Entrepreneurship and Innovation Today

The 36 Classical Stratagems of Ancient China

I ran across this post today on a security/terrorist list.... some may seem cruel or barbaric, but  the wisdom behind others might be adopted to modern times ( I'm just reposting the list so I can't guarantee the accuracy) reposted from here. Maybe someone can explain the specific context.

The 36 Classical Stratagems of Ancient China

• Strategy 1 - Deceive the sky to cross the ocean. 
• Strategy 2 - Surround Wei to rescue Zhao. 
• Strategy 3 - Borrow another's hand to kill.  (Kill with a borrowed knife.) 
• Strategy 4 - Make your enemy work while you wait at leisure. 
• Strategy 5 - Use the opportunity of fire to rob others.  (Loot a burning house). 
• Strategy 6 - Display in the east and attack in the west. 
• Strategy 7 - Create something from nothing. 
• Strategy 8 - Secretly utilize the Chen Chang passage.  (Pretend to take one path while sneaking down the other.  E.g., the Allied invasion of Normandy and the Pas de Calai deception). 
• Strategy 9 - Watch the fires burning across the river. 
• Strategy 10 - Knife hidden under the smiling face. 
• Strategy 11 - Plum tree sacrifices for the peach tree. 
• Strategy 12 - Walk the sheep home, just because it is there. (Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat.) 
• Strategy 13 - Disturb the snake by hitting the grass. 
• Strategy 14 - Borrow another's body to return the soul.  (Raise a corpse from the dead). 
• Strategy 15 - Entice the tiger to leave the mountain. 
• Strategy 16 - In order to capture, one must let loose. 
• Strategy 17 - Bait a piece of jade with a brick. 
• Strategy 18 - Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief. 
• Strategy 19 - Remove the firewood under the cooking pot. 
• Strategy 20 - Fish in troubled waters. 
• Strategy 21 - Slough off the cicada's shell.  (False appearances mislead the enemy). 
• Strategy 22 - Shut the door to catch the thief. 
• Strategy 23 - Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbor. 
• Strategy 24 - Obtain safe passage to conquer the Kingdom of Guo. 
• Strategy 25 - Replace the beams and pillars with rotten timber. 
• Strategy 26 - Point at the mulberry and curse the locust. 
• Strategy 27 - Pretend to be a pig in order to eat the tiger.  (Play dumb.) 
• Strategy 28 - Cross the river and destroy the bridge.  (today.. destroy your tracks & the memory on the server-electromagnetic pulses-Walter Derzko)
• Strategy 29 - Deck the tree with bogus blossoms. 
• Strategy 30 - Make the host and the quest exchange places. 
• Strategy 31 - The beauty trap.  (The tender trap, use a woman to ensare a man.) 
• Strategy 32 - Empty city. 
• Strategy 33 - Let the enemy's own spy sow discord in the enemy camp.  (Use double agents.)
• Strategy 34 - Inflict injury on one's self to win the enemy's trust. 
• Strategy 35 - Chain together the enemy's ships. 
• Strategy 36 - Run away to fight another day.  (Escape is the best policy.)

CfP's Technology Transfer: The Practice and the Profession 3-4 December, 2008 Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Call for Papers

Technology Transfer: The Practice and the Profession 3-4 December, 2008 Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

