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Approved Model of Factors, Influencing the Management Process in Developing New Products

Approved Model of Factors, Influencing the Management Process in Developing New Products

Author(s): Diana Antonova,Bozhana Stoycheva / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Innovation process; new products development; factor analysis; manufacturing industry; innovation models

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify the major groups of factors that influence the management process of new product development (NPD) for the purpose of its improvement in industrial enterprises. The main tasks are related to the development and approbation of a basic factor model, representing the dependent groups of variables with a significant influence on the process of developing new products in the manufacturing industry - a strategic sector in Bulgarian industry. Research/practical implications: The results of this research are applicable to medium and large industrial enterprises in order to improve the methodology of management process in all its stages of product innovation development. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data are collected based on a survey, conducted through interview of respondents from medium and large industrial enterprises. Out of 559 organizations, operating in the Manufacturing sector until 2017 (according to data from the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria), 234 enterprices have taken part in the servey, which makes for 63% activity level of the sample. Furthermore, in the final stage representatives of the surveyed organizations took part in approving the model through expert assessments. The data obtained have been processed by applying descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis to look for dependencies between the variables which have been studied. Findings: As a result of the analysis it has been established that the success of the NPD management process is influenced by main factors, such as implementation of target strategy for new product activities and formalising of the NPD process. Other such factors are resource, investment, and technology support provided by senior managers; using mixed working teams of different functional areas; and implementation of specific marketing, research, technological and management tools. Research/practical implications: This article presents the results from a study, related to identifying key factors influencing the management of the product innovation process. Based on the analysis and approval of the model, it can be concluded that solving the difficult tasks of differentiating, systematizing and ranking factors essential for the product innovation process provides valuable and specific grounds for assisting the successful management process of NPD. The results of the analysis could help industrial organizations not only in the manufacturing, but also in other sectors to improve the NPD management process. Originality/value: The aim of the article is to provide methods and adapted good practices, which would help industrial enterprises to improve the process of managing NPD by revealing the factors leading to the success of product innovations. The approval of the model justifies the need of a systematic approach and cross-functional participation of multifunctional teams throughout the life cycle of the innovations under consideration.

Legio I Italica – orientalis

Legio I Italica – orientalis

Author(s): Piotr Dyczek / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Legio I Italica; Novae; connections with eastern part of Empire; inscriptions; finds

Polish archaeological research in the Roman fortress of Novae on theLower Danube have contributed to the body of knowledge on the tiesbetween the Legio I Italica, which was headquartered there, and theeastern parts of the Empire. In some sense, the legion’s establishmentby the emperor Nero to fight in the East already left a mark on itshistory. In the wake of the civil war that followed the emperor’s death,the legion was based in Novae, but detachments continued to operatein the East until late antiquity. Such ties must have left an indeliblemark on the religious beliefs and material culture of the soldiers.Archaeological and epigraphic investigations give insight into thecomplexity of these relations and influences.

The citadel in North Mesopotamian Erbil (Iraq): challenges for the preservation and adaptation to new function of an Ottoman-period house

The citadel in North Mesopotamian Erbil (Iraq): challenges for the preservation and adaptation to new function of an Ottoman-period house

Author(s): Marek Kowalczyk,Mirosław Olbryś / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: world heritage; Erbil citadel; Ottoman period; mud-brick construction; conservation assessment; design

The Citadel in Erbil is the most important monument in IraqiKurdistan and a key archaeological site in ancient Mesopotamia inview of the preservation of a unique architectural and urban legacy,as well as the assumed archaeological heritage. The site covers anarea of 10.2 hectares and features uninterrupted settlement fromat least the 5th millennium BC. In 2006, the Kurdistan RegionalGovernment launched a revitalization program aimed at attractingvisitors from all over Iraq. In 2012, architectural and buildingconservationdocumentation was prepared for a historic house,Building 22/3. Located in the southern part of the city, it is one ofits oldest monuments (mid-19th century AD) with late Ottomanportals in the eastern façade attesting to its rich past. Remains of anursi room, with richly decorated bay windows of the shanasheel type,have been preserved on the first floor.

