Rules of the Game for Emerging Market Multinational Companies from China and India

The prominence of Emerging Market Multinational Companies (EMNCs) in the global marketplace has challenged our assumptions about the nature of global competition and corresponding strategy. We use an inductive approach to conduct historical analysis of eight companies that originated from key emerging markets viz China and India. We examine the various strategies that EMNCs devise to circumvent the resource challenges faced in their home markets and develop routines and key capabilities that lead to their competitive advantage in developed nations. Our results suggest that EMNCs' foreign expansion is, on the one hand, based on their capability to acquire resources and absorb them to build their own advantage (supply-side-argument). On the other hand, it is also based on EMNCs' capability to find some market niches, i.e., entering into markets untapped by traditional MNCs (demand-side-argument). Finally, based on our analysis we propose a dynamic stages model suggesting that EMNCs' foreign expansion can be explained in three stages — licking the dirt to carve out the way; taking off with speed and strength; and around the world with excellence.     

Extended stirling family of discrete probability distributions

In this paper. introduced is a family of discrete probability distributions. whose probability function includes explieitly the Striling-Carlitz polynomial of the first or the second kind. The new family extends the stirling family of distributions. Sibuya (1988) includes the conditional distributions of the orginal ones and enlarges the application area.     

Survivors' pensions and their impact on the Brazilian labour market

In many countries the regulations governing survivors' pensions were established in periods when female labour market participation was lower than at present. However, the current trend in many Latin American countries is for growing levels of female labour participation. In Brazil, where there are no restrictions on the concurrent receipt of retirement and survivors' pensions, and where until recently lifelong pensions could be obtained without any conditionality, not only has the accumulation of such benefits grown, but there are indications that these rules have had a negative impact on women's labour market participation. Analysis of the case of Brazil shows the need for social security regulations to adapt to labour market changes, and underlines the need to acknowledge that social security regulations can actually have an impact on the labour market.     

Preoperative sexual status of Japanese localized prostate cancer patients: comparison of sexual activity and EPIC scores

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between sexual activity and sexual function using questionnaires distributed to middle-aged Japanese patients with localized prostate cancer.

Methods: A total of 145 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy were enrolled in the survey reported on herein. Sexual activity and sexual function were investigated via the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) and an original self-reported questionnaire.

Results: Of participants, 24.1% and 20.7% had sexual activity within a month period as investigated via the EPIC and original questionnaire, respectively. However, 29.7% of all those who reported sexual activity rate reported “about once every 2?months to a year,” as shown in the original questionnaire. Regarding sexual function as addressed through EPIC, no results within that questionnaire’s measure of sexual function showed significant differences among patients with a rate of actual sexual activity.

Conclusions: The present survey showed that more than quarter of preoperative middle-aged Japanese prostate cancer patients surveyed had actual sexual activity, though not within the preceding 4?weeks. To precisely evaluate sexual function of middle-aged Japanese patients, it is necessary to consider actual sexual activity.     

Some Results for Uniformizable Semi-Markov Processes

It is well known that finite Markov chains (M.C.s) in continuous time are uniformizable. That is, a finite M. C. in continuous time can be treated as an M. C. in discrete time with random Poisson transition epochs. In this paper, we see to what extent generalization of the uniformization to a class of semi-Markov Processes (S.M.P.s) is possible. A necessary condition under which S.M.P.s are uniformizable is provided. It is shown that, an S.M.P. with dwell-time distributions depending only on the current state is uniformizable if and only if the distributions are compound geometric distributions having the same base distribution. It is also shown that if the distributions are of generalized phase type then an S.M.P. being uniformizable implies that it is an M.C. in continuous time. Some properties that are shared by a uniformizable S.M.P. and the associated M.C. in discrete time are also discussed.