Influenza A virus (IAV) replication and transcription occur in the host cell nucleus; a feature which means both the viral genome (vRNA) and mRNA must be exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. The mechanism by which vRNA nuclear export is achieved has been well characterised, but how viral mRNAs are exported is poorly understood. The cellular NXF1-dependent mRNA export pathway has been shown to be involved in the export of some viral mRNAs, but how they are recruited to this pathway is unknown. Prior work from our laboratory showed that segment 7 mRNA was inefficiently exported to the cytoplasm in a sub-viral ‘minireplicon’ system, providing the first indication that there were viral requirements for IAV mRNA nuclear export. Further addition of individual viral polypeptides was tested and the effect on segment 7 mRNA export was analysed by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and confocal microscopy. This identified the NS1 protein as the viral factor required for efficient segment 7 nuclear export. Mutational studies on NS1 were carried out to unveil the mechanistic role of this protein in viral mRNA nuclear export, by plasmid transfection as well as in the context of recombinant viruses. These approaches indicated that both functional domains of NS1 were necessary to preserve the mRNA export function. Furthermore, these mutant proteins were used to examine the association between NS1 and the NXF1-dependent pathway in the context of mRNA nuclear export. Protein-protein and protein-RNA binding assays indicated that interactions between NXF1 and NS1, and NXF1 and segment 7 mRNA were necessary, but not sufficient to promote segment 7 viral mRNA export. Lastly, the role of NS1 protein in the nuclear export of viral mRNAs from other genome segments was studied. The intracellular localisation of most viral mRNAs was not affected by the absence of NS1 or the presence of an export-incompetent NS1 mutant protein. However, segment 4 mRNA exhibited a similar phenotype to segment 7 mRNA in showing a dependence on NS1 for efficient nuclear export. Overall, the results presented in this dissertation suggest that NS1 acts as an adaptor protein between the viral RNA synthesis machinery and cellular export pathway. This provides deeper insights for the characterization of a recently identified function of the IAV NS1 protein, of being required for the efficient nuclear export of mRNA from “late” kinetic class viral genes.

The aim of the diploma thesis was to handle the recommendation, which would serve as a useful tool for businesses with the commercial intent on importing goods from China. It was necessary to recognize secondary data and gain primary data in order to comply it. The methodology of the thesis was divided in three parts. In the analytic part, the collecting of secondary information was carried out through the study of literature. The books and the Internet sources of Czech and foreign origin were used. On the basis of this information the literary recherché was written and then the analysis of the foreign trade of the Czech Republic and China was carried out. The synthetic part dealt with the preparation and the realization of the field investigation and its processing. To obtain the primary information the method of controlled conversation was used. The realization of field investigations was carried out in the company of ETA a.s. in Hlinsko. The subsequent evaluation of the field investigation was carried out through the drafting of a practical example, where the company's business cooperation with the Chinese enterprises to the ETA was pointed out. The last part of the application was devoted to the processing of recommendations of good practice when dealing with China, which presented a firm from the Czech Republic as the importer, and China's venture as the exporter, according to the example of the ETA company. The aim of the recommendation, which was established in the framework of this thesis, is to become a useful tool for businesses that have minimal experience with foreign trade and at the same time they would like to establish business cooperation with Chinese companies.

It has been recognised that exporting is an engine for growth at both country and firm levels. However, the challenging nature of international business often prevents companies from entering and surviving in international markets. In the Small and Medium-size Business context, lack of resource is normally the main reason behind the inability of firms to overcome export barriers. In recognition of the issue and for promoting exporting, the governments have been offering the so-called Government Export Promotion Programmes (GEPPs) to act as “resource supplements”. While there have been extensive practices, the mechanism and effectiveness of these programmes have not been thoroughly explored and analysed. In some academic studies, criticisms and doubts about these programmes have been raised. Against this background, the thesis investigates the working mechanism of these programmes and tests their effectiveness in terms of export initiation, performance and regularity. Using an extended version of the Resource Based View, two integrative and comprehensive conceptual models are developed in order to reveal the indirect impacts of GEPPs on export behaviour. The models are then tested with a total of 495 completed questionnaires collected from two sample countries; namely, Algeria and the UK. These were analysed through a multivariate analysis using a variance-based statistical technique known as Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. The findings of this thesis are two-fold. First, with respect to the critical resources affecting export behaviour, the study finds that while both Algerian and UK firms’export intention are affected by management resources only, firms’ export performance and regularity are instead mainly influenced by management and organisational resources in the UK and management and relational resources in Algeria. Second, regarding the impact of GEPPs on export intention, the study confirms its indirect nature through the management resources in both countries. However, when it comes to their effect on export performance and regularity, the indirect effect was only established in the UK and mainly through management and organisational resources. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications in that the results have provided empirical evidence on the indirect impact of GEPPs and can serve as an indication in practice for both firm managers and policy makers in deploying key resources for different stages of internationalisation.

