Multifocality and opportunity structure: towards a mixed embeddedness model for transnational migrant entrepreneurship

This article addresses transnational migrant entrepreneurship, which refers to migrants involved in cross-border entrepreneurial activities. Previous models and concepts in migrant entrepreneurship studies have not fully succeeded in recognising the role played by differential groups and places in the pursuit of opportunities by transnational migrant entrepreneurs. This is due to a tendency to focus on the country of residence as well as on the inclination to view migrant entrepreneurs as members of a coherent ethnic or national group. To help fill this gap, we propose a new model combining the concept of multifocality, covering the simultaneous involvement of migrant entrepreneurs in both multiple places and multiple groups, with group modes of behaviour as an additional dimension influencing the opportunity structure. The case of Moroccan transnational entrepreneurs in Amsterdam shows that the role of multifocality in place, in combination with group modes of behaviour, is critical when it comes to pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities.

How 2.5D Maps Design Improve the Wayfinding Performance and Spatial Ability of Map Users

Useful information can be provided by 2.5D maps that can take advantage of the additional dimension. However, aside from stereoscopic landmarks, optimal methods for presenting other essential information is unclear. Two experiments were conducted to explore how the presentation of 2.5D maps can effectively increase wayfinding performance. First, analysis was performed to understand the effects of 2.5D maps on wayfinding behavior and map reading. Then, a 2.5D map design was proposed and verified to optimize the 2.5D map presentation of urban environments. The results showed that compared with users of low view angle maps, those using high view angle maps orientated more easily with elements of the map during wayfinding tasks. High view angle maps allowed superior performance, and including transparency and lines improved wayfinding performance. The participants using maps that were opaque and with lines exhibited the most confusion and hesitation. The participants who used maps that were transparent and had lines exhibited the least confusion and hesitation. Highlighting buildings at intersections can help map users use the intersections as references and increase their intuitive spatial ability.

Pairing Co-Creation with Food and Wine Experiences—A Holistic Perspective of Tourist Experiences in Dão, a Portuguese Wine Region

The literature increasingly recognises the value of food and wine tourism for destinations’ competitiveness. Given the scarcity of conceptual and empirical studies on co-creation within this field of special interest tourism, this paper aims to enhance the understanding of how visitors and supply agents co-create value in food and wine experiences, by analysing such experiences in the Portuguese wine region Dão. For this purpose, a qualitative study was undertaken, analysing visitors’ and tourism agents’ perceptions regarding five food and wine experiences: food and wine pairing, wine tasting with food pairing, harvesting, a culinary workshop and a wine workshop. The discourse obtained via in-depth semi-structured interviews from sixteen visitors and three supply agents was content analysed, supported by QSR NVivo 12. The results show that dimensions of the conceptually defined co-creation experience were, indeed, perceived in the visitors’ discourse, namely interaction (the most prominent in wine tasting and harvesting), active participation, engagement and personalization (the latter least reported). Sensorial engagement emerged from the discourse as an additional dimension that deserved attention. The agents’ perspective confirmed the importance of these dimensions in experience design. This paper identifies theoretical and managerial contributions for destination management organisations, wine tourism agents and marketers, as well as relevant paths for future research in this field.

Optical spectroscopy for the detection of micro- and nanoplastics in water

Optical spectroscopy techniques offer an additional dimension to classical methods for the detection and identification of complex particles in complex environments. We present some of these techniques applied in the frame of the fight against the plague of Micro- and Nano-plastics.

Matrices, internal groups, and the psychic apparatus. Response to article by Clarisse Vollon and Guy Gimenez ‘A “complementarist” approach to the group as matrix and as psychic apparatus’

There is usually more than one theoretical view of a hypercomplex situation, which may be cognitively complementary, but they bring about different results when used to orient our practice, on account of their underlying assumptions, values, and intentions. The authors compare two approaches to work with groups: Foulkes’s group analysis and Kaës’s psychoanalytic approach to groups, exploring their coincidences and differences, through their respective concepts of the matrix and the group psychic apparatus. Psychoanalysis starts from the assumption of an isolated individual subject, and then constructs the additional dimension of relations and collective life. Group analysis takes as its starting point the assumption of the primary and essential relational and social nature of the human being, and the subject is a secondary construction that emerges from the initial participatory existence. The concept of the internal group in Kaës is strictly intrapsychic and abstract, while in Pichon-Rivière it is experiential and introjective. Psychoanalysis and group analysis are based on two different conceptions of human existence, and this is clearly shown by the authors’ clinical vignette. Studies like this contribute to a better understanding among the various traditions and schools of analytic work with groups.

