Japanese companies have been said to rarely have strategies that resemble the ones that can be seen in literature from the Western world. However, even though Japanese companies do not show the same kind of strategy as can be found in the west, it does not necessarily mean they have no strategy at all. Recent studies have shown that Japanese companies do show clarity in their approach to strategy. Still, not much research can be found on this subject. When the world is becoming more globalized and multinational, it is of interest for both the companies’ stakeholders and shareholders to know how they operate, and their strategic planning process is one part of this. The research question therefore becomes: How does the process of strategic planning in Japanese companies work and in what way is the Japanese culture an influence? The main purpose of this master thesis is to provide a deeper understanding concerning the concept of strategic planning in Japanese companies. It also has two sub purposes. Firstly, this research aims towards understanding the current strategic planning process, in what way it is used in Japanese companies. Secondly, it will try to understand if the Japanese culture influences the strategic planning process and if so, in what way.The thesis is based on a qualitative study with semi structured interviews where five respondents were divided into two categories (based in the respondents’ background), two respondents with a Japanese view and three with an international view. A constructionist ontological position, interpretivism epistemological position and an inductive scientific approach have been adopted.The theoretical framework is divided into two parts; the first concerns the strategic planning process and the second Japanese business culture.Analysis was done across the two different categories of respondents’ and from my research I have found that the strategic planning process in Japan is different from company to company but that they all tend to share one important step, consensus. I have also found that Japanese culture has had a great impact on the strategic planning process although there seem to be a shift towards becoming more streamlined and more international to be able to compete on the global market.The practical implications of my findings are that since Japanese companies seem to incorporate their culture into their strategic planning, it is important that the field of strategic planning research take into consideration the culture and its effect on the strategic planning process. Japanese companies also need to assess if strategic planning should be used as a way towards becoming more globalized, and if so, in what way.

Globalization and global markets are dominating in the today’s business arena. Companies are more often than not required to internationalize and operate in global markets instead of just competing within national borders. Due to the high level of globalization, psychic distance between nations and countries is argued to have decreased significantly. However, underlying national and business culture differences still very much exist and companies must be aware of and take the differences into account in their international operations. For decades cross-cultural science has been guided by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions model and it is widely used to research and describe national cultures and differences between different cultures. Psychic distance concept is one of the most applied constructs of multinational enterprises’ internationalization and it has deservedly attracted a lot of attention within the literature and research of international business. Psychic distance is recurrently utilized when presenting and evaluating differences between a company’s home and foreign market. The general underlying notion of psychic distance is that companies operating in psychically close countries will succeed in their international operations. However, there is an increasing amount of research and literature providing contradictory evidence, referred to as psychic distance paradox. According to the concept of psychic distance paradox, perceived similarities within countries may result in cultural overconfidence and inadequate preparation prior entering psychically close markets resulting in poor organizational performance. The aim of the dissertation is to contribute in the research of the psychic distance concept regarding the existence of the psychic distance paradox and how it appears in the international business. The main focus is on management’s perceptions of psychic distance and how they affect a company’s organizational performance in psychically close foreign market. From the research conducted it can be concluded that the management’s perceptions of psychic distance can essentially affect the company’s organizational performance in a foreign market. In case the management’s perceptions of psychic distance are not in accordance with reality and the differences are overlooked, the company can face difficulties and poor organizational performance even in a psychically close market. The findings of the research provide additional proof to the existence of the psychic distance paradox concept.

Research where personality in animals is studied is becoming more and more common. In this area there are different concepts like behavioural syndrome and animal personality and they usually talk about consistency in behaviour over time and situations. This consistent individual behaviour can be used as an indicator of how individuals can handle and adjust to new situations in the environment. Because of this, personality studies in animals are very important in animal welfare. In this study personality in dairy cattle in lose housing were studied. 28 cows of the breeds Swedish black and white cattle (SLB) and Swedish red and white cattle (SRB) was studied during three observation situations (milking, undisturbed behaviour and novel object). With the help of Principal component analysis four components that together explained 72% of the variation in data were found. The two first components could then be interpreted. The first component corresponds to the dimension extraversion in the”Big five” model that is used in personality studies in humans. The second component was the opposite of the first one, which means that it showed low activity and low sociability. This low activity could indicate fear dependent on why the cows were standing so much. T-tests only showed significant differences in the behaviour based on the age of the cows, which indicates that the personality trait becomes more typical with higher age. The conclusion is that there are individual differences in dairy cattle which could be interpreted as personality traits.