Developing Research Writing by Videoconference

Developing Research Writing by Videoconference

Author(s): John Morgan / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Videoconference; research writing; support for students and teachers; methodology;

The author outlines a detailed range of practical measures to ensure the success of using videoconferencing to develop research writing. The examples given highlight the technical challenges, but effective solutions and measures are presented. Clear parameters are listed and explained in using videoconferencing, and the importance of grounding parameters such as co-presence, visibility and audibility is stressed. The importance of establishing a community focus of support with both students and teachers can help with key issues of giving, receiving and acting on feedback. The article features detailed feedback from students on the effectiveness of the programme.

Euro-trans GbmH to internationalize to Croatia

Euro-trans GbmH to internationalize to Croatia

Author(s): Lina Lefstadt,Till Steinmann,Paul Crowley,Thomas van den Berg,Menno de Lind van Wijngaarden / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: case study; SMEs; internationalization; Croatia; Euro-trans GmbH;

Logistics and transport connect our increasingly globalized world. In The Netherlands, it is common to make purchases online, where an “order before” 12.00/15.00/19.00/even as late as 23.00 for next-day-delivery service is soon becoming the norm. Our clothes, our food, our technology, our furniture, our building materials, yes, basically everything that you can think of, traveled hundreds, if not thousands of kilometres at different stages of completion before reaching us as a finished good, to be consumed. Some travel by sea, some by air, and some by land, divided between the railways and roads. Road transport, a market growing for the fifth consecutive year in the EU, is up almost 35% in tonnes of goods per kilometre between 2013 and 2017 (Eurostat, 2018). Not only did the number of goods transported go up during these years, but also the number of kilometres driven has increased. Truck drivers are therefore in increasingly high demand, and need to cope with the ever-growing demand from consumers and businesses to transport goods across the continent, as well as across countries, as fast as possible and as cheaply as possible. Because not only do we, the consumers, want things delivered to our doorsteps at the speed of light, but we are not really willing to pay extra for it (McKinsey, 2016). This is driving prices across the sector down as part of the competition for clients; whilst expenses are increasing with the rising fuel prices and growing environmental concern (Rapier, 2018).

Relevance theory and poetry: An inferential analysis of Philip Larkin’s “Mr Bleaney”

Relevance theory and poetry: An inferential analysis of Philip Larkin’s “Mr Bleaney”

Author(s): Héctor Luis Grada Martinez / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: theory of relevance; inference; interpretation; poetry; Philip Larkin

Recently, relevance theory has been increasingly used in literary studies. However, little research has examined the role of inferences in the interpretation of a poem. This article illustrates how pragmatics and, more precisely, relevance theory, may provide a scientific, cognitive ground to understand how poetic interpretation is constructed through the reader’s inferences. To do so, I analyse “Mr Bleaney”, by British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985), as a case study for applying relevance theory concepts to literary interpretation. Specifically, I analyse inferences that may be drawn from the poem’s linguistically encoded word meanings, and how such inferences are influenced by the poem’s sonorous qualities, like rhythm and meter. The resulting reading emphasises the poet’s identification with a stranger, Mr Bleaney, who by the end of the poem emerges as an alter ego upon whom the poet projects his own existential fears. Because relevance theory is not prescriptive, it may also be useful in explaining dissenting readings, as shown by briefly comparing the resulting “pessimistic” interpretation of the poem with an “optimistic” one offered by Wayne Booth (2014). Thus, I suggest that inferential analysis may improve dialogue among critics dealing with the same literary work. Overall, I argue that inferential analysis based on relevance theory may help explain interpretations in poetry and thus become a firm first step towards a better understanding of other aspects of aesthetic and poetic effects.

