...Neeli Bendapudi & Robert P. Leone Psychological Implications of Customer Participation in Co-Production Customer participation in the production of goods and services appears to be growing. The marketing literature has largely focused on the economic implications of this trend and has not addressed customers' potential psychological responses to participation. The authors draw on the social psychological literature on the self-serving bias and conduct two studies to examine the effects of participation on customer satisfaction. Study 1 shows that consistent with the self-serving bias, given an identical outcome, customer satisfaction with a firm differs depending on whether a customer participates in production. Study 2 shows that providing customers a choice in whether to participate mitigates the self-serving bias when the outcome is worse than expected. The authors present theoretical and practical implications and provide directions for further research. C ustomers increasingly are being encouraged to take on more active roles in producing goods and services. They go into photography stores and use machines to crop, enlarge, correct, or enhance their photographs; check themselves in and out of hotels; and even routinely scan and bag their own groceries at supermarkets. Customer participation per se is not new. Supermarkets, which are models of customer co-production with customers selecting, carting, and transporting groceries, date to the 1930s. What...
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...Max Rose Dr. Finkelstein ENG 205-16 Paper #2 The Corrupted Consumer The role of commodities and consumerism in The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith is paramount in the development of the protagonist, Tom Ripley. The novel begins with Ripley in New York struggling to make ends meet without a socially acceptable job but rather an illegitimate occupation in which he swindled people who had no withholding taxes (artists, writers and freelance workers). Although Ripley is undeniably skillful at social manipulation, he lacks self-confidence and an established identity as a man. As a result of his insufficient cash inflows, the offer from Herbert Greenleaf (an all-expense paid for vacation to Europe in the hope that he can persuade his former acquaintance Dickie Greenleaf to return to New York City) will provide an excellent opportunity for him to live the lavish lifestyle that seemed natural to him and establish his own masculinity through materialist possessions and behaviors. The exceedingly low self-esteem of Tom Ripley (at the beginning of the novel) stems from his Aunt Dottie who constantly berates him verbally by saying that he is a “Sissy! He’s a sissy from the ground up. Just like his father.” (p. 40) Ripley was brought up in an unpleasant environment without a supporting family and a lack of material wealth. These factors contribute significantly to the insecure and self-loathing nature Tom Ripley possesses prior to European excursion. The meetings and conversations...
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...Church’s Preferential Option for the Poor When there is question of defending the rights of individuals, the poor and badly off have a claim to especial consideration. The richer class have many ways of shielding themselves, and stand less in need of help from the State; whereas the mass of the poor have no resources of their own to fall back upon, and must chiefly depend upon the assistance of the State. The obligation to provide justice for all means that the poor have the single most urgent economic claim on the conscience of the nation. In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others. He who has the goods of this world and sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how does the love of God abide in him? Everyone knows that the Fathers of the Church laid down the duty of the rich toward the poor in no uncertain terms. As St. Ambrose put it: “You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor man, but you are giving him back what is his. You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich.” Therefore everyone has the right to possess a sufficient amount of the earth's goods for themselves and their family. This has been the opinion of the Fathers and Doctors...
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...Assignment 1: Business Analysis Abstract Alcatel Lucent Technologies is a builder of network base stations, towers, and end to end networks IP solutions for the construction of 3G/4G wire and wireless technologies. Alcatel-Lucent Technologies have unique research environment; Bell Labs. Employments benefits and multi-cultural environment are key merits at Alcatel-Lucent Technologies. Workforce reduction process and lack of strategic business decision are the main drawbacks of Alcatel-Lucent Technologies. With Nokia acquiring of Alcatel-Lucent Technologies, a new giant company is formed to better compete with infrastructure telecommunications as Cisco, and Ericson. Keywords: Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs, Business, Multi-cultural Assignment 1: Business Analysis Alcatel-Lucent is leading converged IP networking, ultra-broadband access, and could technologies company. On November 30, 2006, Alcatel-Lucent Technologies merge occurred by 25-billion-euro balance. It employed about 80,000 people worldwide and has annual revenue of about 16 billion euros. Alcatel-Lucent technologies combined two giant companies - Alcatel and Lucent Technologies. Lucent Technologies was spun off from AT&T while Alcatel parent company was CGE (la Compagnie Générale d’Electricité). Alcatel-Lucent Technologies Business Performance Three factors, either economic, social, or both, impacting the performance of the organization you selected Bell labs innovations have a unique research environment...