Abstract As for the biotechnology industry development had constructed the basis of favorable environment in Taiwan, government gives fresh impetus to biotechnology industry in recent years. The Executive Yuan established ¡§Bio Taiwan Commission (BTC)¡¨ on 2004. For the purpose of strengthen the development blueprint of biotechnology industry; the BTC belong to the rank of national policy. The government shows its determination to develop this new and developing industry by marking biotechnology industry as priority event on biotechnology industry strategy convention in latest 5 years and ¡§The challenge to year 2008 nation development significant plan¡¨. The management problems, which are brought with this new and developing industry, needs to be resolved one by one. This study focus on biotechnology industry, which is high risk long-term development, huge money investment on research and development, people¡¦s conservative investment attitude¡Ketc characters. The purpose of this study is not only to establish an valid assessment dimensions and assessment items on investment evaluation of venture capital; but also that in order to reduce the risk of investment. This study not only examines the investment evaluation standard on starting enterprises in the past but also generalizes overall assessment dimensions based on characters of biotechnology industry. The overall assessment dimensions are: management team; product technology; market size and marketing; financial management and patent. The study also includes individual assessment items and discussion of significance level. These assessment items include team competency; social experience; product features; product technology and manufacture; marketing access; financial forecast rationality; capital requirements; patent layout and contract¡Ketc. The result demonstrate that investment manager insist on attention significance level from these items analysis. This research method is based on questionnaires and in-depth interview, which establish appropriate investment standard on biotechnology industry. The research outcome shows management team is first priority on overall assessment dimensions. This research explain goal-oriented; management ability in a team; product life cycle; critical technology; marketing access; capital expenditure; stock price rationality; patent range and related party transactions that are first tier on significance level. These studies reveal that investors focus on what evaluation factor is import and provide for a reference to fund-raising of biotechnology companies in the future. Key words: venture capital, investment evaluation, assessment dimensions, assessment items, significance level

There is a gap in the literature concerning personal perceptions of one's own power in organizations. Information Technology (IT) personnel are positioned to be an excellent target group for researching this subject. Status Construction Theory (SCT), Mintzberg's model of organizational structures, and Network Exchange Theory (NET) provide a useful lens for considering the results of this exploratory study. Because power is a widely contested term, a dimensional view of power was used in this study. Twelve indicators of power were identified in the literature and used to create a quantitative survey instrument. Survey participation was solicited online from 350 employees of a small private university in the southwest with a 33% response rate (N=116). In addition, qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 IT professionals and compared with the survey results in a mixed methods approach. The survey did not work as expected. A factorial analysis was used to examine the survey results. However, the factors did not match the twelve power indicators as expected. Also, because of the small sampling size of the survey site, differences between groups were not significant enough for comparison. However, two significant factors did emerge which were interpreted as representing "respect" and "control", indicating that IT personnel at the survey site may be respected for what they do and recognized as having legitimate control of information systems. Even so, these factors of respect and legitimate control do not translate into a perception of significant power advantage for IT. The interview responses supported this conclusion. It was found that for these participants, while IT personnel are in positions to be more powerful members of their organizations, they typically do not seek out or take advantage of such power. The predominant concern for IT, however, was not the exercise of power per se, but rather having the influence to make the organization better. This was evidenced by IT members feeling left out of key decision-making processes. SCT, NET, and Mintzberg's organizational model offer several possibilities for enhancing IT's power and influence by improving their professional status among organizational members.

The vascular endothelium continually senses and responds to both biochemical and mechanical stimuli to regulate vascular function in health and disease. The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the molecular mechanisms by which endothelial cells (ECs) respond to sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) and fluid wall shear stress (WSS) to initiate angiogenesis. To accomplish this, a novel cell culture system was developed to study the combined effects of S1P and WSS on inducing EC invasion into three-dimensional (3-D) collagen matrices. EC invasion required the presence of S1P, with the effects of S1P being enhanced by WSS to an extent comparable with S1P combined with pro-angiogenic growth factor stimulation. The extent of EC invasion depended on the magnitude of WSS in a biphasic manner, with the greatest induction occurring at 5.3 dyn/cm2 WSS. Several proteins have been implicated in EC invasion, including calpain, Akt, vimentin, p21-activated kinase (PAK), and membrane type 1-matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP). Interestingly, activations of calpain and MT1-MMP and phosphorylations of Akt, PAK, and vimentin coincided with, and were required for, S1P- and WSS- induced EC invasion. Further, inhibitors of calpain, MT1-MMP, Akt and PAK all attenuated invasion induced by WSS and S1P. Calpain inhibition reduced Akt phosphorylation, vimentin cleavage, and MT1-MMP membrane translocation, suggesting that calpain regulates MT1-MMP via Akt phosphorylation and vimentin remodeling. Akt inhibition also completely blocked MT1-MMP membrane translocation and decreased phosphorylation of PAK and vimentin. In summary, these results suggest a new molecular pathway by which the combination of S1P and WSS stimulates EC invasion through calpain, Akt, PAK and vimentin to regulate activation and membrane translocation of MT1-MMP in 3-D collagen matrices.

Malgré le succès expérimental rencontré par le Modèle Standard (MS) de la physique des particules, certains phénomènes (les oscillations de neutrinos) et certaines questions fondamentales (l'origine des hiérarchies entre les différentes échelles caractéristiques) n'y trouvent pas de réponse. Il y a une nécessité d'aller au-delà du MS pour le compléter. Le sujet de cette thèse est d'étudier la phénoménologie des modèles supersymétriques ou extra-dimensionnels et les déviations de leurs prédictions par rapport à celles du MS dans le domaine de la saveur. <br />Tout d'abord, nous avons abordé la question de la conservation du nombre baryonique et leptonique via la conservation de la symétrie de R-parité dans les modèles supersymétriques de basse énergie. Plus précisément, nous nous sommes placés dans le cas où cette symétrie entre particules et `super'-partenaires n'était pas conservée. En utilisant les données expérimentales disponibles pour la désintégration rare du kaon chargé en une paire de neutrino-antineutrino et un pion chargé, nous avons entre autres obtenu une limite supérieure sur la valeur permise de certains couplages caractérisant la violation de la R-parité. Nous avons montré l'intérêt de prendre aussi en compte les contributions conservant la R-parité, négligées jusqu'alors dans les autres études sur le sujet.<br />Dans une seconde partie, nous avons étudié l'impact de l'introduction d'une dimension spatiale supplémentaire, repliée sur elle-même. Les exemples choisis concernent l'électrodynamique quantique et l'invariance de jauge, l'unification des forces forte, faible et électromagnétique ainsi que l'origine de la valeur des masses et des angles de mélanges des neutrinos. Dans ce dernier cas, l'étude a été faite dans le cadre du MSSM à 5dimensions. Typiquement, l'introduction de dimensions supplémentaires réduit le pouvoir prédictif. Cependant, des comportements généraux peuvent toujours être établis. Ainsi, nous avons pu mettre en<br />évidence la possibilité d'un mélange leptonique faible (de type CKM) à haute énergie, pour une région significative et raisonnable de l'espace des paramètres, résultat offrant de nouvelles perspectives pour l'étude de l'origine de la saveur et des liens entre quarks et leptons.

In the highly competitive environment businesses invest big amounts of money into the new product development. New product success potentially depends on different factors among which salespeople play an important role. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential link between salespeople’s personality, motivation to sell new products and performance in selling new products. Based on the theoretical background of the Big Five personality dimensions, motivation and selling performance hypotheses were formulated and tested using statistical methods of correlation and regression analysis. The data was collected within one technologically intensive organization – ABB AB in Sweden using online web questionnaire and self-assessment measurements. Total investigation was conducted among organization’s salesforce. The findings confirm the importance of salesperson’s personality empirically showing that the latter significantly predicts both motivation and performance in selling new products. From all the Big Five Extraversion was confirmed to be the most important predictor of both motivation and performance in selling new products. Extraversion was found positively related with both motivation and performance in selling new products. Salespeople scoring high in Extraversion and especially possessing such characteristics as confident, energetic and sociable tend to be more motivated to sell new products and show higher performance results. Other personality dimensions such as Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to experience complexly approached are not proved to be significantly related neither with motivation nor performance in selling new products. The results are explained by the extreme importance of Extraversion in new product selling situation which analyzing in combination with the other personality dimensions suppresses the others. Finding regarding controlling for certain demographical characteristics of salespeople reveal that performance in selling new products is determined by selling experience. Salespeople’s age is not proved to be significantly related neither with motivation nor performance in selling new products. Findings regarding salespeople’s gender though proposing that males are more motivated to sell new products cannot be generalized due to the study limitations.

When many people think of fractals, they think of the beautiful images created by Mandelbrot’s set or the intricate dragons of Julia’s set. However, these are just the artistic stars of the fractal community. The theory behind the fractals is not necessarily pretty, but is very important to many areas outside the world of mathematics. This paper takes a closer look at various types of fractals, the fractal dimensionality of surfaces and chaotic dynamical systems. Some of the history and introduction of creating fractals is discussed. The tools used to prevent a modified Koch’s curve from overlapping itself, finding the limit of a curves length and solving for a surfaces dimensional measurement are explored. Lastly, an investigation of the theories of chaos and how they bring order into what initially appears to be random and unpredictable is presented. The practical purposes and uses of fractals throughout are also discussed. / text

The discourse regarding cultural differences has mainly focused on dissimilarities between countries (inter-cultural variations). However, this thesis will suggest that intra-cultural variations also occur within national borders. Especially in developing countries, exposed and influenced by other cultures. The purpose with this thesis is therefore to reveal how culture is perceived on the eastern coast of China compared to the typical view of Chinese culture as a whole. The study has been made by conducting e-mail based surveys with the Swedish company Ericsson, Swedish Chamber of Commerce and the Swedish Trade Council. The result indicates a distinct difference in culture between east coast cities and inland China. Conclusively, intra-cultural variations appeared to be present in the studied country.