The University of Warsaw. History and Traditions

The University of Warsaw. History and Traditions

Author(s): Jerzy Miziołek / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: University of Warsaw; history of the University of Warsaw; buildings of the University of Warsaw; Frederick Chopin

The author gives an account of the most important events covering two hundred years of the history of the University of Warsaw and introduces profiles of its rectors, outstanding professors and graduates, among them Fryderyk Chopin. The book can be read as an introduction to the University’s history, and as a guide to its historic monuments and collection of plaster casts, as well as the engravings and drawings housed in the University Library Print Room. The author discusses the achievements and heritage of the Faculty of Science and the Fine Arts, and also of the School of Fine Arts, which existed on the University campus in the years 1844-1862. He also focuses on the history of the University buildings, its emblem and other symbols as well as he describes University’s scientific and intellectual achievements in the context of Poland’s history. The book is complemented with the interesting appendixes referring to the Chopins’ apartment at the University Campus, Stanisław Kostka Potocki, founder of the Museum of the University of Warsaw, the collection of Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi (University of Warsaw deposit in the National Museum, Warsaw) and the University graduates who won the Nobel prize. The final part is the calendar of the University history. This book, richly illustrated with little-known materials, is addressed to a wide circle of readers.

Reflections On Collective Insecurity And Virtual Resistance In The Time Of Covid-19 In Malaysia

Reflections On Collective Insecurity And Virtual Resistance In The Time Of Covid-19 In Malaysia

Author(s): Linda A. Lumayag,Teresita C. Del Rosario,Frances S. Sutton / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: collective insecurity; covid-19; migration;Malaysia;

No one escapes insecurity today. It is one of the most basic human experiences, more pronounced in others depending on their personal and social circumstances. Personal insecurities refer to the subjective feeling of anxiety and to the concrete lack of protection. This paper attempts to interrogate collective insecurity particularly among migrant workers. The paper likewise argues that such experience gives rise to a form of collective resistance which has become more pronounced within the context of the coronavirus pandemic. In this paper, we argue that migrant insecurity is a collective experience, and is all the more heightened in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. (see for example, Cohen, 2020). We further argue that forms of resistance have been developed as a response to collective insecurity.

Surmounting the Disconnect in Practical Lessons between Curriculum Expectations and Learners’ Prior Experiences

Surmounting the Disconnect in Practical Lessons between Curriculum Expectations and Learners’ Prior Experiences

Author(s): Adri Du Toit / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Consumer Studies; cultural inclusivity; curriculum expectations;

Home Economics, Consumer Studies and other similar subjects can contribute valuable learning to the lives of learners. Efforts to globalize the contents of these subjects have, however, occasionally led to a loss of cultural inclusivity in curricula, as has been the case in South Africa. Notwithstanding the South African educational landscape needing to cater for diverse cultures, the Consumer Studies curriculum still mainly focuses on Western knowledge and skills, particularly the selection of products that learners must make in food production lessons. This leaves especially African learners feeling disconnected and unmotivated to perform well or succeed in the subject. The overarching aim of the research was to frame recommendations in the form of practical suggestions as part of efforts to surmount this disconnect in order to broaden the perceived and experienced value of food production in Consumer Studies for a wider range of culturally diverse South African learners. A qualitative case study was employed to explore if and how a Consumer Studies teacher at a school consisting of mostly African learners was attempting to overcome the disconnect between the curriculum expectations and learners’ prior experiences. Interviews and site visits were conducted to collect data, and the data were then thematically analyzed from an interpretivist perspective. The findings indicate a substantial disconnect between the expectations of the teacher (informed by curriculum requirements) and the prior experiences and learning expectations of her learners, especially as regards the qualities of successful food products. Two recommendations are made: first, the teacher should use demonstrations as a teaching method to improve learners’ familiarity with products; and second, clear visual images should be displayed to learners to aid them in understanding the expected outcomes of the products they have to make in practical lessons.

