Demographic transformation in Poland

The author presents a general review of the demographic transition in Poland from 1750 to the present day. Official data are used to describe the fluctuations in birth and death rates over this period.     

A gold key to initiate a new situation in family planning work]

Because of the popularization of a responsible agricultural production system, the livilihood of peasants has been improving greatly, while the demands and needs of the general public are also increasing at the same time. Still under the influence of the traditional belief of carrying on one's family line and emphasis on having male children, married people prefer to have more childre, and the birth rate is now rising again. In order to solve this new problem, we need to teach the peasants national policies on population, land utilization, and food supply. In order to initiate a new situation in family planning work, we need to control this "gold key" of ideological education and propaganda. The emphasis should be placed on ideological education for cadres at all levels as well as the general public in order that they may understand the Party's strategy. Education on the national strategy should be combined with material interests of the peasants, and reward and punishment in production should also be linked up with that of family planning. Social measures are needed to reduce economic burdens of the peasants, offer better treatment for single-child households, and provide adequate care for old and retired people. Family planning projects should be consolidated and improved. Scientific management, facilities and techniques for birth control, compensation for working personnel in family planning, and other practical problems deserve immediate attention and solution.     

Partnering with Russia's new entrepreneurs: Software tsarina olga kirova

This article focuses on a Russian woman entrepreneur who established a very successful software firm under license from an American software company. The case illustrates a productive and successful partnership between a Western company and a new Russian entrepreneur. Recent developments in Russian entrepreneurship are reviewed, and the selection of Russian entrepreneurs as business partners is evaluated. The American company is described briefly, followed by an in-depth discussion of its Russian partner and founder, Olga Kirova. Conclusions and interpretations are offered on choosing the right Russian partners, assessing their personal values, objectives and leadership skills, being a good Western business partner, and considering Russian women as business associates.     

Determination of recovery effort for a probabilistic recovery system under various inventory control policies

In this study we investigate the desired level of recovery under various inventory control policies when the success of recovery is probabilistic. All the used and returned items go into a recovery process that is modelled as a single stage operation. The recovery effort is represented by the expected time spent for it. The effect of increasing recovery effort on the success probability together with unit cost of the operation is included by assuming general forms of dependencies. Alternative to recovered items, demand is satisfied by brand-new items. Four inventory control policies that differ in timing of and information used in purchasing decision are proposed. The objective is to find the recovery level together with inventory control parameter that minimize the long-run average total cost. A numerical study covering a wide range of system parameters is carried out. Finally computational results are presented with their managerial implications.     

Strategic Alliance Outcomes: a Transaction‐Cost Economics Perspective

Empirical research on strategic alliances has been limited because previous studies examined alliance outcomes, and the factors associated with them, from a single partner in a manufacturing alliance. Furthermore, many of these studies have been done from a transaction cost perspective and researchers have inferred opportunistic behavior, rather than directly measuring it and observing its actual relationship with alliance performance. Building on previous transaction cost theory and research, this study seeks to address these gaps by analyzing factors associated with both opportunistic behavior and alliance performance within a major service sector, namely the US healthcare industry. After controlling for asset specificity and alliance age, we found that partner trustworthiness and contractual safeguards were negatively related to opportunistic behavior. Furthermore, opportunistic behavior was negatively related to alliance performance, as hypothesized. Interestingly, mutual equity investments were found to be unrelated to opportunistic behavior, counter to transaction‐cost logic. These findings refine and extend the transaction‐cost economics perspective regarding our understanding of strategic alliance behavior and outcomes, and offer executives in service‐based industries some practical ideas for assuring favorable strategic alliance outcomes.