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Discusses the benefits and disadvantages of pioneering new markets compared with following prudently into new markets. Argues that which strategy is best depends on both conviction about the product and potential market and the firm′s ability to maintain market leadership. Concludes that a pioneering approach provides critical lead time whereas a follower approach yields benefits in fixed and variable costs.

There is an intersection between the global refugee crisis and higher education within the context of the United States. This chapter provides an overview of emerging trends in refugee migration and internal displacement, reviews the historical approach to refugee resettlement to the United States, and offers a discussion of the relationship between K-12 schools and the United States higher-education structure. Data suggest that the majority of the refugee population resettled to the United States is below the age of 35 years, and is therefore most likely to engage with higher education. In the context of this chapter, refugees and those who have previously held refugee status, and interact with the higher-education system, are referred to as “students from refugee backgrounds.” Students from refugee backgrounds are a diverse group in many ways, including but not limited to country of origin, culture, religious and/or spiritual affiliation, English language proficiency, migration history, and educational background. The combination of these factors poses a unique set of challenges to their transition to the United States and the higher-education environment. This chapter highlights some of these challenges and explores the growing role of colleges and universities in facilitating educational access and support.

Recent trends and developments in the food industry are identified and discussed pointing out that despite media hysteria a calm and reasoned response to recent developments is required.

This paper aims to enhance the understanding of continuous improvement (CI) practices in Vietnamese organizations.

The study reported here is based on field research using in-depth case studies to investigate the factors underpinning CI effectiveness in Vietnam. Data were collected from direct observations, internal company documents and interviews in six leading Vietnamese companies, as well as interviews with 50 business leaders, managers, practitioners and academics in Vietnam.

This paper identifies the cultural conditions that have most shaped, and continue to shape, the management of CI in Vietnam, and suggests ways that practitioners can design effective CI practices in that country. For example, a very strong top-down management approach seems to be necessary to jump-start CI in Vietnamese organizations. Vietnamese organizations can succeed with CI, but they require substantial investment in human capital to give managers and employees at all levels up-to-date CI education and training. Furthermore, contrary to best-practice thinking in many developed countries, Vietnamese organizations may well be unable to motivate employees to participate in CI initiatives without a seemingly heavy-handed system of substantial rewards.

Future research in this area should study a broader selection of case companies across a wider selection of sectors, including more in service, and in other industries and in other regions of Vietnam. It should also aim to capture and analyze other factors that determine CI effectiveness.

To lead organizational change, leaders must first be able and willing to adjust their leadership styles to match the demands of their changing business environments.

While Vietnam is attracting intense interest from the international business community, little research has been done on CI practices there, in part because Vietnamese companies have developed a strong culture of secrecy, and are very wary of granting research access to outsiders. This study offers one of the first “inside views” of Vietnamese management with reliable data focusing particularly on CI.

According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees (2002) there were approximately 15 million refugees in the world in 2001, of which over three million were African. Refugees are persons who flee to a different country to escape persecution based on personal or group characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, social group, political opinion, or armed conflict, and lack of a durable solution (U.S. Committee for Refugees, 2001). For example, in Burundi, a small African country of about 6 million people, the civil war between the Tutsi and the Hutu has forced over half a million refugees to seek shelter in other African countries, Europe, and the United States (UNHCR, 2000).

This study aims to determine the level of satisfaction of secondary housing tourists in Vilcabamba.

The analysis of satisfaction of this tourism segment in a destination is essential for the different economic agents when evaluating various policies. The analysis is based on the answers provided to 16 items in a questionnaire administered to a representative sample (281 respondents). The authors have used the fuzzy logic to reduce ambiguity in the answers associated to subjective views of human beings who express themselves linguistically. A method based on the degree of similarity to ideal solutions has been used to obtain a classification of relevant satisfaction items.

The results indicate that the ideal solutions segments are represented by multicultural characteristics of second home tourists and the number of years they have been visiting Vilcabamba. The authors find that foreign tourists are more satisfied than Ecuadorians. Analyzing the most critical factors, it is seen that accessibility to the destination, socio-cultural environment and quality of water achieve a high priority.

Second home tourists’ satisfaction has been studied with a limited set of 16 attributes, and some attributes also have a multidimensional nature, so a further study analyzing the scale will be needed in the future.

The present study fills an existing gap in the literature of secondary housing tourism where the existing previous research has been mainly focused on retirees’ secondary housing tourism. The study provides interesting insights into local and national authorities, as well as other economic agents, to designing strategies and planning processes of the destinations for secondary housing tourists.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of interventions focused on reducing screen time in children.

Studies that aim to investigate the effects of interventions aimed at reducing the time spent in front of the screen (i.e. screen time). A Random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled standard mean differences. The outcome was to evaluate the screen time in children in the 0–18 age range. A subgroup analysis was performed to reveal the extent to which the overall effect size varied by subgroups (participant age, duration of intervention and follow).

For the outcome, the meta-analysis included 21 studies, and the standard difference in mean change in screen time in the intervention group compared with the control group was −0.16 (95% confidence interval [CI], −0.21 to −0.12) (p < 0.001). The effect size was found to be higher in long-term (=7 months) interventions and follow-ups (p < 0.05).

Subgroup analysis showed that a significant effect of screen time reduction was observed in studies in which the duration of intervention and follow-up was =7 months. As the evidence base grows, future researchers can contribute to these findings by conducting a more comprehensive analysis of effect modifiers and optimizing interventions to reduce screen time.