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...The country I know and love is gone. The land of the free and the home of the brave has become a seething cesspool of underpaid, uncaring, Godless, inconsiderate bastard children. Our commander-in-chief has become nothing more than a slumlord, demanding higher and higher taxes in various forms from his subjects, while the infrastructure of the nation crumbles beneath his feet. How long will it take before the infrastructure of our nation crumbles to the point of total disaster? How long can the government provided, prescription happy pill fed citizens of this once great nation support the burdens which are being placed on them? How long will it be before the demands of the rich can no longer be met? Demands such as ever-increasing safety ratings, ever-increasing profits, ever-increasing greed, ever-increasing cost of living and ever-increasing fees that are continually handed down to the poor, reaches a point that the poor can no longer afford to be poor? The day IS coming. Our once great nation will crumble under its own weight when the infrastructure gives way. The poor will scatter out of the way, and the rich will have the farthest to fall, and the hardest time adjusting. The poor (not including the government supported) have been trained for so long at surviving with a mere fraction of what is necessary for survival, that they will band together, and live off the land as they must. The rich, on the other hand will suddenly find that their wealth now holds no...
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...monopolize the merger company afterwards hence withdrawal from the deal (Anonymous 2004). From the consummated transatlantic relationships, the two telecommunication companies reengaged into merger deal, which was effected when the shareholders from the two companies came in to terms regarding the signing of the merger deal conducted on 7th Sept, 2006 (Mcfarlin & Sweeney 2008). The Alcatel company was however, not contented with the procedural ways and terms involved in handling both financial and management issues within the merged company (David 2008) 2. The merged company revised its financial concerns downwards which led to resignation of some top executives as well as business unit recognition leading to a daunting task that Patricia Russo, the CEO is faced with a lot of concern to ensure proper steering of the company‘s top docket objectively aimed at improving the company to the expectations (National Library of Canada 2001). Through production of duplicate products that resembles the product samples from company competitors, to equally sell in the competitive market (Advani...
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...Research the status of the merged company at the time of your reading of this case. What happened in the industry since the merger, and how is the company faring? (Financial report of Alcatel-Lucent : http://investing.businessweek.com) Cross-cultural misunderstanding and problems took place when American CEO Patricia Russo and French board member Serge Tchuruk were present at Alcatel Lucent. After their departure the organization took appropriate actions by placing French chairman Philippe Camus and Ben Verwaayen in position as the new heads. Philippe Camus is a French who lives in America so he was familiar with both the American and French culture. Ben Verwaayen, being a Dutch has no effect on the cultural as he had a neutral nationality in the company, but he was still closely familiar with cross-cultural issues. Most importantly, both executives were comfortable with working with each other and had no issues on personal level. Since then Alcatel-Lucent has impressively reported in 2009 for 15.2 billion Euros of revenue. The company is currently operating in more than 130 countries worldwide with both executives still in the same position. Moreover, Alcatel-Lucent was able to become worldwide leader in fixed broadband access market (2008), named ‘Strong Performer’ for Interaction-Centric Customer Service Solutions by Genesys (2008), won IEC InfoVision Award (2008), and ranked No.2 in Global Telecommunications Services Market (2008) (Alcatel-Lucent web-site, 2011 ...
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...M2:The importance of employability, and personal skills in the recruitment and retention of staff Telecommunication Sector (Alcatel Lucent) Employability and Personal Skills Employability is defined as a person's own capability for acquiring and maintaining employment Employability depends factors like the knowledge, personal skills and abilities possessed by the individual and the way he presents those assets to employers. In other words it is the process of self assessment of an individual which can be done by himself or by some other person or agency. Importance of Employability and Personal Skills - In the Recruitment and Retention of staff : While in the process of hiring and selecting individuals in an organisation, the management has to identify a certain selection criteria. This selection criteria consists of a list of abilities and skills, in addition to certain education standard an individual must possess if he has to qualify for that position. An individual who has acquired certain skills like computer knowledge (hardware / software) will be more valuable for an organisation than the one who does not have this skill. The organisation will not have to train the individual who already has this capability. The organisation will get a “Ready Made” asset which can be utilized straight away on a project. The Alcatel can also short list those individuals with certain basic knowledge or skills in a specified field. The individuals can be trained on...