Analyse d’impact du moment de décaissement d’un produit avec garantie de rachat viager

The extant literature on the Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefits (GLWB) financial risk is abundant, however, few articles investigate the option offered to the policyholder with respect to the initiation of the contract and examine this impact on the profitability of the product for the insurer. We extend the analysis carried out by Huang et al. (IME, 2014) on the optimal initiation of the product with GLWB. First, we add an additional dimension in the analysis to account for the insurer losses as a function of the age for disbursement chosen by the policyholder. Then, we develop a novel analytical framework to determine by numerical methods the extent to which an insurer, expecting his client to choose when to receive benefits to maximize the value of his variable annuity contract, should change its actuarially fair fee structure. We show that the fair premium is a function of the insured policyholder age when he bought the contract. This result runs counter to the current fee structure and practice in the Canadian insurance industry with insurers charging a uniform level of fees regardless of the policyholder biological age when the contract is issued.

Rebate Strategy Selection and Channel Coordination of Competing Two-Echelon Supply Chains

Rebate has long been a crucial tool that has attracted researchers from a diverse range of fields including marketing and supply chain management. When a manufacturer uses a retailer for reaching end customers, the rebate strategy undertakes an additional dimension. Here we show whether the two rebate strategies, manufacturer rebate and channel rebate, can be the optimal choice for the manufacturer and the retailer. And we aim at full coordination with rebate. Game theory is exploited to identify the equilibrium rebate decisions, which are fully characterized with two rebate strategies considering rebate sensitivity. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the decisions depend on parameters, such as market size, rebate redemption rate, and competition intensity in monopoly and duopoly supply chain systems. Our work also coordinates the supply chain with two coordination policies and examines if they can achieve full coordination. Counterintuitive findings suggest that the channel rebate with sensitivity and discrimination is not effective and the manufacturer rebate is the unique optimal option. Besides, the coordination can be realized with a centralized rebate in monopoly setting when the manufacturer forgoes her own interest. Then full coordination can be achieved in duopoly setting with a new coordination policy, rebate combination, given the redemption rate for the channel rebate is lower compared with the manufacturer rebate. Managerial insights are suggested that offering rebates with discrimination can have significant inventory and coordination policy implications and can lead to a double win under a well-controlled redemption rate.

Vai viegli tulkot Sagānu?

Françoise Sagan’s (1935–2004) work is popular in France and Latvia for two reasons: the world of her characters that draws the reader into a vortex of life cravings and love surprises, and her writing which is classic, clear and seemingly light, but saturated with cultural references and quotes. If the plot and characters appear to be self-sufficient, the translator has a problem with the titles of Sagan’s novels. When comparing the original to a translation, the writer’s style setting (for example, “Bonjour tristesse” in the Latvian translation “Esiet sveicinātas, skumjas”) or symbolism (for example, “La laisse” in the Latvian translation “Akordi”) is often lost. Sagan’s novels include references to literature, cinema, art, popular in the French society of her time, that make up the intertextuality of the literary works and give an additional dimension and, at the same time, economises on means of artistic expression. A transfer into a cultural environment risks losing some multicoloured layers of the source text. Sagan’s language’s relatively rare findings also lose their originality in translation, turning them into standard phrases. Thus, it should be concluded that the apparently well-formed, seemingly easily-written works of the French author remain within the so-called “women’s literature” or “French novel” without any indication of the sharpness with which Sagan has seen the brilliance and misery of her environment.

Quantitative response to nitrite from field-induced decomposition of the chloride adduct of RDX by reactive stage tandem ion mobility spectrometry

An additional dimension of selectivity for the determination of RDX by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) was introduced through field-induced decomposition of RDX·Cl− to NO2− on a spectral baseline free of interfering peaks.