Pope’s ‘Solid Pudding,’ Swift’s ‘Proposal,’ and the Poor: Poverty in Scriblerian Texts

Pope’s ‘Solid Pudding,’ Swift’s ‘Proposal,’ and the Poor: Poverty in Scriblerian Texts

Author(s): Przemysław Uściński / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Alexander Pope; Jonathan Swift; poverty; satire; compassion

This article presents a detailed analysis of approaches to poverty in Scriblerian texts. It discusses their complex attitudes, including the debate on the appropriateness of laughing at the poor in comedy or satire, and traces to the industrial revolution the definitive social and literary locating of the sources of poverty in the ineptitude, laziness and moral turpitude of the poor themselves.

The Face as a Stage: Roberto Bacci’s Hamlet

The Face as a Stage: Roberto Bacci’s Hamlet

Author(s): Jerzy Limon / Language(s): English,Polish / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: theory of the theatre; Roberto Bacci; Hamlet; Shakespeare

This article touches upon theoretical issues of the theatre, and the basic source used to exemplify the thesis is Roberto Bacci’s Hamlet. In this production, the actors wear fencing masks and costumes, and when they uncover their faces, they become particular fictional figures. However, after they have played their role in a given scene, and put the masks back on, the meaning they carried evaporates or is reset. This means that when they uncover their face again, they can assume the role of someone else. The essay analyses the rules of the theatre that enable transformations of this kind.

The “unseen” in migration and remittances: the case of South Asian migrant workers in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

The “unseen” in migration and remittances: the case of South Asian migrant workers in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Author(s): Prakash Arunasalam,Thirunaukarasu Subramaniam / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: migration and remittances; South Asian migrant workers; Cameron Highlands; Malaysia; remittances; migrant workers;

In migration research involving migrant workers, the often “seen” aspect is the determinants of migration, migration processes and patterns, income earned and the remittances made. However, there is another dimension of migration and remittances that often receive less or no attention which is the “unseen” aspect. The “unseen” aspect is related more to the sacrifices made by migrant workers which underlies the determinants of migration, migration processes and pattern, income earned and remittances made. The sacrifices made by the migrant workers often receive less attention in previous studies despite the sacrifices made by them are instrumental to the social and economic well-being of the migrant workers and their families. They are willing to make various sacrifices because their goal is to maximize the remittances made to their home countries. The income earned by migrant workers has two main uses namely for expenditure and savings purposes. The savings made while working abroad are the money which is sent by South Asian migrant workers to their home countries as remittances. This implies that the more the sacrifices are made, the higher will be the amount saved, therefore the higher will be the remittances.

Figures of Hypocrisy

Figures of Hypocrisy

Author(s): Przemysław Uściński / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Charles Dickens; Utilitarianism; hypocrisy; pity; poverty; metonymy; parody; allegory

In Charles Dickens’s "Hard Times" (1854), the discourse of facts and figures is exposed as a mask of narrow-minded utilitarianism that promotes a morality blind to anything but statistical data. Parody and multi-layered irony allow Dickens to expose such reductive logic as hypocritical, demonstrating how the novel’s villains discredit charity and pity as unsound only to replace them with a pseudo-scientific reverence for practicality. This article examines the textual devices through which Dickens exposes such hypocrisy, also by looking at the intertextual references in the novel and some earlier satirical writings about hypocrisy, which often link this vice with pity (as William Blake so frequently does), and with the response to poverty (as in the case of, for instance, Henry Fielding and Percy Bysshe Shelley). It also discusses the aesthetics of the novel in terms of its use of metonymy and allegory, which help Dickens to build a grim, fable-like narrative that challenges the reductive worship of utility and appreciates the value of kindness and compassion.

