
carefully monitored. Unfortunately, in a cloud environment, this is very difficult to
accomplish. In cloud platforms firms do not own nor do they have direct control over
infrastructure. And hence it cannot be secured in the same sense. By definition, a public
cloud is accessible by anyone.
Since the data stored on computing systems becomes more valuable and personal, it
also has become more valuable to attackers. A self-respecting network administrator knows
about everything that happens on its network and computing systems. Technical devices
and tools like Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
108
detect and prevent unwanted behavior on a network. Firewalls check every ingress and
egress traffic. -extra here-
A big part of technical security is about who can access the data, and by what
method. This is also called authentication. When a legitimate user wants access the
network to get to the preferred resource, the user has to provide authentication credentials;
e.g. a userid and password. Recent information security breaches show that simple single-
factor authentication schemes are not enough. The iCloud breach was so effective because
there was only one factor for authentication and the attackers could try as many username
and password combinations as possible. The attacker used a brute force program to simply
guess the combinations. The most common authentication method is a combination of a
username and password and is called single-factor authentication. A more secure
authentication method is two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication implies there
are two elements required prior to being given access to assets; 1. something one knows (a
userid and password) and 2. something one has (a hard token or PIN). Another example of
something you have, often glamorized in the movies, is your fingerprint, palm scan, or
retina scan. While these means may be used, they are not commonly in use for commercial
applications. For example, most large banks and many regional banks now use RSA hard
tokens as a second factor.
The recent, highly public, “breach” of Apple’s iCloud service exemplifies how a combination
of username and password authentication are not enough. After this was made public, and
after iCloud photo’s and video’s of several celebrities were exposed, Apple implemented two-
factor-authentication. [1]
Social Engineering
Many companies spend enormous resources to ensure corporate computer security.
The security protects company secrets, assists in compliance with federal US laws, and
enforces privacy of company clients. However, even the best physical and technical security
mechanisms can be bypassed through social engineering techniques. According to Anderson
(2008) , deception of various kinds, is now the greatest threat to online security. It is used to
compromise confidential information directly. These attacks are collectively known as social
engineering.
A driver for the rising surge in social engineering attacks is that more people have
better understandings of technology. The proper technical security measures can effectively
combat any technical threat posed by an outsider. Anderson (2008) says that security
designers learn how to prevent the easier technological attacks, so psychological
manipulation of system users or operators become more attractive. It is a logical response
that the security engineers must understand basic psychology aspects of social engineering,
and adjust the organizations policies to prevent social engineering. “A company can spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars on firewalls, intrusion detection systems and encryption
and other security technologies, but if an attacker can call one trusted person within the
company, and that person complies, and if the attacker gets in, then all that money spent on
technology is essentially wasted.” - Kevin Mitnick
Social Engineering is the term the hacker community associates with the process of
using social interactions to obtain information about a ‘victim’s’ computer system – (Dealy,
1995). This statement was made by Dealy in 1995, but don’t get fooled by the age of the
statement. Nowadays in the 21th century, it is still true. The key in this statement is the
109
use of social interactions. When attempting a social engineering attack, no or little technical
help is used against the victim.
Different attacks
There are several different ways of performing social engineering. The most common
is the attacker who pretends to be someone else (impersonation). The vector?? This type of
social engineering attack is performed by calling or phishing. describe a phishing scheme.
The attacker can pretend as a system administrator over the phone, who has to reset your
account and needs your password. Or he sends an email with a bogus hyperlink to ‘update
your information’ or ‘reset your password’. This is also known as phishing.
Sometimes it can be as easy as going through the garbage of the victim or company to
gain information. This is called dumpster diving. A article in the magazine 2600: The
Hacker’s Quarterly described a man who applied for a job as a janitor at a company, with
the intentions of dumpster diving.
Although most social engineering methods seem obvious or even comical, they are
extremely effective. Dealy (1995) gives an example of hackers who gained shortcuts through
applying social engineering; the Master of Deception, who significantly penetrated the
United States’ telecommunications system, were only able to do so after obtaining
information found in the garbage of the New York Telephone Company (Slatalla & Quittner,
1995). They would not be able to pull off the attack without the information gathered
through the social engineering technique dumpster diving.
