Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze how major transnational firms adjust their corporate visual identity (CVI) when entering foreign markets and to determine whether there is a relationship between firmand market-level factors and CVI adjustments as well as an impact on a company’s performance. Methodology/approach: A deductive approach was applied utilizing triangulation with quantitative research through a content analysis of websites of transnational firms (n=329) and qualitative research through semi-structured interviews with six firms. Findings: Out of all observed companies, 46.2% adjusted at least one element of their CVI when entering a foreign market, with most changes being incremental and the slogan being adjusted most often. The greater the international experience of a firm, the less likely are CVI adjustments. Out of the qualitative analysis, a major impact of global branding strategies arose, which often sets strict guidelines for local managers. There are positive relationships to the industries of food processing and restaurants and a negative relationship to the industry of automotive & truck manufacturers. Whether B2B or B2C markets are targeted is, however, not significant. The firm’s performance is not affected by CVI adjustments as no significant relationship has been found. Managerial implications: Managers cannot follow one general conclusion with regards to CVI adjustments found within literature, they should rather take the individual firm- and market-level factors of their business environment into account and use this study as well as additional scientific evidence as the starting point for their own decision-making process. Research limitations/implications: Limitations include the number of items and the convenience sample, as well as the limitation to only one foreign market per company for the analysis. The empirical data represents a certain point in time and does not reflect any developments that may have occurred over time. Further research may include a statistical analysis of the factor of global brand strategy and an investigation on how CVI adjustments and with it a firm’s performance change over time. In addition, a follow-up study could take into account all foreign markets a multinational firm operates in. Originality/value: This paper is one of the first to analyze adjustments of CVI elements and theirrelationships with firm- and market-level industries on a global scale, not limited to few companies or countries. Thus more general conclusions can be drawn.

The primary aim of this study is to determine whether it is possible to standardize written feedback on L2 student writing for use in a computerised marking environment. It forms part of a bigger project aimed at enhancing the feedback process as a whole The study attempts to establish "best practice" with regards to feedback on writing, by establishing from the literature what works and what should be avoided. Also, an empirical study was launched to establish what lecturers focus on and what marking techniques they use. A set of randomly selected essays from the Tswana Learner English Corpus and the Afrikaans Learner English Corpus were sent to the English departments of different tertiary institutions across the country. The essays were marked by the English lecturers at the relevant institutions. The conclusion was that lecturers typically focus on surface structures, and use ineffective marking techniques. The best practice (and data from the empirical study) was then used to create a set of standardised feedback comments (tag set) that can be used in a specially programmed software package in which students submit their texts electronically. Lecturers can then mark the student essays on the computer, hopefully speeding up the process, while at the same time giving much more detailed feedback. In later stages of the bigger project, students will get individualized exercises based on the feedback, and there are experiments currently being run to try and automate certain pans of the marking process in order to take some strain off the lecturers when marking. The immense archiving abilities of the computer will also be utilized in order to create opportunities for longitudinal studies. The effectiveness of the feedback tag set was tested in comparison to the marking techniques used by the lecturers in the empirical study and a self-correcting exercise. The conclusion was that the feedback tag set is more effective than the other two techniques. but students seem to perform weak overall when it gets to the revision of cohesive devices and supporting arguments. I argue that students are not used to revising these features, since lecturers seldom (if ever) comment on the structural elements of texts. However, the experiment proves that standardization of written feedback is possible to an extent. The implications of the findings are discussed, and recommendations for further research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Until recently, the development and maintenance of the standard international disease classification for diagnostic, epidemiological and health management purposes has been handled by a closed group of experts with little input from other members of the medical community, interested organizations, or patient groups. The eleventh revision of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) represents an attempt to involve a much broader stakeholder group in the process of redesigning a standardized classification. Our research is an exploratory case study of this revision effort. We examine the socio-technical ecosystem of the ICD-11 project and produce a set of five recommendations for developing inclusive standardization systems. These recommendations are supported by an analysis of two additional projects in the health information and informatics domain, as well as a varied collection of literature. Our first recommendation implores system designers to consider technology-readiness and collaboration-readiness. We also advocate for the support of articulation and coordination work, and address the need for a distinct purpose and clearly defined process surrounding any introduced technology. Finally, we shed light on the need for incremental openness when attempting to involve a wide audience of stakeholders in the development process. / Graduate

The purpose of this research was to study the applicability of management system standards (MSSs) in a research and development (R&D)-oriented nanotechnology setting. Since multiple quality and R&D-specific standards were found to be relevant in such environments, a methodology for the integration of MSS requirements into an organizations management system (MS), found in the recently published Integrated Use of Management System Standards (IUMSS) Handbook, was also tested in the study. The steps within the IUMSS methodology were applied to integrate the requirements of two R&D MSSs (UNE 166002:2006 and EARTO:2000) into the existing ISO 9001-based quality management system (QMS) within a Case Study Organization (CSO). Recommendations for achieving full compliance with the standards were also provided to the CSO. This research provides significant contributions for any organization using or intending to use the IUMSS methodology for building and integrating standardized management systems in an R&D-oriented setting such as nanotechnology. / Engineering Management

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-147). / xiv, 147 leaves, bound maps 29 cm

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Hamburg.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Hamburg.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Hamburg. / Description based on print version record.

