Hasil untuk "Business communication. Including business report writing, business correspondence"

Alisa Kasianova, László Kovács

The current study explores the connection between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and advertising elements by analyzing Volkswagen’s Facebook posts targeting German and Italian consumers. For the analysis, 96 German and 57 Italian advertisements were collected from Volkswagen’s Facebook page. Texts and pictures of advertisements were analyzed using the semiotic approach, to identify how the cultural dimensions of Hofstede are present in the posts and how they reflect characteristics of the given culture. The analysis proved that German and Italian posts share certain common features; however, Volkswagen adapts the advertisements – both language and visual elements – to align with cultural expectations, balancing both universally appealing and locally relevant themes.

Monika Śleszyńska

Numerous scientists disseminate their research results in English-medium journals because their careers are often tied to publishing in English. Journal gatekeepers expect them to use correct scientific English in their manuscripts to make them publishable. However, many non-native English-speaking junior researchers do not know how to meet these expectations. The tentative study described in this article investigated the relevance of teaching plain English to Polish research students and its impact on their writing in scientific contexts. To answer three research questions, the Author employed a case study design in which thirteen PhD students at Bialystok University of Technology (Poland) became the participants of the didactic intervention. The study found that teaching plain English should be integrated into the PhD language programme because it brings numerous linguistic and extra-linguistic benefits to research students. Given the scarcity of research on this topic in Polish educational settings, the study may attract interest from scholars researching writing science for publication purposes or from teachers of English in doctoral programmes.

Usman Rafiq, Jorge Melegati, Dron Khanna et al.

[Context] Software startups are engines of innovation and economy, yet building software startups is challenging and subject to a high failure rate. They need to act and respond fast in highly uncertain business environments. To do so, they need to identify crucial and actionable information that supports them in making correct decisions and reduce uncertainty. So far, the software startup literature focused predominantly on what information to measure from a metrics perspective. Thus, there is a lack of research investigating how to deal with information from an analytics perspective. [Objective] The current study aims at understanding how software startups are dealing with crucial information that could lead to meaningful actions. The overall research question that guides the study is: what analytics mistakes do software startups make? [Method] We investigated 22 failed software startups using their post-mortem reports as the main source. They were included in the study because the founding teams made mistakes related to information and analytics, which contributed to their startup failure to various degrees. We analyzed the collected data using thematic analysis. [Results] Ten types of mistakes made by the 22 failed startups when dealing with information are identified. These ten types are further grouped into four categories from an analytics process perspective, including information collection, information analysis, information communication, and information usage. [Conclusions] Our findings contribute to a better understanding of how software startups are dealing with information. It provides an opportunity for software startup teams to learn from the recurring mistakes of failed startups. Interesting future research avenues include defining patterns and antipatterns in software startup analytics by studying both failed and successful startups and doing an in-depth investigation of essential metrics for software startups.

Deison Palacios Palacios, Janny Edison Córdoba Rodríguez

The objective of this research is to determine the perception of the quality of the education received by the students of the Technological University of Chocó Diego Luis Córdoba, using a measurement scale. From the literature review, SERPERF was chosen as the measurement scale and the items to be analyzed were adapted. Then, according to the selected items, the measurement instrument was designed, which consisted in a questionnaire of 24 affirmations with a Likert scale from 0 to 5, where 0 was equivalent to being “totally disagree” and 5 to being “totally agree”. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of 379 senior students from all the careers offered by the University. The dimensions analyzed were tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, security and empathy. The results allowed identifying specific aspects that the University must consider in continuous improvement processes

Chelsea Liu, Shuai Shao, Chang Liu et al.