The social engineering aspect has not only impact on organizations and businesses,
but also on the individual. With the growing social media communities it is fairly easy for
an attacker to find information about the victim on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram. People tend to share their whole public life on social media, which in turn
is a rich source of information for the attacker. According to Huber, the advantages of the
provided services are obvious, drawbacks on a users’ privacy and arising implications are
often neglected.
Given the preceding introduction, it should be noted that cloud security really is a
unique challenge. For example, in more traditional client-server environments (such as local
area networks), security requires a focus on the physical, the technical, and of course the
social engineering aspects. Here, the physical computing infrastructure is literally under
the roof of the firm which owns it. Hence, security and system admins lock data rooms, use
heavy doors, surveillance systems, and so on. However, with cloud-based storage and
applications, the physical piece is all but gone entirely. The roles of computing and storage
are passed off to the cloud host. This might be Amazon, Google or some other third-party.
Examples
As mentioned in the technical security section, Apple inc. had a major breach
of its cloud computing data. This breach was one of the main motivations to write this
paper. Furthermore; with data moving freely between corporate networks, mobile devices,
and the cloud, data breach statistics show this disturbing trend is rapidly accelerating.
Already called the biggest celebrity scandal of the century according to Dave Lewis
from Forbes magazine, the iCloud breach is the biggest wake-up call for every cloud user. A
hacker found out that there was no limit on the number of username and password guesses.
The hacker wrote a script that brute-forces an iCloud account. This is another great
example why two-factor authentication should be used. Numerous celebrities were exposed
to this breach, and it is unknown how many will be exposed in the future. As a response to
this breach, Apple introduces two-factor authentication for its iCloud service.
110
Home depot was a victim of a malware attack implemented through their payment
system. Over 56 million credit card numbers were stolen and the breach was exposed when
someone put a batch of credit cards for sale on a criminal internet site.
The most recent breach (up to October 2014) is the JP Morgan data breach. More
than 76 million households were affected by this breach containing cloud stored information
such as name, address, contact information, e-mail address, phone number as well as
internal JP Morgan Chase information about users. Attackers managed to get “the highest
level of administrative privilege” on more than 90 of the bank’s servers. Based on this
information, Jeff Williams said they “could transfer funds, disclose information, close
accounts en do whatever they want with the data.”
Another good example of the importance of two-factor authentication is the Dropbox
data breach. Accounts stolen from other websites made it possible for attackers to use the
same credentials as the stolen accounts to access Dropbox. After this misabuse came to
light, Dropbox responded by making two-factor authentication available to its users.
Conclusion and New Developments
Different analysts are predicting trends on cloud security in the near future.
The request for data will grow, as will the amount of data each user produces increase. CSC
predicts “data growth of 650% over the next five years. In 2020 more than ⅓ of the data
produced will live in or pass through the cloud.” Another trend that comes with the
increasing production of cloud data is that data gathering increases and traceability of the
cloud data increases. According to Kantola (2011); “Combination of different data types and
sources will be an increasing trend in the following 5–10 years.” A logical response to the
increasing growth of cloud data are malicious actions against cloud information systems. As
Kantola writes, “Interconnectivity and dependencies between information systems and
networks creates vulnerabilities which are the target of malicious action.” On the other
hand, the continued development information security technologies work as a counterforce.
This growth of data can be clarified to the rising number of cloud users, both
industrial as consumer users. A lot of the future security depends on the social user
behavior itself. Easy to guess passwords, or even using the same password for different
accounts (both for cloud and non-cloud appliances) is dangerous. Especially when the user
does not use a second authentication factor. A lot of cloud solutions have the option to user-
enable the two-factor authentication. Because a social behaviour is difficult to change, the
cloud solution providers will step up and require users to use two-factor authentication. So,
two-factor authentication is becoming a standard in the future.
This does not mean that there won't be any cloud data breaches. As long as there is
valuable data in the cloud, it is interesting to attackers. The only thing users can do is
change their social unwillingness not to take care of their part of security.
111
References
Dinh, H. T., Lee, C., Niyato, D., & Wang, P. (2013). A survey of mobile cloud
computing: architecture, applications, and approaches. Wireless communications and
mobile computing, 13(18), 1587-1611.