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...Psychopath or human? The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) written by Patricia Highsmith is known for exploring the gap between benevolence and malevolence. The novel engages its readers to question how far one can go to feel a sense of belonging and love. It investigates how narrow the line between evil and human is in real life. Is Tom really a psychopath or is he just a lonely soul looking for acceptance? To begin with, Tom's depiction of the ideal life is filled with wealth and reputation. He tries to mould himself into the man he thinks will be appreciated by society. This twisted image of society and its standards leaves the reader questioning who is to blame when a sociopath is born. His desire to be Dickie Greenleaf is brutal and unmoral, but still relatable and empathetic. Tom's train of thoughts about loneliness and being admired is heartfelt and impossible to ignore. The talented Mr. Ripley shows how deception and voracity can almost transform anyone into a hedonistic, merciless human. Haysmith manages to almost manipulate the reader to feel sympathy for the miscreant as she describes his thoughts about belonging: "He only wanted a home, a base somewhere, after years of not having any." (Andersson and Ernst, Streams in Literature, 2007, p. 52). In addition to this, Tom is often referred to as an anti-hero. Reason behind this statement can be explained by Highsmith's narrative flow. The novel provides a striking insight into the mind of a sociopath in his...
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...place again and in April 2006, Alcatel's chief executive, Serge Tchuruk agreed to pay 10.6 billion euro ($13.5 billion then) for Lucent. This deal was to create the world's biggest telephone equipment maker. • An Alcatel-Lucent merger provided the combined company a strong position in several categories of equipment sold to the major telecommunications carrier: wireless telecommunications equipment, wireline equipment, wireless infrastructure, Internet routers and equipment for carrying calls over the Internet, etc. • After the merger during July 2008, corporate culture of Alcatel and Lucent clashed. The U.S. Company could not adopt Alcatel's French business model and vice versa leading to the resignation of Alcatel-Lucent CEO Patricia Russo and later Serge Tchuruk's resignation. • Mr. Tchuruk and Ms. Russo both struggled to bring together the vastly different cultures of the two companies especially during tough business climates. • In September 2008 the new chiefs were announced, a French Chairman who lives in the U.S. and a Dutch chief executive, who will be based in Paris. Both Phillippe Camus and Ben Verwaayen were considered to have the personalities and experience that could iron out the companies' cultural clashes and problems. Questions 1) Discuss conditions and factors that pushed forth the 2006 merger that...
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...2/16/2014 Intellectual Property creation witnessing steady growth in India: Report - Economic Times You are here: Home > Collections > India RELATED ARTICLES Budget 2012: Relax corporate tax and surcharges to boost... March 5, 2012 Intellectual Property creation witnessing steady growth in India: Report PTI Jun 26, 2013, 06.43PM IST Bharti Airtel gives IP contract to Alcatel Lucent India June 1, 2012 Tags: Texas Instruments general motors | Mercedes-Benz | investments | intellectual property | Intel | Hewlett-Packard | | gdp | Alstom | Alcatel Lucent Alcatel-Lucent launches IP Transformation Center Septemb er 8, 2009 IN-DEPTH COVERAGE India Intellectual Property Alcatel-lucent Alstom NEW DELHI: The country's contribution to Intellectual Property (IP) creation is witnessing a steady growth, however, investments in R&D and patent activities in the country are still relatively slow when compared to developed nations, a report says. According to globalisation and market expansion advisory firm Zinnov's study 'Enhancing the IP Quotient in MNC R&D centres', IP creation is witnessing steady growth in MNC R&D centres, but investments in R&D and patent activities in India are still relatively slow. (A sector-wise analysis…) The study further said India spends just 1 per cent of its GDP on R&D, while countries like Israel spends 4.2 per cent, Japan 3.7 per cent, US 2.7 per cent and China 2.0 per cent...
