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The dominant market for enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors has traditionally been the largest of multinational corporations. Until recently, most vendors (SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, etc.) have promoted a “one size fits all” solution built on “industry best practices.” This approach forced organizations to either conform to the “best practices” and configurations suggested by vendors and implementation consultants or embark on extremely costly reconfiguration of their ERP package. The study reviews the concepts of control, coordination, and their trade‐offs plus Bartlett and Ghoshal’s topology of firm strategy. Human resource issues are introduced as examples of organization elements that may or may not conform to the enterprise design structure within coordination and control. Finally, the concepts of control and coordination and the Bartlett and Ghoshal topology are combined to create a firm strategic orientation which is then matched to an ideal ERP configuration or enterprise information architecture.

Using data obtained from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), we investigate modifications in state tax codes to determine their characteristics, the apparent trends of state tax reform, and whether changes constituted comprehensive reform or mere incremental adjustments to existing tax structures. Based on the data, we find that few states achieved comprehensive tax reform in the 1990s despite the fiscal surplus that provided an environment conducive to widespread change. Moreover, we find that a significant number of changes that were enacted in the 1990s involved increases or decreases in state tax revenue that were ultimately tied to economic cycles. We suggest that adequacy in state tax collections may be the most common tax principle adhered to with regard to changes in tax structure. We also conclude that reform efforts in the 1990s were most successful when approached in an incremental fashion in the absence of a significant precipitating reform driver.

This study examined the impact of an early childhood community-outreach summer camp on teaching single adolescent mothers early communication tools and strategies to support interaction with their infants and toddlers who were language delayed or at risk for language delay. Twenty-two mothers and their children were taught communication strategies through the use of baby signs and Hanen techniques for parents. Pre-post knowledge and skills were assessed. Mothers also completed a post-camp satisfaction questionnaire. Overall, mothers learned the information on baby signs and communication strategies. They were positive about the impact of the camp program activities on the social-emotional and communicative relationship between themselves and their child.