Background Development and uptake of digital health technologies benefit from cross-sectoral efforts from academia and industry. Our study aims to identify the barriers and facilitators associated with academia–industry collaborations in digital health in middle- and high-income countries. Methods Trained personnel conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 stakeholders who were active in industry, academia or both. Stakeholders were based in middle-income countries (including China) and high-income countries (including the United States) as defined by the World Bank. Interviews were conducted in the stakeholder’s language of choice (Chinese, n = 12; English, n = 11). Qualitative interview questions elicited perspectives on stakeholders’ experience with academia–industry collaboration, challenges faced, and factors that facilitated the process. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, thematically coded by bilingual coders and analyzed using inductive content analysis. Results Stakeholders in both academia and industry identified complementary roles, authentic communication between partners, and clearly outlined goals or expectations prior to the collaboration as primary facilitators for success. Misaligned goals or expectations, differences in timelines for productivity and difficulties balancing expectations for business outcomes versus generation of scientific evidence were identified as primary barriers. Stakeholders in high-income countries reported inauthentic communication as a significant barrier to collaboration, whereas those in middle-income countries did not. Conclusion Outlining and communicating openly about goals and expectations for timeline and priorities as well as establishing complementary roles will facilitate fruitful academia–industry collaborations in the future. Best practices for communication styles may be dependent on the cultural setting, and thus should be adopted accordingly.

Rizal Yaya, S. Wibowo, ulfaturrahmah et al.