Huber, M., Kowalski, S., Nohlberg, M., & Tjoa, S. (2009). Towards automating social
engineering using social networking sites. Paper presented at the Computational Science
and Engineering, 2009. CSE'09. International Conference on.
Lampe, U., Wenge, O., Müller, A., & Schaarschmidt, R. (2012). Cloud Computing in
the Financial Industry–A Road Paved with Security Pitfalls?
Mell, P., & Grance, T. (2011). The NIST definition of cloud computing.
Pitkänen, O., Sarvas, R., Lehmuskallio, A., Simanainen, M., Kantola, V., Rautila, M.,
. . . Kuittinen, O. (2011). Future Information Security Trends. Kasi Research Project, The
Ministry of Transport and Communications/Arjen tietoyhteiskunta.
Site, E., Cuts, R., & In, S. (2008). Security Engineering: A Guide to Building
Dependable Distributed Systems. 2ed Editio, 239-274.
Weingart, S. H. (2000). Physical security devices for computer subsystems: A survey
of attacks and defenses. Paper presented at the Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded
Systems—CHES 2000.
Winkler, I. S., & Dealy, B. (1995). Information Security Technology? Don't Rely on It.
A Case Study in Social Engineering. Paper presented at the USENIX Security.
Younis, M. Y. A., & Kifayat, K. (2013). Secure cloud computing for critical
infrastructure: A survey. Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom, Tech. Rep.
Zissis, D., & Lekkas, D. (2012). Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future
Generation Computer Systems, 28(3), 583-592.
112
John Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Model and the Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler
Robert Vodnoy
John Kotter’s international best seller Leading Change (1996) is considered to be “the
seminal work in the field of change management.” Yet, according to a McKinsey & Company
survey, only one in three transformations succeed. In this paper, the author evaluates the
Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich in terms of Kotter’s widely accepted Eight
Steps. He evaluates whether the seeds of failure are built into Kotter’s change model and
how to determine when to embrace and when to oppose change. The author proposes that
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s On Death and Dying and Peter Drucker’s The Age of Discontinuity,
both published in 1969, lay the foundation for Kotter’s work, and the important lessons
were missed from the earlier works.
113
Fly-On-The-Wall Ethics: Can Students Learn from Watching Real-World Ethical
Dilemmas?
Jack Walters
A significant concern about the teaching of ethics to undergraduate college students
is that they have little or no frame of reference to assess the nature and impact of unethical
conduct in the organizations where they will work after graduation. A fallback has been to
relate the ethical dilemma being presented to the current lives of students, but this
approach ignores or denies that graduates will face specific ethical challenges when working
as managers or professionals.
In an attempt to deal with the disconnect between students’ experiences and post-
college work situations, I've begun developing what I call “Fly On The Wall” videos. These
videos purport to show private conversations at crucial moments in ethical dilemmas. The
characters presented behave as if their conversation is entirely private and attempts are
made to present two sides of the dilemma as they likely took place in the actual situations
on which the videos are based. For example, a five-minute video based on the Enron case
shows a crucial moment when a whistleblower presented evidence of unethical and illegal
behavior to Enron’s senior management. No attempt is made to pick the person who is “in
the right”. Rather, student viewers are left with that question and must sort it out for
themselves.
A video about plagiarism among college students shows a student who is copying
others’ work without attribution defending his actions to another student who is skeptical.
A third video, now at the script-writing stage, will show a Catholic priest and bishop
discussing how to handle the case of another priest who has been revealed to have molested
a child. As has been revealed in news stories and lawsuits, an argument is made that
turning the priest over to the police will damage the reputation of the church and hamper
its ability to carry out its mission.
The key to this approach is the lack of instruction that takes place before the video is
presented. Students watch it “cold” and must form their own opinions based solely on the
content of the video and their own knowledge, experience, and creativity.
For use after the video has been shown, I'm developing simple explanations of four
models of ethics: utilitarian, Kantian, rights, and justice. Instructors will be able to present
these materials and interact with students around the topic of which model best fits the
situation presented in the video.
I am asking to present as work in progress because a number of significant questions
remain about the ultimate results of this project:
• Can students increase their knowledge of ethics, ethics problems, and solutions to
ethics problems via the videos, instructors’ explanation of relevant ethics models, and
discussion of their personal views? If so, how could one test for that learning?