There is plethora evidence that gains from successful technology transfer positively affect markets and societies at various levels (Shane & Stuart, 2002; Slaughter & Leslie, 1997; Zucker et al.,1998). Technology transfer, in this context, is the process through which knowledge, products or processes are transferred from one organization to another for business benefit (e.g. Wittamore et al., 1998). Indeed, the study of technology transfer is not new; however, recent years have witnessed the emergence of a new profession often referred to as technology transfer professionals. Technology transfer professionals apply various skills to accomplish a technology transfer activity. Past studies have already hinted about several competencies required by individuals and organizations to support technology transfer activities. For example, possessing legal competencies to ensure the appropriation of value created by the technology originator (Colyvas, 2007); marketing and negotiation competencies (Horng and Hsueh, Sep 2005); team work competencies (Large et al., 2000); innovation competencies (Markman et al., 2005); and knowledge management competencies (Gorman, 2002). Indeed, based on past studies, the breath of competencies an organization should develop and possess is rather wide and diverse. This conference is designed to revisit the relevant literature and explore new technology transfer practices and skills in light of the emergence of the profession of technology transfer. In particular, the conference will seek to discuss the various contexts within which technology transfer takes place and the competencies, skills and practices developed as a result. Among such contexts are: - technology transfer between different legal entities (e.g. universities to profit-orientated organizations) - technology transfer between different geographical areas (e.g. Europe, USA and Far East) - Technology transfer between different industries (e.g. research to consumer electronics) With the consideration of such contexts, we seek to understand which skills are imperative at the individual level and how such skills are translated into organizational competencies, practices and performance. Similarly, we seek to understand which skills are contracted out and how such an approach affect organizational competencies, processes and performance. The conference is designed to bring together insights from research, practice and policy making at various levels. In particular, we seek to stimulate a discussion following the results and the conclusion of the EC CERT-TTT-M project, which will be presented during the conference. We invite papers from researchers, policy makers, practitioners and advisers that investigate the emergence of the technology transfer profession and its impact on technology transfer practices and organization performance. Some themes that are of particular interest in this conference are: - Which skills are imperative for technology transfer at the individual and organizational level? - How various contexts change the importance of technology transfer skills at the individual level and the competencies at the organizational level? - Does the formation of the technology transfer profession shape and affect the technology transfer practices and competences at the organizational level? And if so, how? - What factors explain the relationship between technology transfer skills and organizational performance? - Do policy makers affect the formation of the technology transfer profession and if so, how? We are interested in submissions that are both conceptual and empirically-based representing the application of various theoretical lenses to explain the relationships between technology transfer skills, organizational competencies and organizational performance. Submission guidelines: Please submit your extended abstract (5 pages, font 12, double spaced) to Patricia de Wilde-Mes ([email protected]) no later than September 15th 2008 by 17:00 CET. Authors will be notified whether their abstract was accepted by September 26th 2008. Authors of selected abstracts from the conference will be invited to submit a full paper for an edited book and a special issue in an international journal. Additional information about registration, accommodations and the location can be found on: http://www.rsm.nl/home/faculty/academic_departments/strategic_management

Organizing Committee: Prof. Henk Volberda Dr. Ilan Oshri Dr. Tom Mom

Assessing expatriates' affective fit in host cultures with the intercultural communication affinity scale

With new immigrants (potential managers or entrepreneurs) settling in all parts of the world, this is a very timely article in the current European J. of International Management 2008 - Vol.  2, No.3 pp.  234 - 249

The title is Moscow on the Hudson: assessing expatriates' affective fit in host cultures with the intercultural communication affinity scale

Author: Bernd Kupka, Andre M. Everett Address: University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Department of Management, Green Bay, WI 54311-7001, USA.  ' University of Otago, Department of Management, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

Journal: European J. of International Management 2008 - Vol.  2, No.3 pp.  234 - 249

Abstract: Increasing scale and scope of international activities, particularly by European companies, poses mounting challenges for strategic international human resource management.  As the level of complexity of international assignments rises, so too does the cost of failure.  Corporate representatives sent as expatriates are often ill-prepared to cope with the intercultural differences they encounter.  One socially responsible solution to enhance expatriates' success rate, while meeting corporate objectives, is more adequately to prepare the envoys prior to and during their overseas mission.  The authors argue that a key to this process is the evaluation of candidates' intercultural affinity, both as a selection criterion and for training needs assessment.  This article first illustrates the importance of intercultural affinity, secondly describes its theoretical roots and forwards a definition and, thirdly, introduces a scale to measure intercultural affinity. 

Keywords: affective fit; expatriate selection; intercultural affinity; strategic international HRM; human resource management; training needs assessment; host country; culture; expatriates.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2008.019695

CfP's 4th Int Workshop on Program Comprehension through Dynamic Analysis & 15th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering;Antwerp, Belgium Oct 2008

Call for Papers (CfP's)

4th International Workshop on Program Comprehension through Dynamic Analysis (PCODA 2008)

Co-located with the 15th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE 2008)

http://swerl.tudelft.nl/bin/view/PCODA/PCODA2008

October 2008, Antwerp, Belgium

Dear all,

We are organising the 4th International Workshop on Program Comprehension Through Dynamic Analysis (PCODA), to be held together with the 15th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE 2008).  PCODA 2008 builds upon its three highly successful predecessors, PCODA 2005, PCODA 2006 and PCODA 2007, where we had respectively 13, 11 and 13 high-quality submissions.

We hope to build upon the success of the previous editions and for this, we need your contributions and participation.

The goals of this workshop are to catalogue existing techniques in the field of program comprehension that use dynamic analysis.  To see whether existing techniques compliment eachother and to identify possible future collaborations.

Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following:

* Theories and models for software comprehension based on dynamic analysis

* Program comprehension processes and strategies involving dynamic analysis techniques

* Research methodologies when setting up program comprehension experiments

* Applications of dynamic analysis techniques to program comprehension

* Strengths and limitations of existing dynamic analysis techniques

* Trace analysis and exploration techniques

* Techniques for reducing the large size of run-time information

* Hybrid analyses that involve both static and dynamic analysis

* Dynamic analysis tools with an emphasis on program comprehension

* Comparisons between existing tools and approachs

* Dynamic analysis in the context of distributed systems

* Dynamic analysis in the context of webservices (or service oriented architectures)

* Criteria for evaluating dynamic analysis techniques; setting up benchmark experiments

* Experiments and case studies with a focus on program comprehension using dynamic analysis

* Empirical effectiveness studies of tools and approaches

Looking forward to receiving your submissions and seeing you in Antwerp!

Kind regards,

Orla Greevy, Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj, David Rothlisberger and Andy Zaidman

Important dates (tentative): Abstract submission: 22nd August 2008 Submission deadline: 25th August 2008 Notification: 9th September 2008 Workshop data: middle of October 2008

Organization:

Orla Greevy, University of Bern, Switzerland Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj, Concordia Unversity, Canada David Rothlisberger, University of Bern, Switzerland Andy Zaidman, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Program Committee:

TBA

Workshop: Escaping the economistic paradigm. Towards a human-centered research agenda? Humanistic Management Network, www.humanetwork.org

Hi Everyone, [and sorry for cross-posting]

As you are planning your

Academy

of

Management

schedule, we hope that you will be able to join us at an exciting All Academy Symposium in

Anaheim

on: 

The questions we ask -  Escaping the economistic paradigm. Towards a human-centered  research agenda?

Monday, Aug 11 2008,
8:30 am to  10:20 am
Grand Ballroom - Salon E

Anaheim

Marriott

Panelists:
·         Domenec Mele, Professor for Business Ethics, IESE,

University

of

Navarra

·         Kim Cameron, Professor of Management and Organizations,

Stephen

M.

Ross

School

of Business, University of

Michigan

·         Paul R. Lawrence, Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Organizational Behavior, Emeritus,

Harvard

Business

School

Discussant:
·         Rakesh Khurana, Professor of Business Administration,

Harvard

Business

School

Moderator:
·         Michael Pirson, Lecturer and Research Fellow,

Harvard

University

Background
Challenges for management in the 21st century are numerous. Environmental degradation, social inequity, declining stakeholder trust and low employee commitment are just some of the many problems that pose a serious threat to 'business as usual'. The questions we ask seem to provide only partial answers to these issues as most researchers are hostage to an economistic paradigm (see most articulate criticism by Ghoshal, 2005). In this symposium, the panelists will discuss an alternative paradigm- humanism- to see if the questions we ask through a different lens can help us to better contribute to the solution of the current crises.

Agenda
To start the session Dr. Michael Pirson will introduce the subject examining the consequences of economism and current deficiencies of 'business as usual'. Prof. Domenec Mele will provide an overview of humanism as an alternative concept for business. Prof. Kim Cameron will talk about the approach of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) and outline findings which often escape an economistic understanding of human-beings. Finally, Prof. Paul Lawrence will introduce a Darwinian theory of human beings, which can serve as an integrative basis to rethink human organizing. After the presentations Prof. Rakesh Khurana, will discuss the presented questions and distill problems and challenges, as well as opportunities for the alternative paradigm.

We hope to see you there!

All the best,

The organizers: Humanistic Management Network, www.humanetwork.org

Heiko Spitzeck, Cranfield University

Wolfgang Amman, University St. Gallen

Shiban Khan, University of St. Gallen,

Ernst von Kimakowitz, University of St. Gallen,

Claus Dierksmeier, Stonehill College,

Michael Pirson, Harvard University

Are ethnic immigrant entrepreneurs more opportunity-sensitive?

Are ethnic immigrant entrepreneurs more opportunity-sensitive?

That's a question that's addressed in a recent paper entitled: Ethnic-immigrants in founding teams: Effects on prospector strategy and performance in new Internet ventures in the Journal of Business Venturing 23 (2008) 113-139

Abstract

"We investigated differences in strategy and performance between new USA Internet ventures with ethnic-immigrant members in the founding team and a matched set of USA Internet ventures with nonethnic- non-immigrant team members.  Results showed that new ventures with an ethnic-immigrant presence in the founding teams tended to pursue a more aggressive prospector strategy than those with non-ethnic-non-immigrant founding team members.  Still, performance of the two groups of ventures was comparable.  However, the positive effects of ethnic-immigrant presence on founding teams depended on team size and average age of the founding team members."

