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The purpose of this paper is to revisit the disastrous DaimlerChrysler AG takeover episode from 1998 to 2007 in order to arrive at a more comprehensive explanation of this and other merger and takeover failures based on institutional theory.

The case study is based on various secondary sources of information and on the insights that one of the authors gained from working for 14 years in various positions for Daimler-Benz and DaimlerChrysler.

DaimlerChrysler failed because top management made mistakes in trying to globalize the company. They were unable to realize possible synergies between the two companies, which brought complementary resources into the merger. Furthermore, they did not account for the institutional embeddedness of strategies when they adopted lean production globally, diffused the production system developed in Germany to other parts of the world and tried to implement a global stock enlisted in New York and Frankfurt. The underlying theoretical framework is relevant for other merger and acquisition cases. It features institutional embeddedness, path dependency and institutional arbitrage.

The paper develops an institutional perspective on DaimlerChrysler and on cross-border merger and acquisition failure more generally. The perspective is organized around the varieties-of-capitalism approach. This contribution is important because there is increasing dissatisfaction with the dominant explanation of cross-border merger and acquisition failure, which is based on the allegedly failed management of culture “clashes.”

The purpose of this paper is to explore the variety of food in which it has been applied as a prebiotic and functional ingredient, the concentrations used there in, the tests that have been conducted on these fortified foods and briefly reviews the history and characteristics of inulin.

The review included articles from 1999-2013. The papers which reported inulin concentrations used, the purpose of the application and tests on final product, were mainly selected. Articles were collected in electronic databases such as Elsevier-Science Direct, Emerald, Springer Link, Wiley and Redalyc.

The interaction inulin-food with different food matrices is complex, and is not always technologically favorable for the product. Moreover, additional to evaluations of sensory, physicochemical and rheological characteristics, it is essential to carry out measurements in the food, of such characteristics as prebiotic content, and prebiotic activity in vivo and in vitro, and assess potential adverse reactions in order to define suitable doses of consumption.

The paper highlights the importance of conducting in vitro and in vivo testing of potential prebiotic inulin-supplemented food in order to define dose that benefit health and do not cause unacceptable gastrointestinal distress.

Purpose – The present study looks at the dynamic process of Mexican immigrant children and youth's civic engagement through their participation in community and family activities. In particular, it explores how their collaboration in a grassroots, immigrant community-based Centro in New York City allows for civic engagement. We demonstrate how active community participation, in the form of civic engagement, shapes children and youth's citizenship constructions.Methodology – Based on extensive participant observations and focus group interviews, this article demonstrates how children and youth's civic engagement is mediated by their integration and contributions to family and community civic activities and how these activities inform children and youth's knowledge of citizenship discourse. We present evidence that demonstrates that children and youth's involvement and participation in protests, rallies, volunteer activities, as well as the creation of a booklet, associated with immigration, human rights, and social justice, organized through the Centro Guadalupano, facilitated their knowledge about illegality and citizenship issues.Findings – Findings suggest that when indigenous Mexican children and youth are integrated into the important activities of their community, as active and engaged members, they develop a deeper understanding of civic engagement and what it means to be a participatory “citizen.”Research implications – The present study provides a starting point for future research on the importance of and possibilities for child and youth civic engagement in grassroots community organizations. For example, children and youth learn that through active civic participation and community contributions, they are able to challenge dominant discourse on immigration, human rights, and citizenship. This study sheds light on the value of involving children and youth in civic engagement opportunities – a process that can facilitate the construction of citizenship among marginalized groups, particularly undocumented Mexican immigrants from indigenous regions.Value – The findings presented extend broader discourses on the politics of immigration and citizenship, and also challenge, to some extent, mainstream constructions of children and youth. More research in these areas is needed; our paper is a small contribution to the emerging field of indigenous and immigrant children and youth's political socialization and activism.

In this chapter we examine how micro- and macro-level issues including access to child-only or family public health insurance shape low-income immigrant families’ health care experiences in two policy contexts in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

This qualitative study includes 40 in-depth interviews with first-generation, low-income immigrant Latin American and African mothers in DC and Northern Virginia.

The majority of families living in Virginia had child-only health insurance, whereas most of the families living in Washington, DC, had family health insurance. Regardless of these insurance differences, all mothers had access to free health care for prenatal care. Pregnancy, for most, was their entry into the U.S. health care system. Families’ ongoing health care experiences differed in relation to insurance access, and culture, including parents’ previous experiences with health care in their countries of origin.

Future research should consider the experiences of other immigrant groups, mental health experiences of immigrants, and fathers’ experiences with health care.

Future initiatives to address health care should focus on providing family health care to low-income immigrant families across the country, improving access to mental health services for immigrant families, and creating more culturally and linguistically appropriate health care services.

This study points to the importance of family health care for immigrant families, as well as care that is culturally and linguistically competent.

This study illustrates the need for public family health insurance for low-income immigrant families, and the importance of culturally competent health care for immigrants.

This paper aims to investigate the formation of an inter-organizational collaboration network that made it possible to repair 2,516 mechanical respirators that were inoperative in Brazil during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A qualitative approach was used in a single case study with semi-structured interviews. The interviewee selection process was non-probabilistic through snowball sampling.

The results suggest that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks, and this organizational configuration can be an alternative for facing crises where actions isolated would be insufficient or slow to urgently address complex situations.

This paper aims to (1) demonstrate that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks; (2) favor the understanding and dynamics of the formation of a network; and (3) contribute to a possible replication of this initiative in future contexts.

The case portrays an unprecedented formation of a collaboration network involving more than 144 organizations that mobilized quickly in a complex context of a pandemic and that generated remarkable results through the reintroduction of equipment that were responsible for the preservation of thousands of lives during the year from 2020.