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This chapter focuses on the anti-European stance as it unfolds in Marine Le Pen’s and Jean-Marie Le Pen’s discourses. As most far-right parties in Europe, both politicians focus on the notion of freedom and national sovereignty, asserting a strong anti-European Union stance; however, they construct their anti-European momentum by playing on different strategies and emotions. By using corpus linguistics tools, the present study examines and analyses the discourse of both politicians in interviews and debates. It concludes that if they share most issues on which they base their political agenda such as the fear of increasing immigration because of the Schengen’s agreement, they differ as regards the ways they discursively address the same issue. Marine Le Pen relies more on a constructive/rational stance, by focusing on facts and figures as well as on solutions, while moving away from the strong and negative emotions which her father constantly used mainly as provocation strategies. This may have helped her build a favourable political momentum as witnessed in the 2014 European elections.

This paper aims to explore how traditional industries revert the trend of decline in sales through rebranding by analyzing the extended case study of the fountain pen industry.

This study analyzes the marketing in case study of the fountain pen industry through two coordinates – symbolizing status and branding nostalgia. The division of analyses in these categories is supplanted by data, such as linear regression to analyze changes in product characteristics.

This study finds that the rebranding of the fountain pen in multiple fitting images – status symbol, object of nostalgia and something scarce and unique – is successful in capturing consumer demand, shaping consumer perceptions and help the mature industry locate as well as enter a niche market.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one to explore the business development of traditional industry as a case study of fountain pens from the perspective of marketing and consumer behavior.

Interaction with robot systems for the specification of manufacturing tasks needs to be simple since the paper targets the widespread use of robots in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In the best case, existing practices from manual work could be used, to ensure current employees a smooth introduction to robot technology as a natural part of their work. The aim of the paper is to simplify the robot‐programming task by allowing the user to simply make technical drawings on a sheet of paper. Craftsmen use paper and raw sketches for several situations: to share ideas, to get a better perspective of the problem, or to remember the customer situation. Currently these sketches have to be either interpreted by the worker when producing the final product by hand, or transferred into CAD files using an appropriate software tool. The former means that no automation is included, the latter means extra work and considerable experience in using the CAD tool.

The approach is to use a digital pen and paper, both based on the Anoto technology, as input devices for SME robotic tasks, thereby creating simpler and more user‐friendly alternatives for the programming, parameterization and commanding actions. To this end, the basic technology has been investigated and fully working prototypes have been developed to explore the possibilities in the context of typical SME applications. Based on the encouraging experimental results, it is believed that drawings on digital paper will, among other means of human‐robot interaction, play an important role in manufacturing SMEs in the future. Consequently, a fully working test‐case welding example is presented and explained, allowing a complete demonstration of all the developed features.

This paper explores the utilization of digital pens for the task of programming industrial robot manipulators, i.e. the possibility of obtaining robot programs from technical drawings on a sheet of paper. A practical implementation was presented to demonstrate how to use digital pens and CAD applications to program industrial robots. The results clearly show that the digital pen based on Anoto technology, integrated with CAD interfaces and code generation interfaces, is very useful and powerful for the planned task. The next steps will be to adopt a software infrastructure and develop the necessary services to allow system integrators to consider this type of device as an advanced user‐friendly robot‐programming method.

This is the first time that digital pens have been used to program robot manipulators.

Nowadays, most European welfare states have to face a crisis and to adapt themselves in the context of globalisation. This is true for most of the “original” European member states, so what a challenge for the European central and eastern countries that had to reform deeply their social systems in order to fit the rules of the market economy and join the European Union. So the point is to know in which direction the national systems of social protection are going by now.

Identifies three approaches to controlling the agent‐principal conflict for CEOs (market discipline, compensation structure and monitoring mechanisms) and reviews previous relevant research. Develops a mathematical model of the relationship between pay‐for‐performance sensitivity and external monitoring; and tests it on 1971‐1993 US data. Presents the results, which suggest that the sensitivity is significantly affected by monitors, growth opportunities and CEO share ownership. Considers consistency with other research and the implications of the findings.

The purpose of this paper is to report surface properties of treated Teonex Du Pont polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) foil substrates.

There were three different cleaning treatments among other: argon glow discharge, dipping into alkaline solution at 60°C as well as washing in an ultrasonic bath of acetone and ethyl alcohol in room temperature. The relation between PEN foil morphology and surface properties has been studied by contact angle measurements as well as evaluation of surface roughness of PEN foil samples by atomic force microscopy (AFM).

It was found that argon glow discharge (T3) of PEN treatment caused the maximum reduction in both values of contact angles. In addition, the argon glow discharge yielded the highest PEN surface energy (51.9 mJ/m2) and polarity (0.89). On the other hand, the AFM micrographs showed that the samples T3 had the highest value of average and root mean square surface roughness. Based on the experiments results, the authors stated that the alkaline cleaning (T2 treatment) could be considered as an effective method of PEN substrate treatment.

The influence of different cleaning treatment on the surface properties of PEN foil to inkjet application was analyzed. In the literature, there are not a lot of papers describing examinations of surface properties of PEN foil to inkjet application by contact angle measurements and AFM analysis.

The purpose of this article is to recognise the different types of compensation programmes for commissioned sales employees and to establish ways to manage these programmes in an ever changing business environment. This article will identify companies who use compensation programmes for their commissioned sales employees. This article will also compare and contrast the differences between the company’s different compensation plans. Compensation management is becoming increasingly more difficult for or ganisations to control because sales employees are wanting more and more. Managers need to find out what sales employees want and give it to them in a way that is fair and specific. Being specific in compensation and incentive plans is becoming the new method for managers to follow, while at the same time promoting a team atmosphere among sales employees. Results for compensation management of commissioned sales employees do not point to one best method, but managers are encouraging sales employees to work as a group and not against each other. This would create camaraderie among employees, thus enhancing the work environment and increasing quality and quantity of sales.

The US financial services industry, especially banking, has undergone substantial technological change and industry restructuring during the 1990s. A variety of new techniques and services have been introduced in all areas of the financial services sector, and industry restructuring through mergers and consolidation has been a defining feature of the banking industry in recent years. Through the effects on cost, quality and the types of services provided, technological change and industry restructuring are likely to generate gains for stockholders and customers. However, there shaping in this industry also implies that companies are struggling to implement their strategy with antiquated incentive compensation systems.

Outlines previous research on the links between R&D expenditure, firm value and executive compensation; and presents a study of the relationship between R&D expenditure and total cash executive compensation in the US pharmaceutical and computer/telecommunications industries between 1979 and 1996. Uses pooled cross‐sectional time series regression to find a positive link between compensation, R&D and accounting earnings for both industries over the whole period (although the significance varies for each in different sub‐periods); but mixed results for the relationship with cash flow. Discusses consistency with other research and the implications of the findings.

Explains the difference between defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension plans in the US context and the options open to companies wishing to terminate overfunded DB plans. Summarizes previous research on stock market reaction to terminations and uses event study methodology on 1986‐1994 US data to explore the relationships between share prices and DB plan terminations with new DB or DC plans. Presents the results, which suggest that terminations tend to produce negative abnormal returns when replaced by another DB plan, but positive abnormal returns when replaced by a DC plan. Considers the reasons why, consistency with other research and the implications for public policy.