Ethnic-immigrant entrepreneurs showed a strong propensity to seek and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, suggesting that the act of migrating to a new country could lead to an aggressive strategic orientation.

PDWs on Confronting Risk and Weak Signals for 2008 AoM Conference

Dear Colleagues in Healthcare Management listserv,

We have two PDWs for the upcoming 2008 AoM conference in Anaheim of particular healthcare management concerns. Scholars and practitioners will learn to make sound judgments in the face of risk and weak signals in the healthcare industry. Scholars and physicians will foreground the issue of medical error as a systems problem. Please forward the information to interested colleagues and students.

Best, Karlene Roberts and Kuo Yu

"Confronting Risk: Examining Its Acceptability, Short Sightedness, Blind Sightedness, and Prevention." (#291) This session will be held on Sunday, August 10, from 8:00AM - 12:00PM at the Hilton Anaheim in Pacific Pavilion C.

Errors and mishaps, whether human, system, or natural in origin, generate risk and uncertainty which organizations confront, manage, and accept. The Institute of Medicine’s 2000 and 2004 reports on medical errors, for example, set forth generative dialogues about risk awareness and risk acceptability.

The participants of this PDW examine the error rates, error origins, and risk acceptability of various industry contexts. Furthermore, we examine how confronting risk forces organizations to self-reflectively shift questioning from performance and efficiency to reliability and prevention. In particular, we examine the short sightedness and blind sightedness of risk management in the hope that we can rethink risk acceptability and prevention differently. The PDW participants would help organizations teach the general principles and abstractions behind the highly reliable practices developed to manage risk. Following the format of the above-mentioned PDW, audience members will have the opportunity to interact with panelist experts in break-out groups.

Organizers and Chairs include Kuo Frank Yu, Karlene H. Roberts and William H. Starbuck. Participants include John S. Carroll, Timothy J. Vogus, Claus Rerup, James Douglas Orton, Rangaraj Ramanujam, Daved Van Stralen, Gary Provansal, Dwayne Thomas, Frank J. Barrett, Sotirios Paroutis, Klaus Weber, Greg Bigley, Phil Hanlon, Pete Sarna, Philipe Baumard, Estella Hernandez Gillette, Febra Johnson, Anne Washington, Debra Andersen, and Jim Holbrook.

"Weak Signals? But I Thought They Were Noise!": Highly Reliable Practices in Action." (#181) This session will be held on Saturday, August 9, from 1:00PM - 4:00PM at the Anaheim Convention Center in 204B.

This PDW shifts focus from major trends to detecting weak signals. Many new questions surface as a result of this change in obsession. Why might today's institutional environments, technical advances, rapid information exchanges, and inter-organizational interdependence make detecting weak signals crucial? How might we unlearn the old mindsets that focus on large trends and explore new practices that detect minutiae? How do we amplify weak signals so that they can be noticed more easily? How do we organize ourselves, so relevant details noticed by front-runners are not prevented from reaching the top echelon? How do we contextualize and interpret weak signals in a timely manner, so they can assist organizational responses? How do we design policies, rules, and procedures in such a way that fosters a friendly institutional environment for weak signal detection? Through highly interactive break-out groups with our panel of experts, we will dialogue on these questions with audience members.

Organizers and Chairs include Kuo Frank Yu, Karlene H. Roberts and Gregory A. Bigley. Participants include Claus Rerup, John S. Carroll, Timothy J. Vogus, James Douglas Orton, Daved Van Stralen, Dwayne Thomas, Pete Sarna, Gary Provansal, Charles Watson, Febra Johnson, Debra Andersen, Dave Thomas, Mary Sally Matiella, and Philipe Baumard.

Loud music in bars may cause patrons to talk less, drink more, study shows.

Loud music in bars may cause patrons to talk less, drink more, study shows.

According to French researchers:

"Bar owners may be blasting loud music not just because they think it's cool. It turns out the louder the music, the lighter patron's pockets are at the end of the night, according to the results of a new study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Professors in western France struck a deal with two local bars to experiment on young men. The bar owners agreed to let the scientists control the volume for two nights and plant undercover patrons to document the drinking habits of 40 men, age 18 to 25.