• Do some ethical models teach students about avoiding unethical conduct more
effectively than others?
• Can this approach be used in languages other than English? If so, are subtitles
effective? Dubbing? Translation of the script into another language and reshooting the video
in that language? Each of these presents logistical and cost questions in addition to
effectiveness questions.
114
• Can this approach work across disciplines and professions? We hear a lot in the
media about ethical problems in business organizations but I have collected news reports of
unethical behavior in virtually every segment of society from the military to art collecting to
teaching.
My plan is to show several videos to attendees, explain both the conceptual and
operational frameworks by which I will deliver the videos and teaching materials and collect
information about students, classes, etc., then open up the discussion for suggestions and
critiques.
115
Do Credit Rating Agencies Favor Their Big Clients?
Evidence from Rating Maintenance
Yin-Che Weng
Pu Liu
We study the effect of conflicts of interest on credit ratings and analyze the rating
maintenance of credit rating agencies for various clienteles. By examining the rating-
transition path, we found that rating agencies favor their valued clients by stepwise
downgrades and full and timely upgrades. Favored clients could, therefore, save capital cost
and possibly gain a larger investor base for their new issues. However, such rating behavior
would undermine the rating quality and reputation of rating agencies in the long term. Our
results provide evidence for the meager literature on rating-agency conflicts from the
rating-maintenance perspective. Our findings also lend support to the growing literature
that rating agencies do not provide quality services to investors when the regulation is
indulgent or the competition within the rating industry is severe.
116
An analysis of Small Town Retail Pull Factors in a Rural State
Rand Wergin
Daniel L. Tracy
Richard Muller
This paper investigates the features of South Dakota’s small towns with strong retail
pull. The 2008 recession created an interesting phenomena in that many of the small towns
in South Dakota saw an increase in retail sales, and consequently an improvement to their
retail pull. A closer examination to the phenomena indicates that many small towns are
rural communities have a robust and consistent retail economy, thus countering the
prevailing wisdom that rural communities are dying. This paper investigates the unique
factors that support the rural and small town retail economy. Those factors include the
“prairie island” phenomena where the town is the retail hub in a sparsely populated area.
Also, tourism, traffic and location on a highway or interstate are also noted. However, there
are several communities with strong retail economies that do not have the traditional
antecedents of location, tourism and traffic. This paper includes a discussion of those
additional facets of retail pull.
117
The Performance Impact of Project Managers as External Leaders: The Influence
of Followership Style and Team Disbursement
Billy Whisnant
Billy Whisnant has presented findings on the impact of multiple leadership theories in
sociotechnical contexts, having his work published in the proceedings of conferences such as
the Midwest Academy of Management Annual Conference, the Eastern Academy of
Management Annual Conference and the Scientific Papers International Conference on
Knowledge Society Annual Conference winning the award for best paper.
The role of the project manager in the distributed work environment is investigated
to understand how it is that their role as an external leader impacts performance and
satisfaction. This role is investigated through the scope of SuperLeadership behaviors of a
project manager moderated by the three dimensions of virtualness. Workers in project
teams are found to be influenced greatly by SuperLeadership to be efficient and effective,
however the timeliness of their performance is not significantly affected. The dimensions of
virtualness all have differing influences. The overall proposition that emerges is that for the
project manager to have the greatest level of impact in a distributed team as a SuperLeader
they should use synchronous communication tools and have a low level of proximal distance.
118
Can Servant Leaders Encourage Trust and Communication of Tacit Knowledge at
any level of Leader-Member Exchange Quality?
Billy Whisnant
Odai Khasawneh
Billy and Odai have presented findings on the influence of leadership on encouraging tacit
knowledge sharing at the Eastern Academy of Management Annual Conference and the
Scientific Papers International Conference on Knowledge Society Annual Conference, where
their paper won the award for best paper.
The impact of low and high levels of leader-member exchange are investigated to
determine the influence that servant leadership has on trust and tacit knowledge sharing of
workers in the information technology industry. It is found that there is slight moderation
at low levels and complete moderation of the relationship between servant leadership and
tacit knowledge sharing at high levels. Additionally, it is reported that trust partially
mediates the relationship between servant leadership and tacit knowledge sharing, however
when moderated at high levels of leader-member exchange this mediation becomes
impossible. At low levels of leader-member exchange trust completely mediates the
relationship.