This study examines the effect of new mandatory disclosure policy, Government Regulation no 47/2012, on Indonesian environmental disclosure practices. The sample consists of 249 companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange from all industries except trading and financial sectors. Tha data is based on annual reports and sustainability reports from 2011 to 2013 which were available in the public domain. Year 2011 was the year before the policy was issued, 2012 was the issuance year, and 2013 was the year after the issuance. Comparing environmental disclosure practices at the year before and the year of the mandatory policy being issued, there were significant increases in terms of GRI index based information being reported; the number of words used to report environmental issues based on GRI; carbon emission index being reported; and the number of words used to report carbon emission aspects. In year 2011, only 13.95% companies were disclosing based on GRI, but then the amount increased to become 25.25% in 2012 and 30.90% in 2013. Based on detail analysis, it was found that the significant increases occur not in the companies with high carbon emission, but in the companies with moderate or low carbon emission. This study supports legitimacy theory as described by Suchman (1995) where in order to gain legitimacy, the role of social audience in legitimacy dynamics should be addressed. In this case, the issuance of new mandatory regulation has increased participation of moderate and low carbon emission companies in environmental disclosure practices where previously the issues used to be of interest for companies with high carbon emission only. Corresponding author: Rizal Yaya Email addresses for corresponding author: r.yaya@umy.ac.id First submission received: 19th October 2017 Revised submission received: 10th December 2017 Accepted: 28th December 2017 Introduction Prior research on environmental disclosure had been focusing on voluntary disclosures (Deegan and Rankin, 1996; Nik Nazli and Maliah 2004; Clarkson et al, 2008) leaving many unanswered questions particularly as to how it would bring about better environmental performance. Voluntary environmental disclosure, despite its merit as a starting point in fostering proactive sustainable business activities, has been criticised due to its limitations in ensuring that information reported are genuine and of good quality (Tilt 1994, Newton and Harte 1997). On the other hand, mandatory environmental disclosure policy, which functions as both tools of inducement and enforcement, is claimed as a better communication platform which would provide the much needed push for businesses to go beyond greenwashing (Mobus, 2005). This is due to the fact that mandatory disclosure directly exposes business organisations toward public scrutiny thus engendering them to seriously consider the link between their activities and the environment. Mandatory disclosure constitutes the ‘compliance’ factor which requires corporate responsibility approaches to be conducted more consistently and involved internalization of environmental costs, in order to reduce externalities. The Indonesian government has taken several steps to reduce pollution in the country. Early initiative was in 1990 organised by the Ministry of Environment to reduce pollution in river. Due to weak Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 12 Issue 4 July 2018 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 89 law enforcement system, since 1995 the program was then designed into the form of assessing and publishing companies waste water performance. Then, since 2002, the assessment was developed to include all three medium: water, air and soil, where in 2010 there had been 1,000 companies participated voluntarily to be assessed, classified and published to the public about their environmental achievements. Effort in terms of establishing adequate law had taken place in 2001 when Act no 22 on Oil and Gas was issued. The Act requires companies in oil and gas industry to prevent and manage pollution and recover any environmental damage including post-mining operation. To extend the coverage of environmental regulation, in 2007, the Government issued a new Limited Company Act known as UU no. 40 year 2007, which requires any company which uses natural resources eg mining or any company which does not directly use natural resources but their operation have effects on environment, to undertake social and environmental responsibility activities. A further step was when the Government issued Act no 32 year 2009 on Environmental Protection and Management, which says anyone or any entity which causes ambient quality for air, water, seawater, or environmental damage exceeds the standards, will have certain range of number of years in jail or certain amount of penalty based on their intention and degree of effects on people. Later, in 2012, the Indonesian Government issued a Government Regulation, Peraturan Pemerintah (PP) no. 47/2012 on social and environmental responsibility. This Government Regulation is the first that requires companies to report their social and environment activities in their annual report. The government, in its introduction to the PP 47 year 2012, said that the regulation is a follow up to the Limited Company Act 40/2007 as it would strengthened the country’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. The introduction of the regulation is timely given the fact that the business industries have been identified as one of the biggest contributor of carbon emission in the world (Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 2013). Furthermore, the level and quantity of corporate responsibility reports in Indonesia were relatively low during that time, raising many questions on the role of businesses particularly regarding their responsibility towards the society (Utama, 2011). Following the issuance of the new regulation, companies in Indonesia are now required not only to undertake social and environmental activities (as stipulated by the limited Company Act 40/2007), but they are also obliged to disclose their social and environmental activities in their annual report. Nevertheless, not much is known about the impact of the abovementioned change in regulation context, particularly on the outcome in terms of environmental performance. Considering this gap, the present study attempts to provide a baseline picture of changes that have happened in Indonesia, particularly in terms of environmental disclosure. Such exposure would be an important starting point for policy makers in drawing out future control measures for different type of industries in Indonesia. Across the globe, study on the impact of mandatory policy related to environmental disclosures practices had been discussed from various perspectives such as environmental regulatory performance (Mobus, 2005), volume and quality of disclosures (Jiménez et al. 2008; Choi et al. 2013; Kuo and Chen 2013; Chelli et al. 2014; Zheng et al. 2014), strategy and image (Kuo and Chen 2013), and relationship with shareholders (Zheng et al. 2014). Drawing from legitimacy theory, this study extends present literature by exploring legitimacy issue instigated by a mandatory regulation towards different types of industries with different nature of activities. As companies under different phases or needs for legitimacy will have different effort in convincing their social audience (Suchman, 1995), a closer look at the degree of environmental disclosure among the different industries would provide some guidance for policy makers in terms of establishing future minimum requirements regarding the nature and content of environmental disclosure. Literature review Legitimacy theory has been popularly used in environmental disclosure studies (Suchman, 1995; Gray et al., 1995; Deegan, 2002) given the fact that disclosure practice is a response to economic, social and political pressures surrounding companies in their effort to legitimise corporate existence and behaviours (Guthrie and Parker 1989). It is important to note that the legitimation dynamics go beyond the incorporation of evaluative and cognitive aspects, as they also acknowledge the role of social audience (Suchman, 1995). Thus, legitimacy may be defined as ‘a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 12 Issue 4 July 2018 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 90 norms, values, beliefs, and definitions (Suchman, 1995, p. 574)’. Central to the legitimacy theory is the social contract concept which underlines that a social contract exists between organisations and individual society members (Choi et al. 2013, p.63). The society offers organisations legal rights and authority to access natural and human resources that they need for their operations. On the other hand, the organizations, in exchange for the access of resources, ‘must continuously seek to comply’ with the community expectations to ensure their operations ‘remain legitimate’ (Mathews, 1993). Generally, literature on legitimacy can be classified into three broad types i.e. pragmatic legitimacy, moral legitimacy and cognitive legitimacy (Suchman, 1995). Pragmatic legitimacy is about doing self interest calculations based on most immediate audiences, where the motivation is to meet the requirement of the evaluator in direct exchange for sustenance. This type of legitimacy happens when a behavior is undertaken by the organization mainly to gain support for a certain organisational policy from a certain constituent, for instance, by incorporating or adopting the constituents’ standards of performance as its own. A common indicator of pragmatic legitimacy is the organisation’s adoption of the authority’s policy. Respond

Ariadna Strugielska, Katarzyna Piątkowska

  Despite the plethora of definitions and models of intercultural competence (IC), researchers still face challenges, among which bridging gaps between worldwide trends and local flows in intercultural discourse appears to be an essential goal if definitions and models of IC are to be exhaustive. The present paper summarizes trends in approaches to competence, culture and IC as presented in two types of discourse, global and local, pointing to incongruities between the two viewpoints. An analysis of intercultural research reveals that as opposed to global discourse, which is holistic in nature, local discourse is more modular. It remains an empirical question how these two discourses, and the centripetal and centrifugal forces that come with them, will permeate each other. Thus, the analysis highlights the need to enhance communication among researchers in order to manage multiple approaches, both global and local, and incorporate them into intercultural discourse.  

