twenty-first annual conference on international … twenty-first annual conference on international...

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

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


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


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


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


2:30 p.m. Work Experiences of Native Americans: A Qualitative Study



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


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


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



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


3:45 p.m. John Kotter, Adolf Hitler, and Change

Robert Vodnoy


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.


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


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


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


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


3:20 p.m. Testbed implementation of Cassandra distributed database solutions

Karl Konz, Bill Bruggenthies, and Erika Koes with Mark B. Schmidt


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


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


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.


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


Tim Becker 16


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


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


Marlin R.H. Jensen, Beverly B. Marshall, and John S. Jahera, Jr. 30


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


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


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


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


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


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.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

http://www.dsm5.org/about/Pages/DSMVOverview.aspx

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.

http://sites.google.com/site/utafrith/publications-1/autism

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


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


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


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


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.

http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-jobs-act-where-are-we-now-2014-93278/

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11825960/1/the-jobs-act-epic-fail.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/06/20/nyses-niederauer-gives-some-praise-for-jobs-act/

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/06/20/nyses-niederauer-gives-some-praise-for-jobs-act/

http://apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/blt/content/2012/05/article-07-bushner.shtml



http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2012/03/27/newly-public-companies-fumble-financials/

http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2012/03/27/newly-public-companies-fumble-financials/

http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2013/07/09/bankers-the-jobs-act-isnt-doing-its-job/

http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2013/07/09/bankers-the-jobs-act-isnt-doing-its-job/

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2144483

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/03/25/u-s-taking-biggest-share-in-ipo-race-since-2000/

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/03/25/u-s-taking-biggest-share-in-ipo-race-since-2000/



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


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


4.

Stephens, W. (2011 August). Business Regulation vs. Growth: The View from Middle

America. The Wall Street Journal, August 25. Retrieved from


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.

http://www.bdo.com/news/pr/3070

http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2014/02/18/confidential-discussions-of-ipo-plans-kept-brief/



http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/07/10/investment-bankers-see-jobs-act-helping-and-hurting-ipos/

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/07/10/investment-bankers-see-jobs-act-helping-and-hurting-ipos/







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.



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.



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.



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


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

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/football/story/2012-05-16/Parents-weigh-youth-football-risks/55150850/1

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/football/story/2012-05-16/Parents-weigh-youth-football-risks/55150850/1

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10292549/judge-rejects-preliminary-approval-765-million-nfl-settlement-concussion-case

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10292549/judge-rejects-preliminary-approval-765-million-nfl-settlement-concussion-case

78

Wallerson, R. (2014). Youth Participation Weakens in Basketball, Football, Baseball and

Soccer. Wall Street Journal Online, Jan 31, 2014, Retrieved from


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.



http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2012-08-22/nfl-concussion-lawsuits-money-bankrupt-players-sue-head-injuries

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2012-08-22/nfl-concussion-lawsuits-money-bankrupt-players-sue-head-injuries

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


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


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


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

[email protected]

(605) 455-6081

Tanista Banerjee Auburn University

Auburn, AL [email protected]

Tim A. Becker

Brandman University

7460 Mission Valley Road

San Diego, CA 92108

[email protected]

(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


1200 S Jay St

Aberdeen, SD 57401

[email protected]

(605) 626-3352

Thomas Head

Roosevelt University

425 S. Wabash Ave Chicago, IL

60605-1315 USA

[email protected]

Marlin R.H. Jensen

Auburn University 303 Lowder

Business Building, Auburn, AL

36849

[email protected]

(334) 844-3011

James Kennedy


1200 S Jay St

Aberdeen, SD 57401

[email protected]

(605) 626-7728

George Langelett

South Dakota State University

110 Scobey Hall, Box 504

Brookings, SD 57007

[email protected]

(605) 688-4865

Naomi Ludeman-Smith


1200 S Jay St

Aberdeen, SD 57401

[email protected]

Nehale Farid Mostapha Beirut Arab University [email protected]

+961 1 300170 ext 2215


Institute of Rural Management

55-A, Jinnah Town,

Samungli Road,

Balochistan, Pakistan.

[email protected]

0092-302-5553828

0092-333-7898889

Thomas Orr


1200 S Jay St

Aberdeen, SD 57401

[email protected]

(605) 626-2614

Cheol Park

Korea University

2511, SeJong-Ro, Sejong City,

339-700, South Korea

[email protected]

+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

[email protected]

+41 61 279 18 42

Joshua Shuart Sacred Heart University

Fairfield, CT USA

[email protected]

(203) 416-3601

Numair Ahmad Sulehri COMSATS Institute of

Information Technology [email protected]

Mussie Tessema Winona State University

MN, USA

[email protected]

(507) 457 2571

mailto:[email protected]













121

Stephen Thomas University of Colorado Denver

Denver, CO, USA [email protected]

Robert Vodnoy


1200 South Jay Street, Aberdeen,

SD 57401 USA

[email protected]

(605) 626-2519

Jack Walters Dakota State University

Madison, SD USA

[email protected]

(605) 270-9580

Timmy Yin-Che Weng

Harbin Institute of Technology,

China

National Chengchi University,

Taiwan

University of Arkansas, USA

[email protected]

+8615145102237

Rand Wergin

University of South Dakota

414 E Clark St.

Vermillion SD 57069

[email protected]

(877) 269-6837

Billy Whisnant


112 Sill Hall

Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197

[email protected]

(734) 883-5548

Shaoqiong Zhao


1200 South Jay Street, Aberdeen,

SD 57401 USA

[email protected]

Twenty-First Annual

Conference on International Business and

Contemporary Issues in Business







twenty-first annual conference on international … twenty-first annual conference on international...

Documents