With louder music, the young men drank a beer three minutes faster, ordered an extra drink and took slightly more gulps. The French scientists gave two, highly researched hypotheses as to why.

First, the scientists theorized that loud music increased "arousal" and, in this hyper state, the men drank more. Second, the scientists theorized that the young men couldn't hear themselves over the music and so, instead of talking, they drank more.

Whichever reason is true, the French researchers suggested something should be done about loud music to help combat widespread alcohol abuse and alcohol-related deaths, which account for 70,000 deaths a year in France, or about 13 percent of total deaths."

Full story

CfP's International Journal of Strategic Alliances

A CALL FOR PAPERS for International Journal of Strategic Alliances

Refik Culpan, the Editor-in-Chief of a new journal, International Journal of Strategic Business Alliances (IJSBA) to be published by the Inderscience Publishers kindly invites researchers to submit papers on cooperative ventures and alliances. IJSBA aims to foster the creation and dissemination of knowledge on strategic business alliances from various perspectives including economic, organizational, and strategic management. It strives to establish an effective channel of communication between researchers, managers, consultants, policy makers, and others concerned individuals and institutions with the complex role of strategic alliances in business competition. It also intends to promote and exchange theoretical developments, research findings, and practices in the field of interfirm partnerships. The international dimension is emphasized to comprehend worldwide practices and cross cultural differences among nations and to learn from increasing use of such collaborative ventures in the global economy.

 IJSBA is publishes original conceptual and research papers, review papers, case studies, book reviews, research notes, and commentaries. It will occasionally come out with special Issues devoted to important topics concerning strategic business alliances. It publishes articles that are blind reviewed by its editorial board members and other scholars in the related fields.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Joint venture strategies, management, and issues
• Franchising strategies, management, and issues
• Licensing strategies, practices, and issues
• Network relationships and structures
• Supplier relationships and issues
• Outsourcing and subcontracting arrangements and issues
• Strategic alliances in specific industries
• Engaging cases of strategic alliances
• Business collaboration in various functional areas
• Key success factors in strategic alliances
• Comparative studies in strategic alliances
• Cross-cultural studies in strategic alliances

For more information on the journal and its author guidelines, you can visit its web site: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=303

Refik Culpan  email: [email protected]

Workshop: Advanced Social Networks: Theoretical and Empirical Applications of Social Network Analysis PDW

2008 Academy of Management Annual Meeting

Advanced Social Networks: Theoretical and Empirical Applications of Social Network Analysis PDWSponsored by the OMT and BPS Divisions of the Academy of Management; Saturday, August 9, 2008; 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.Anaheim Convention Center (207A)

FULL LIST OF PARTICIPANTS:

Coordinators:

• Jonathan Johnson; U. of Arkansas
• Joe Labianca; U of Kentucky
• Daniel J. Brass; U. of Kentucky
• Andrew Shipilov; INSEAD

Discussants:

• Stephen P Borgatti; U. of Kentucky
• Daniel J. Brass; U. of Kentucky
• Ronald S. Burt; U. of Chicago
• Robert L. Cross; U. of Virginia
• Jonathon N. Cummings; Duke U.
• Martin Gargiulo; INSEAD
• Martine Haas; Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania
• Martin Kilduff; U. of Texas, Austin David Krackhardt; Carnegie Mellon U.
• Joe Labianca; U of Kentucky Ajay Mehra; U. of Kentucky
• David Obstfeld; U. of California, Irvine
• Jill Perry-Smith; Emory U
• Tim Rowley; U. of Toronto
• Giuseppe Soda; Bocconi U.

The Advanced Social Networks PDW will allow researchers who are currently engaged in social network research, or who have specific plans to incorporate social network concepts into existing streams of research, to interact with one another.  The goal of the PDW is to facilitate interaction among researchers engaged in network research.  We are especially hopeful that cross level interactions will occur, in keeping with the inherently multilevel nature of social network analysis.

WORKSHOP REQUIREMENTS: Advanced registration is required.  Please email a brief description (50 words or less) of research interests specific to network analysis along with your preference of the top five discussants you would like to interact with to Heather Dixon-Fowler, [email protected]. Please apply no later than July 31st.

NOTE: This is an advanced social networks PDW, intended to allow researchers who are currently engaged in social network research to interact with one another.  If you are not currently involved in social network research, please sign up for the Introduction to Social Networks Research PDW which is being held on Sat., August 9th from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. See the AOM Meeting Program for details.