Veronica Yepez-Reyes

Social imaginaries are frameworks within which people organise their collective world; where imagination, not simply reason, plays a part in the construction of social practices. Through a grounded theory approach, this article asks whether and how social imaginaries of global fairness are present in connective action, a type of digital interaction for advocacy. From January 2014 to June 2015, the study followed the Facebook accounts of five advocacy organisations: Hivos, Oxfam IBIS, Intermon-Oxfam, SSNC and Vredeseilanden. Connective action, more than just accomplishing an expressing function of posting and sharing – which could be considered as ‘slacktivism’– denotes cooperating and acting by means of dialogic learning involving reflection and action. The research suggests that current social imaginaries may be built in connective action involving topics of nature conservation, equality, eco-farming, among others. Thus, the field of connective action remains open to theorizing how these imaginaries could constitute a strong foundation upon which communication for social change (CFSC) strategies may be grounded.

Lars Johnsen

No abstract.

Finn Sørensen

No abstract.

Sei-Hill Kim

L. Coleman, Lauren E. Cote, J. Gu et al.

- Redaktionen

Kristian Tangsgaard Hvelplund

No abstract.

C. Ingram, R. Teigland

M. Olsson, Shabnam Sultana, S. Rommer et al.

E. Byres, Matthew Franz

John R. Richards

THE CALIFORNIA JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE A publication from the California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine July 2000 President’s Message July 2000 will always be perhaps a special moment for CAL/AAEM. We are now moving forward with the first issue of our newsletter: the California Journal of Emergency Medicine. In less than two years and with only 200 California AAEM members, we have organized so far 3 successful widely-publicized Business Forums on critically important practice issues in emergency medicine (EM). We have supported emergency physicians (EPs) in their legal struggles for due process. We have recruited an impressive panel of EPs to our board of directors and to the leadership of almost every committee. Perhaps our most important effort has been in our opposition to the “Corporatization of EM” by publicly held and hospital owned entities. We have targeted “Exit Strategies” as our most important priority due its critically damaging impact on the welfare of the majority of EPs. CAL/AAEM stood unequivocally united with the CMA, ACHP and our own AAEM in supporting nearly 40 EP groups in their struggle to stand against what we believe is a dangerous violation of the California laws prohibiting the corporate practice of medicine by non-physician entities. We are also actively progressing in our work with the State Medical Board to address the issue of moonlighting while emphasizing the value of board certification in EM as a requirement for the independent practice of EM. Our patients deserve nothing less. I would like to dedicate the first issue of our newsletter and my first CAL/AAEM President’s message to CAL/ACEP. As EPs, united, we must all express our gratitude to CAL/ACEP for its long-standing dedication and its achievements on a state and national level. We also wish to thank its members and its current past and current leadership for the outstanding services CAL/ACEP has provided to all EPs on nearly every front. You equally touch the lives of your members and non-members. Many of our members and readers will next ask “Then why a second state organization?” Why not maintain a cohesive one- organization approach in California? Why even join CAL/AAEM? Those are indeed most legitimate questions. A second “organized EM voice” in California certainly carries the risk of weakening our efforts. It could be labeled as “divisive” and demoralizing. Why not simply participate and contribute effectively to a more resourceful experienced organization? Furthermore, CAL/ACEP is actually an organization that has recently embraced our participation. In June 2000, its members have elected three of our AAEM leaders to its own board of directors. CAL/ACEP has enriched us with many of our own AAEM members who are dual in their affiliations, including 3 of its own past Presidents. Even the EMPAC Board has at least 3 of our own AAEM members. (Cont. on page 2) Volume I, Number 1 Welcome Welcome to the first issue of The California Journal of Emergency Medicine. This journal is a quarterly journal dedicated to providing CAL-AAEM and other physicians up-to- date information on the practice of emergency medicine – both clinical and practical. Submissions are welcome and encouraged. It’s your forum for communication! Types of submissions include: 1. Viewpoint: Brief statement on a controversial topic (maximum 400 words). 2. Case Report 3. Review articles (maximum 1000 words) 4. Letter to the Editor: Response to published article 5. Original research Robert Derlet, MD Editor Address: Emergency Department UC Davis Medical Center 2315 Stockton Boulevard, PSSB 2100 Sacramento, CA 95817 Clinical Review Phenobarbital for Alcohol Withdrawal: Rapid Patient Disposition John R. Richards, M.D. U.C. Davis School of Medicine For thousands of years, ethanol abuse continues to be a serious problem worldwide. Emergency physicians face the consequences of alcoholism. Chronic alcoholics often present to the emergency department with seizures, ketoacidosis, and symptoms of withdrawal. These patients require significant physician time, nursing, and medical resources. For sedation and reversal of withdrawal symptoms, benzodiazepines (BZDs) have most commonly been utilized in the (ED) and intensive care unit setting. Phenobarbital is an older drug that is perhaps currently underutilized for alcohol withdrawal. In this article I will discuss the advantages of phenobarbital over BZDs in the rapid disposition of chronic alcoholic patients. The pharmacologic action of the diminutive ethanol molecule is complex. It is believed to increase the fluidity of the lipid bilayer of cell membranes within the central nervous system, resulting in alteration of membrane function from diminished viscosity. One example of this is the enhanced action of the inhibitory neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate at their respective receptors in the presence of ethanol. Ethanol also appears to affect opioid receptors, as well as many other membrane-bound enzymes and ion channels. A variety of pharmacologic agents have been tried in the past for withdrawal. Besides BZDs and phenobarbital, other anticonvulsants, such as phenytoin, have been used with limited success. Phenytoin has little efficacy in the mitigation of withdrawal symptoms, and does (Cont. on page 3)