This paper addresses the tension between benefits of centralized data control against the benefits of decentralized control at the level of the business unit. Centralized data control provides the benefit of uniform standards whereas business unit data control grants flexibility to react to rapidly changing environments. Many data standardization efforts fail because they do not fully take into account the value of flexibility and ownership incentives. We use a real options based framework and the theory of incomplete contracts to derive propositions about the optimal level of data standardization across the enterprise. Applications of the propositions are illustrated with case vignettes. The paper makes two main contributions. First, the approach defines formally how incentive structures influence ownership of the option value or value of flexibility, which is an intangible information asset. Second the derived propositions would help senior management to more precisely consider aligning incentives in data standardization exercises.

Η ψηφιακή εποχή για πολλά ευρωπαϊκά αρχεία, βιβλιοθήκες και μουσεία δεν αποτελεί πλέον επιλογή, αλλά πραγματικότητα. Η μετατροπή του πολιτισμικού περιεχομένου όλων των ειδών σε bits και bytes ανοίγει νέους ορίζοντες στην προσέγγιση παραδοσιακού και νέου κοινού, προσφέροντας πρόσβαση σε πολιτισμικές πηγές με τρόπους ασύλληπτους δεκαετίες πριν. Επίσης, οι ανάγκες για αποτελεσματική και εύκολη πρόσβαση σε γεωγραφικές πληροφορίες έχουν αυξηθεί θεαματικά τα τελευταία χρόνια λόγω του αυξανόμενου πλήθους εφαρμογών που χρησιμοποιούν χωρικά δεδομένα, της γενικότερης πολιτικής για ελευθερία πρόσβασης σε πληροφορίες, και της τεχνολογικής εξέλιξης που έχει επιβάλλει νέα φιλοσοφία και νέες δυνατότητες στην πρόσβαση και συσχέτιση δεδομένων. Για να εξυπηρετηθούν αποτελεσματικά οι ανάγκες αυτές, απαιτείται μια ευρεία λειτουργικότητα μεταξύ συστημάτων, δεδομένων και διαδικασιών, γνωστή ως διαλειτουργικότητα. Η διαλειτουργικότητα, τουλάχιστον όσον αφορά την πρόσβαση σε πληροφορίες και τη μεταφορά τους, υλοποιείται μέσω της τυποποίησης τόσο της δομής και της σημασίας τους (content, representation, semantics), όσο και της μορφής μεταφοράς (format) μέσα από ένα σύνολο κανόνων που συνιστούν αυτό που ονομάζεται πρότυπο. Η απαίτηση των χρηστών για υιοθέτηση προτύπων εκτιμάται ότι θα είναι έντονη τα επόμενα χρόνια, ενώ η διαμόρφωση και καθιέρωση ενός τυποποιημένου τρόπου ανταλλαγής δεδομένων φαίνεται ότι είναι η μόνη που μπορεί να διαφυλάξει από απώλεια επενδύσεων σε ήδη παραχθέντα δεδομένα αλλά και εξοικονόμηση χιλιάδων ανθρωποωρών, που τώρα αναλίσκονται για τη διαμόρφωση κατά περίπτωση προγραμμάτων - μεταφραστών, για αντιμετώπιση άμεσων αναγκών. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία επικεντρώνεται στα διαφορετικά πρότυπα τυποποίησης της σημασίας της πληροφορίας, των μεταδεδομένων. Συγκεκριμένα στα μεταδεδομένα της πολιτισμικής και γεωγραφικής πληροφορίας. Αναφέρονται λοιπόν τα δημοφιλέστερα πρότυπα μεταδεδομένων πολιτιστικής και γεωγραφικής πληροφορίας, τα χαρακτηριστικά και η δομή τους καθώς και πραγματικές εφαρμογές τους. / The digital season for many European archives, libraries and museums is not any more an option, but a reality. Converting the cultural information into bits and bytes opens new horizons in attracting traditional and new audience and permits access to cultural resources in ways inconceivable a few decades before. Also, recently the need for efficient and easy access to geographical information has been increased dramatically due to the increased number of applications which use spatial data, to the need of free access to information and to technological evolution which has imposed a new philosophy and new possibilities to access and association of data. In order to serve efficiently these needs, an interaction among different systems, data and processes is required known as interoperability. The interoperability, as far as access to information and carrying information is concerned, is materialized through standardisation. There are three types of standardisation: of the structure, of the meaning (content, representation, semantics) and of the way the information is carried (format) according to a set of rules which compose what we call standard. It is expected that in the next few years a larger number of users are going to use and adopt standards while at the same time the configuration and establishment of a fixed way of exchanging data is the only one to secure loss of investments of already produced data and to save thousands of man-hours that are now wasted for configuring programs per case for facing urgent needs. The present paper is focussed on the various standards of the meaning of the information. We only concern about cultural and geographical information. It presents the most popular standards of metadata of cultural and geographical information as well as real applications that use them.