Corporate financing

Corporate financing

Author(s): Sebastian Bodu / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: acquisition of the own shares; contributions; company; corporate finance; currency; debt; financial assistance; leverage buyout; management buyout;

Two are the external sources of corporate financing: equity and debt. These are exclusive and can be combined in turn (other sources of external financing no longer exist, but only variants thereof). Capital with which a company is financed is its engine, no company being able to operate without capital regardless of the industry. Funding may be private or public. Private financing is provided through banking credit or equity contracted through direct negotiation with investors. Each mode of financing has advantages and disadvantages, not only in terms of financial costs (direct) but also indirect costs. Internal funding source is self-financing, i.e. reinvesting the company's profit in- stead of distributing it in the form of dividends. Balancing the use of internal and external financing sources, as well as the share of an external source in relation to another external source, primarily depending on the cost of financing (direct or opportunity) is a difficult, important and complex decision. The more the company is and/ or the more attractive for investors, the more varied the range of financing options and the cost structure that is heavily influenced by rating agencies. Conversely, a small company without too many development prospects will not have access to all available sources in the market and will have to confine itself to small bank loans. A specific form of finance is the financial assistance. This is crucial in performing Leverage Buyouts or Management Buyouts. Although it was prohibited by the first form of the Second Companies Directive, now it is fully permitted provided that the company complies with the acquisition of its own shares, this being protected both the creditors and the shareholders. Unfortunately, Romania did not transpose the last form of the former Second Companies Directive (2006), not even after the recast or codification by Directive 2017/1132.

Defashionization for Sustainability: From Conspicuous to Conscientious Consumption Breaking Business Cycles for Environmentalism

Defashionization for Sustainability: From Conspicuous to Conscientious Consumption Breaking Business Cycles for Environmentalism

Author(s): Julia M. Puaschunder / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Agrohoods, Biophilia; Business Cycle Theory; Capitalism; Capitalist societies

The time for defashionization has come. With the United Nations Conference of the Parties COP26 heralding the call for attention to sustainable fashion, society is ripe to question the whims of fashion’s impact on sustainability. Is the luxury moment of our time harmony with nature and practicing degrowth in recycling to cherish sustainability? Already in the historic political economy foundations of capitalism, workers are described to produce in order to consume. Classic business cycle theory and the creative entrepreneur portray a human-innate need for change and innovation as the spring feather of capitalism. In capitalist societies, there is a race for innovation of entrepreneurs and offering new products on a constant basis in order to evade the falling rate of profit. Capitalist constantly innovate in order to offer new products in markets and reap the highest rate of return and profit from consumers, who constantly want to change and have access to changing products. Producers of goods are in a competitive race for innovation and offering new products to ever-innovation-seeking consumers. The constant pressure to innovate and offer new products on the supply side and the constant production for a salary in order to consume the newest goods and services lie at the core of capitalist societies. Climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals but also the Green New Deals in the United States and Europe as well as the New Generation EU have formulated aspirational goals of sustainability. The circular economy and conscientious consumption have become the en vogue trends of our times. The novel Coronavirus crisis COVID-19 has also driven demand for rest, recovery and degrowth. COVID Long Haulers in particular appear to favor harmony with the environment in agrohoods driving trends of deurbanization but also biophilia trends that resemble nature in interior design and clean unprocessed nutrition. How is our classic understanding of business cycles’ reinvention drive and the innovative entrepreneurs’ creative destruction justified in light of sustainability pledges? Have we reached an age of luxury in the appreciation of environmentalism that forms a larger transcending Gestalt that benefits future generations? This article asks if the time is ripe for a defashionization of economic business cycles of reproduction and harmonize ecology with innovation. The paper also provides vivid examples of sustainability capitalism solutions, which prove that the Green New Deal aligns economic values with sustainability. The New Deals, degrowth, minimalism, biophilia and agrohoods are newest trends that appear to crowd out whims of ever-changing trends for rest in sustainable well-being.

Of Words and Water

Of Words and Water

Author(s): David Jenkins / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: archetypal imagery; pond; river; lake; ocean; Baudelaire’s “L’Invitation au Voyage” and “Le Voyage”; Rimbaud’s “Le Bateau Ivre”; Wallace Stevens’ “The Idea of Order at Key West”

To honor Professor Cholakova on the occasion of her 60th birthday, I am happy to contribute this study of some fifteen pages, which I call “Of Words and Water.” This essay touches on many of the areas suggested in the invitation for the Fest schrift: aesthetic, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual problems and their provisional mythopoetic solutions, in exemplary poems by two French symbolist poets – “Invitation to the Voyage” by Charles Baudelaire and “The Drunken Boat” by Arthur Rimbaud – and “The Idea of Order at Key West” by Wallace Stevens, and refers the understanding of archetype, as developed by Carl Gustav Jung and Northrop Frye, to comments by the poets themselves, and to other scholarly insights. The “academic excursus” is introduced by a personal and general introduction.