Thomas Hestbæk Andersen, Morten Boeriis

In this article, we present an integrated multimodal method of analysing marketers’ discursive strategies. Using a social semiotic, multimodal framework, we propose ‘the relationship/participant focus analysis’ (RPF analysis). This method is socially significant in that it helps us identify the strategies marketers use to influence the consumer. RPF analysis reveals how marketing communication – exemplified with the register of packaging – relies on two fundamental factors, namely (i) communication perspective and (ii) personalisation. The communication perspective resides within the interpersonal realm of semiosis, focusing on the enactment of relationships, while personalisation resides within the ideational realm of semiosis, focusing on the construal of represented participants. RPF analysis suggests a way of tackling the multimodal complexity of marketing texts when these are seen as consisting of social semiotic acts of meaning, combining different semiotic resources. In the article, our focus is on the instantiated verbal and visual resources used on food packaging.

Hen Ping Lee, Sherry J. Holladay

Corporations face the challenge of creating awareness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts while avoiding the appearance of being overly self-congratulatory or self-serving. The low cost and less obtrusive format of social media may make it a useful communication option for creating awareness of philanthropic activities. Content analysis was used to examine how three types of social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) were used to provide information on corporate philanthropic activities. Forty corporations from the Fortune 100 were sampled to address three research questions. The first two research questions pertained to the availability of social media tools and the specific locations of access to those tools. Results revealed 82.5% of the 40 corporations provided links to at least one social media platform and 22 provided at least one type of link to at least one type of philanthropic activity. The third research question examined how social media platforms were used to report the eight types of philanthropy identified by Kotler and Lee (2005). In all, 140 philanthropic activities were reported. The most frequently reported types of philanthropic activity included donating cash (n = 72, 51.40%), donating products (n = 27, 19.30%), donating services (n = 15, 10.71%), offering grants (n = 13, 9.29%), and awarding scholarships (n = 5, 5.71%). Other types of philanthropy were infrequent. Results suggest these social media platforms offer a viable option for brief reports of philanthropic activities.