119
Prediction of market sales with search behavior across different countries
Shaoqiong Zhao
Marketers are always interested in predicting market sales so they can arrange the
firm activities accordingly. In the meantime, this market sales information can also help the
consumers to make right buying decisions. However the high cost and long period of
collecting the available data with a lag makes it very inconvenient and out of date. With the
rise of multi-social media sharing websites such as YouTube, Flickr, and various blogs,
consumers can search and learn various types of information from these websites. With the
huge amount of data from Internet we can solve large scale computing data mining problem.
The users’ online searching activity can be captured for predicting the market sales. We
focus on the differential impacts of search behavior and how this might be related to
marketing outcomes like market sales in different countries. We combined the three major
online search areas including web, image, and video from search engines like Google to help
us accurately and easily predict the auto sales. We believe that our work here opens a brand
new arena for using multimedia search activities and have a big impact on marketing
sciences.
120
PRESENTER NAME UNIVERSITY/ORGANIZATION CONTACT INFORMATION
Ahmed Al-Alsfour. Oglala Lakota College
Kyle, SD
(605) 455-6081
Tanista Banerjee Auburn University
Auburn, AL [email protected]
Tim A. Becker
Brandman University
7460 Mission Valley Road
San Diego, CA 92108
(858) 349-2040
Andrew Buks Northern State University
Rapid City, SD [email protected]
Sara Colorosa Colorado State Forest Service [email protected]
(970) 491-8726
Leo Dana Montpellier Business School [email protected]
Juan Gonzalez
Northern State University
1200 S Jay St
Aberdeen, SD 57401
(605) 626-3352
Thomas Head
Roosevelt University
425 S. Wabash Ave Chicago, IL
60605-1315 USA
Marlin R.H. Jensen
Auburn University 303 Lowder
Business Building, Auburn, AL
36849
(334) 844-3011
James Kennedy
Northern State University
1200 S Jay St
Aberdeen, SD 57401
(605) 626-7728
George Langelett
South Dakota State University
110 Scobey Hall, Box 504
Brookings, SD 57007
(605) 688-4865
Naomi Ludeman-Smith
Northern State University
1200 S Jay St
Aberdeen, SD 57401
Nehale Farid Mostapha Beirut Arab University [email protected]
+961 1 300170 ext 2215
Arbab Naseebullah Kasi
Institute of Rural Management
55-A, Jinnah Town,
Samungli Road,
Balochistan, Pakistan.
0092-302-5553828
0092-333-7898889
Thomas Orr
Northern State University
1200 S Jay St
Aberdeen, SD 57401
(605) 626-2614
Cheol Park
Korea University
2511, SeJong-Ro, Sejong City,
339-700, South Korea
+82-41-860-1566
Michael Pülz
University of Applied Sciences
and Arts Northwestern
Switzerland FHNW School of
Business P.O. Box CH-4002 Basel
Switzerland
+41 61 279 18 42
Joshua Shuart Sacred Heart University
Fairfield, CT USA
(203) 416-3601
Numair Ahmad Sulehri COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology [email protected]
Mussie Tessema Winona State University
MN, USA
(507) 457 2571
121
Stephen Thomas University of Colorado Denver
Denver, CO, USA [email protected]
Robert Vodnoy
Northern State University
1200 South Jay Street, Aberdeen,
SD 57401 USA
(605) 626-2519
Jack Walters Dakota State University
Madison, SD USA
(605) 270-9580
Timmy Yin-Che Weng
Harbin Institute of Technology,
China
National Chengchi University,
Taiwan
University of Arkansas, USA
+8615145102237
Rand Wergin
University of South Dakota
414 E Clark St.
Vermillion SD 57069
(877) 269-6837
Billy Whisnant
Eastern Michigan University
112 Sill Hall
Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197
(734) 883-5548
Shaoqiong Zhao
Northern State University
1200 South Jay Street, Aberdeen,
SD 57401 USA
Twenty-First Annual
Conference on International Business and
Contemporary Issues in Business