Strategic Brand Management

The recent bankruptcy of Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) has been much discussed. How could a company that was once as prominent as companies such as Google and Apple are today, fail so dramatically? While it is impossible to fully comprehend the mechanics of Kodak's failure, poor decision making and poor leadership appear to have played prominent roles in Kodak's decline and bankruptcy. With these lenses Kodak's downfall is analysed with attention to Kodak's leaders and the underdeveloped decision making routines they followed.

Proceedings of the 15th Annual International Society of …, 2001

Organization Studies, 2005

In this paper, we adopt a discourse analytic methodology to explore the role of institutional entrepreneurs in the process of institutional change that coincides with the adoption of a radically new technology. More specifically, we examine how Kodak managed to transform photography from a highly specialized activity to one that became an integral part of everyday life. Based on this case, we develop an initial typology of the strategies available to institutional entrepreneurs who wish to affect the processes of social construction that lead to change in institutional fields. The use of discourse analysis in analysing institutional change provides new insights into the processes through which institutional fields evolve as well as into how institutional entrepreneurs are able to act strategically to embody their interests in the resulting institutions.

DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4577.2165, 2014

Photographic companies in the United States, Japan and Germany share several characteristics, one of which is the palpable impact of wars in the 20th century. In this paper, I address from the perspective of the companies the impact of war in three areas. First is the early technological development in the industry in particular the contributions of American and German firms to photographic film and to the development of modern, hand-held camera and high quality optics. Knowledge of optics technology was imported into Japan in the early 1900s by various means when the First World War interrupted supplies of German cameras and lenses to Japan. Second, I trace the evolution of the industry during the Second World War taking into account the influence of government policy that directed companies to produce military-use photographic technologies. Without the benefit of radar in the Axis countries, optics enjoyed continuous technological improvement in addition to favour from the German and Japanese military governments. Finally, I analyse the post World War Two developments in the industry including government economic recovery policy that spurred peacetime expansion of the industry. In this light, sales of photographic equipment to military personnel stationed in occupied Japan and Germany played and important role. Regional wars in Asia including the Korean War and the Vietnam War affected world trade such that professional war photographers substituted German products with Japanese ones. Their positive reviews of Japanese technology helped shape what became a predominantly favourable opinion of Japanese goods, which in the early post war years were considered inferior to German products. Although much of the early technological influence in the photographic industry travelled from the United States and Germany to Japan, in the latter half of the 20th century the direction reversed in, for example, the incorporation of advanced materials and electronics into production processes. War and its impact were perhaps the most influential in that reversal.

Food Biotechnology, 2007

The gene of a thermostable alpha-galactosidase, aglA, from Thermus sp. strain T2 was sequenced, cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli (strain MC 2508. The purified enzyme proved to be quite thermostable, retaining high levels of activity even after incubation at 70°C. The optimal T was 65°C at pH 7. The highest activity was achieved at acid pH values, although good activity could be obtained in a broad pH range. Enzyme stability depends on the enzyme concentration at alkaline pH values, suggesting that under these conditions the subunit dissociation may be the first step in the inactivation of the enzyme. However, at pH 5 the enzyme stability becomes independent of the enzyme concentration. The enzyme also exhibited a quite broad specificity, although it shows the best activity with alpha derivatives of galactose, and was able to recognize very different substrates (alpha derivatives of mannose, xylose and maltose, and even beta galactose derivatives). There was no detectable activity against glucose derivatives.

Large Lenses and Prisms, 2002

This paper describes progress on the development of a new process for producing precision surfaces for the optics industry, and potentially for other sectors including silicon wafer fabrication and lapping and polishing of precision mechanical surfaces. The paper marks an important milestone in the development programme, with the completion of the construction of the first fully-productionised machine, and the first results from the commissioning process.

2005

Com o objetivo de avaliar o banco de sementes no solo e compreender aspectos da dinâmica sucessional de Floresta Estacional Decidual, foram coletadas 60 amostras de 1 m 2 no final de cada estação do ano, em três estágios sucessionais (Capoeirão, Floresta Secundária e Floresta Madura). Em cada ponto amostral, foi coletado o folhedo e os primeiros 3 cm de solo. No Centro Tecnológico de Silvicultura da UFSM o material foi posto para germinar, separadamente, em canteiros de madeira de 1 m 2 , que continham 5 cm de solo de horizonte B como substrato. Os canteiros foram cobertos com sombrite de 50% de sombreamento para o Capoeirão, 70% para a Floresta Secundária e 80% para a Floresta Madura. Foram feitas avaliações qualitativas e quantitativas, por espécie e unidade amostral, 20 dias após a instalação no viveiro e posteriormente a cada 30 dias. Foram calculadas a freqüência e densidade relativas e o Índice de Diversidade de Shannon. Encontraram-se 216 indivíduos, sendo a maioria deles na Floresta Madura, a qual também apresentou a maior riqueza florística. Nas três subseres, houve predominância de espécies secundárias iniciais. A estação de primavera apresentou a maior abundância de espécies, porém, no verão ocorreu a maior densidade de indivíduos por área.

The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga

Journal of Functional Analysis, 2008

We study the relationship between two classical approaches for quantitative ergodic properties : the first one based on Lyapunov type controls and popularized by Meyn and Tweedie, the second one based on functional inequalities (of Poincaré type). We show that they can be linked through new inequalities (Lyapunov-Poincaré inequalities). Explicit examples for diffusion processes are studied, improving some results in the literature. The example of the kinetic Fokker-Planck equation recently studied by Hérau-Nier, Helffer-Nier and Villani is in particular discussed in the final section.