In today's, collaborative, customer-driven, networked economy, forming and sustaining strategic business relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners has become a mission-critical imperative for most businesses. This is the also case for the paper machine clothing industry. The organisations search and utilise for the key resources that can guarantee their success in the market place. The search for key success factors contributing to Albany International's leadership position in the paper machine clothing industry has been the dominant theme in this study. The literature review is predominantly focused on various types of business relationships, with particular interest toward cases of mergers, acquisitions, takeovers and joint ventures so identifying the key resources contributing to the development and delivery of sustained competitive advantage in the paper machine clothing industry. The study incorporates a critique of literature from technology strategy, cross cultural management, and strategic management fields. The research questions, set by the author, are designed to explore the technological, managerial and cultural factors contributing to the success of the organisation and its further growth in the market. Primary data has been collected through quantitative survey questionnaires, the results of which contribute to the development of the author's proposed model which is designed to predict the success of business relationships in the paper machine clothing industry. The results have been analyzed with Stata which revealed issues for further investigation. The most appropriate follow up research methodology for these latter issues was semi-structured interviews with managers of Albany International from the key branches. The analysis of the transcribed interviews has been undertaken with the use of QSR N6 (NUD*IST) qualitative software. The theoretical framework for business relationships success in the paper machine clothing industry is formed on the grounds derived from content analysis of the interviews. The new model, proposed by the author demonstrated that to build a successful business relationship Albany International had to approach this process from the four directions: due-diligence in terms of technological level, cultural fit, management styles, identification of the key people behind the business success. This process has to be clearly communicated to the employees, other people involved within the organisations in question, and to the external environment.

The exact origin of the peculiar naked barley is somewhat illusive. There   is a debate whether it has a single, monophyletic origin or a multiple, paraphyletic origin. It is from previous Asian studies on naked   barley known that a mutation   or a deletion of the nud gene expresses the   naked seed phenotype. Not much   investigation has been done outside of   Asia, least of all in the Nordic countries, on what gives naked   barley its character. Therefore this   study was set up to examine if   the Nordic variant of naked barley shares   the same nud allele as the Asian   and thus has a   close connection with it, or   if they have independent mutations. I   could confirm that the known alleles of the nud gene do determine the seed character of barley. Most of the   results of the PCR genotyping confirmed the phenotype of the tested   accessions, both naked and hulled barleys. However, one visually phenotyped naked   barley cultivar (NGB4580) still amplified with the known primers that would   match the Asian hulled allele, meaning that the Nordic accession NGB4580 of   naked barley did not carry the known nud   deletion. This suggests that naked barley has arisen independently in Asia   and in the Nordic countries.

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