The diploma thesis "Significance of Export Support in the Czech Republic" covers the theme of significance of the Czech export policy theoretically and also practically by studying, how Czech pro-export policy is used by Czech exporting firms.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of the world economic crisis on the state export credit support in the Czech Republic. The thesis describes the structure of export support in the Czech Republic and in the practical part it describes the impact of the crisis on the activities of EGAP between the years 2007 and 2014. Based on the course of the chosen company indicators, the thesis proves the anti-crisis character of the company.

In the diploma thesis, author focuses on the state of the Indian economy and the position of India in the foreign trade of the Czech Republic. Firstly, local specifics and current changes (after 2014 elections) are outlined. Afterwards, an analysis of the India's position in international relations, its foreign trade relations and the intensity of mutual trade with the Czech Republic is propounded. The third chapter deals with the Czech system of trade promotion, including a description of its institutional structure and relation to the Czech export destined to India. In the last part of the thesis, author provides readers with a case study of selected Czech companies operating in the Indian market. The aim is to evaluate the possibilities and limits of bilateral trade and investment exchange promotion.

No description available.

Identifying the antecedents of export performance is critical for researchers, due to the many benefits of exporting for firms and nations. Many researchers have, thus, devoted their research efforts to identifying export performance antecedents. Export marketing adaptation and firm level export market orientation (or EMO) have emerged as two critical export performance predictors. However, two important research questions remain unexamined. The first is whether firms ought to pursue heterogeneous levels of marketing adaptation across ventures in order to boost venture performance, and whether the answer to this question is contingent upon internal firm resources which support adaptation (namely EMO) and upon the environments faced across ventures. The second question concerns what the total amount (i.e. quantity) of export marketing adaptation firms should undertake in order to boost firm export performance is, and whether the answer to this question depends on internal firm resources supporting adaptation (more specifically, EMO) and on the overall export environments faced by firms. Underpinned by a contingent approach to the study of business performance, this study set out to answer to such questions, via developing and testing two conceptual models. The models were tested using data collected from British exporting companies. The findings of the first model indicate that marketing adaptation across ventures becomes increasingly beneficial for venture performance (directly in the case of sales performance and indirectly in the case of profit performance) as EMO rises and as the levels of environmental differences across ventures increase. Results of the second model suggest that, under greater levels of EMO, firm export sales performance attains its highest values when the firm practices either very low or very high levels of marketing adaptation quantity. Also, under greater levels of EMO, firm export sales performance is increasingly reduced the more the firm deviates from extreme (low/high) marketing adaptation quantities. Additionally, as the firm s export environments become more heterogeneous, the firm benefits increasingly more from pursuing either very low or very high marketing adaptation quantity levels (with sales performance being maximized when the firm pursues very high levels of marketing adaptation quantity), and the reductions in firm export sales performance accruing from undertaking intermediate marleting adaptation quantity levels are increasingly higher. Findings also suggest that enhancing marketing adaptation quantity is beneficial for firm export profit performance up to an optimal point. The returns brought by additional increments in marketing adaptation quantity are increasingly smaller as marketing adaptation quantity increases. Beyond an optimal point, additional increments in marketing adaptation quantity diminish firm export profit performance. The marketing adaptation quantity-firm export profit performance link was not found to be moderated directly neither by EMO nor by firm export environmental differences. EMO was found to have a positive impact on firm export sales and profit performance.

Master thesis offers a comprehensive look on export promotion in the Czech republic. It analyses the state of the Czech pro-export policy, the level of services offered by government to exporters and it suggests solutions to some current problems in these areas.

Thesis advisor: Richard McGowan / Subsidies have played a significant role in the production of agriculture during the 20 century. While the western world gradually phased out protectionist policies for industrialized sectors of the economy following World War II, agriculture continued to receive significant support from the state until efforts were made to establish more laissez-faire markets in the 1990’s by the World Trade Organization. This paper aims to judge the effectiveness of these policies on one program in particular: export credit guarantees. By examining the effects of credit guarantees on US wheat exports through panel data regressions, this paper hopes to provide evidence of the effectiveness of recent policy in creating egalitarian and free markets for agricultural commodities. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics.