Culture and Crisis Communication: Nestle India's Maggi Noodles Case

Extant theoretical paradigms in the field of crisis communication are organization-centric and do not adequately recognize the role of culture. The purpose of this essay is to analyze a crisis faced by Nestle India using the framework of global public relations which defines culture broadly to include political, economic, media, societal, and activist cultures. Our analysis revealed that a multinational corporation with over a century of presence in the country struggled to align itself to the complexities of the cultures of the host country. In the case of Nestle India, whereas environmental variables such as political economy and Westernization of urban India boosted the growth of its instant noodles, the multinational also struggled to cope with the rise of media corporatization, activist pressure and the vagaries of regulatory enforcement not to speak of cultural nationalism. It is evident that Nestlé's crisis response was governed more by its traditional corporate culture than by an ability to keep pace with the changing demands of its environment, leading to the amplification of an issue into a crisis. The study concludes that multinationals that ignore culture will be forced to pay a heavy price both in terms of reputation and the bottom line.     

Modelling period fertility: Schooling and intervals following a birth in Eastern Africa

We describe a regression-based approach to the modelling of age-, order-, and duration-specific period fertility, using retrospective survey data. The approach produces results that are free of selection biases and can be used to study differential fertility. It is applied to Demographic and Health Survey data for Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe to investigate differential trends in fertility by education. Parity progression fell and the intervals following each birth lengthened between the 1970s and 2000s in all four countries. Fertility fell most among women with secondary education. In contrast to other world regions, postponement of successive births for extended periods accounted for much of the initial drop in fertility in these African countries. However, family size limitation by women with secondary education in Ethiopia and Kenya and longer birth spacing in Zimbabwe also played significant roles. Thus, birth control is being adopted in Eastern Africa in response to diverse changes in fertility preferences.     

美国社会家庭婚姻之问题——析《这年的秋天》的叙事艺术

欧茨早期的代表作《这年的秋天》叙事艺术高超,展现了她对于美国现代家庭婚姻问题的思索。小说的叙事结构明显,欧茨从过去和现在两个层面综合展现了埃莉诺从年轻时到年老时完整的生活历程,使读者了解到一段婚外情对埃莉诺生活的影响,透过这些人物形象揭示出20世纪中后期美国社会存在的婚姻危机。     

论劳动密集型企业员工心理危机防护体系的构建

关注人的生命,预防员工发生心理危机,构建企业员工心理危机防护体系,是维系企业安定有序,提高劳动生产率的客观要求.引导年轻的新员工尽快适应企业的新环境,转变观念,构建企业心理危机防护体系的主动模式以及构建预防企业员工心理危机的多级防护体系应是企业预防员工发生心理危机的有效路径.     

闻一多新诗中的民族化建构思想研究

强调中西艺术的融会贯通,这是闻一多的一贯主张。闻一多认为,只有时时刻刻想着我是个中国人,才能做出真正的中国的新诗,因此,在他短暂的诗歌创作生涯中,他始终把新诗的民族性建构作为旨归并长期躬耕于此,他的诗歌表现了对民族历史与文化的关注,对祖国的热爱与对祖国命运的忧虑,对人民命运的同情与对黑暗势力的控诉,在内在精神方面呈现出显著的民族性。     

从苏童的《妻妾成群》探究中国的女性权力问题

本文分析苏童小说《妻妾成群》,深刻地揭示了女性生存权力的抗争。     

社会学的传统、危机与未来

自社会学诞生以来,它一直在为人类的社会生活寻找内在的结构、秩序以及某种方向性的意义。它的存在历史或发展历程,向我们展现了一种传统的不绝魅力与生机。社会学是现代性的科学。现代性的逻辑要求着我们,不得不去面对“社会学何为”或者“现代社会向何处去”这些必须回答的问题。从社会学的传统出发,试图对这一问题进行尝试性的回答。从中不难看出,现代社会对社会学提出了新的发展要求,社会学研究之路依然任重而道远。     

A content analysis of BP's press releases dealing with crisis

This study aims to analyze what kinds of frames have been used in British Petroleum's (BP's) press releases, which dealt with the Gulf oil spill crisis that occurred in April 2010. A content analysis was conducted to explore the different frames used by BP in its press releases to deal with the crisis. The main and sub themes are also analyzed through a content analysis of press releases. This study attempts to examine BP's crisis communication strategy through press release usage by closely analyzing the frames and themes that were used. This study found that BP attempted to update the public on what the company was doing to resolve the oil spill crisis, and that they made every effort to manage the crisis by using the company's official update frame. In addition, by using the social responsibility frame, BP aimed to show the public that they had intentions of taking responsibility for the oil spill. Finally, BP used a minimal number of defensive frames as a way of showing the public that they did not want to flee from the responsibility of the oil spill crisis.     

Getting back on track: the expanded use of PPPs in Ireland since the global financial crisis

The global financial crisis that took hold in late 2008 resulted in a major slowdown of activity in the global market for public-private partnerships (PPPs). Ireland was one of the countries most affected with over 20 major infrastructure PPP projects postponed or abandoned. Since 2012 however, the Irish government has adopted a number of initiatives to make PPP more attractive to bidders and private sources of finance. This paper describes these initiatives and shows that they have been associated with a renewal of PPP activity. It suggests that some of the adopted measures may involve trade-offs between encouraging PPP investment and achieving standard PPP objectives such as economic efficiency and better innovation. However, the attraction of public sources of finance from sources such as the European Investment Bank should result in a relatively lower cost of finance and enhance value for money if providers adopt rigorous risk management strategies.     

农民工返乡的理性分析与现实思考

金融危机、经济结构调整和惠农政策的影响是导致2008年下半年以来农民工大量返乡的主要因素。农民工的返乡引发了其收入的减少、子女的上学困难,返乡后的农民工难以适应农村的生存和生活,农民工返乡后给基层政府的治理带来困境。农民工返乡背后所反映的是农民工技能的缺失、农民工创业政策的不完善、土地流转还存在政策上的缺陷、农民工的社会保障制度还有待深化等问题。建议加大农民工培训力度;完善社保制度,使更多的农民工享受到社会保障的权益;降低农民工返乡创业的门槛;采取一些措施消除返乡农民工可能带来的一些治安方面的隐患;规范土地流转制度。