Lubiąż and Świdnica – two concepts of baroquisation of Silesian church interiors in the second half of the 17th century

Lubiąż i Świdnica – dwie koncepcje barokizacji śląskich wnętrz sakralnych w 2. połowie XVII wieku

Author(s): Paweł Migasiewicz / Language(s): Polish / Publication Year: 0

Among the examples of baroquisation of church interiors in Silesia carried out or at least begun in the second half of the 17th century two stand out: the Cistercian Church in Lubiąż and the Jesuit Church in Świdnica. What they have in common is not just substantial scale, high artistic quality and use of numerous solutions previously unknown in Silesia, but, above all, French inspirations, which were rare in Habsburg lands in the 17th century and which reached Silesia via different routes. The furnishings of the Lubiąż church, preserved on site until the Second World War, was made in several stages, from the end of the tenure of Abbot Arnold Freiberger (1636–1672), through, largely, the tenure of Abbot Johannes Reich (1672–1691) and his successors in the 1690s and at the beginning of the following century. Initially, the main artist in charge of the project was Matthäus Knote, followed by Matthias Steinl – a designer and head of the workshop that produced most of the furnishings. Despite many novel solutions making the Lubiąż furnishings original and in some elements even “avant-garde” in stylistic terms, the very concept of baroquisation of the Lubiąż church is, as a whole, traditional. Although the furnishings do make up a regular, symmetrical composition, each of these “pieces of furniture” is an autonomous unit. By comparison, the other baroquisation, in the Jesuit Church, appears unique. It was carried out according to a design by the order’s sculptor Johann Riedel, who reached France during his study travel and learned many solutions used in that country. He came up with a concept according to which uniform furnishings for a vast majority of the interior were made in the 1690s and the first two decades of the following century. Unlike those of Lubiąż, the Świdnica furnishings draw on groundbreaking French solutions, which Riedel got to know in person, of the so-called décor extensif – with the main altar being linked to side altars by means of panelling, making up an extensive structure encompassing and organising the interior and giving it a Baroque character. This novel solution in Central Europe remained the only one of its kind in Silesia and was not imitated.

The Ending of Great Expectations According to South Park: A Science-fictional Revisitation

The Ending of Great Expectations According to South Park: A Science-fictional Revisitation

Author(s): Claudia Cao / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: adaptation;transposition;Charles Dickens;adaptation;South Park

The chapter investigates an episode of South Park dedicated to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, presenting it as a science-fictional rereading that modernizes the original story.

Inside Noise: Intersemiotic Translation and Metatheatre in Radio Drama

Inside Noise: Intersemiotic Translation and Metatheatre in Radio Drama

Author(s): Łukasz Borowiec / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: semiotics;metatheatre;radio drama;BBC

The chapter analyses how various semiotic systems work inside a radio play on the basis of the BBC radio production entitled Noise (2012) by Alex Bulmer.

Violence in textile: A closer look at the warrior shawls of Nagaland

Violence in textile: A closer look at the warrior shawls of Nagaland

Author(s): Rugmani Venkatadri / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Keywords: Violence in textile; A closer look; warrior shawls; Nagaland;

India is akin to an ethnographic museum for the purpose of anthropological study. The nature of the diversity within Indian terrain itself gives rise to diversity in the following - Climate, Weather, Flora & Fauna as well as available resources. The connections between people and the landscapes they inhabit are very crucial, as each has an effect on the other. Human lifestyle is a consequence of efforts for continuous adaptation to these factors. Material culture is both a symbol and outcome of human lifestyle.