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...The Alcatel- Lucent Merger; What went wrong? 1. The conditions and negotiation factors that pushed forth the 2006 merger that were not present in the 2001 merger were in 2001 Lucent’s executives wanted the deal as a “merger of equals” rather than a takeover by Alcatel. However in 2006 Tchuruk agreed to pay 10.6 billion euro for Lucent to create the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker. Tchuruk said the combined company would realize 1.4 billion euro in cost savings over the following 3 years, but they had to cut 9,000 jobs. 2. According to the company's website (http://www2.alcatel-lucent.com/news-center/) it appears that the combined merger is doing very well. Recently on September 13, 2012, Alcatel-Lucent was ranked Technology Super sector leader by Dow Jones with a score of 87/100. This is the second year in a row that the company is recognized in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). The Super sector Leader report highlighted: "growing environmental challenges and resource constraints, Alcatel-Lucent has continuously developed and implemented globally recognized innovations in eco-sustainable communication technologies.”. 3. I believe the merger is "a giant transatlantic experiment in multicultural diversity" because you have to vastly different cultures, Franco-American merging into one combined companies. Although the companies combined experience some cultural clashes but at the end were able to come together and become a successful company...
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...Response Paper: The Talented Mr. Ripley The Talented Mr. Ripley, a novel by Patricia Highsmith, raises questions of identity for both its characters and the novel itself. Protagonist Tom Ripley is a con man, impersonating at the beginning of the novel an income tax agent, not for profit but for amusement. He is then mistaken for a close friend of Dickie Greenleaf’s -- an identity which he is happy to assume. He eventually murders Dickie and assumes his identity as well. Ripley’s identity is amorphous, his ambiguous true self pushed aside in favor of less “boring” personas. The novel’s characters -- seemingly one-dimensional, easily summarized and described -- all find themselves in crisis, each desperately wanting something. Tom Ripley desires higher class status and to become Dickie, to assume his identity. He believes that “It was impossible ever to be lonely or bored...so long as he was Dickie Greenleaf," that somehow a complete change in identity would cure all ills. Dickie yearns for external validation and acclaim, while Marge wants Dickie’s affection and a committed relationship with him, and Freddie wants attention from others. Some actively conceal or ignore parts of themselves. For Ripley, this is his queerness. There are various cues to Ripley’s homoerotic desires: when he is young, he is called “sissy”; he lived with an older man who “preyed” on young men; he was “very friendly” with a male Princeton student last summer; he covets Dickie and describes the man...
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...‘REEL WOMEN’ 75% of blockbuster crews are male, how severe is sexism in the film industry? This 20 minute long documentary is based on women’s careers in the film industry, how they may be underrepresented, why this inequality persists and how this may have increased throughout the years. Actresses and women from around the world are calling out sexism in the film industry. “Is there a lack of material and great stories for women to work with?” These questions will be answered through a compilation of archive footage and interviews with female students to understand how younger women aspiring in strong career paths feel about it – and also women that are already in the industry who experience the inequality first hand. This leads to my first contributor which will introduce narrative and to give the audience a strong storyline to follow: Carla Lacey is 46. She has recently graduated from Manchester University and wants to excel in her dream of becoming a successful screenwriter. She grew up always wanting to be a singer but suffered with heavy bipolar, restricting her from following her dreams. Carla wrote poems and two novels which are published in books and on the internet – with this not being good enough for her she researched into screenwriting and now aspires to work with many other female screenwriters in the industry. She is passionate about the empowerment of women and wants more material for women to work with in the industry as she feels there isn’t enough...
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...Motivation Since Carly Fiorina’s tenure as CEO, surveys conducted by HP have shown that employee morale has “cratered”. (7) This can be attributed to several major negative motivational factors that have hindered HP's work environment, such as poor job security and weak communication between leaders and employees. The period under Carly Fiorina and Mark Hurd was dominated by excessive cost cutting, and as a result fear was said to be the main source of motivation during their tenures. As stated previously, Carly Fiorina began a trend of mass layoffs in an attempt to make HP more efficient. Hurd and current CEO Meg Whitman have continued this trend with a series of unexpected announcements. However, various studies have shown that a sense of job security is a major “hygiene” factor, a basic need that is required to maintain worker satisfaction and morale. By initiating massive job layoffs, HP has harmed worker morale. Later, as one of his first acts as CEO, Hurd announced that HP would be cutting 14,500 jobs, or 10% of its workforce. In 2008, he announced plans to cut 24,000 jobs. In total, these layoffs amounted to an almost 20 percent reduction in the company’s workforce over just seven years. In 2009, Hurd began a series of large company-wide pay cuts. During the 2009 recession, Hurd imposed a 5% pay cut on all employees and removed many benefits. While Meg Whitman promised that job layoffs were over when she became CEO, this trend has continued. This broken trust may...
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