Search results for: government linked companies

Authors: Dina Ahmad Alkhodary

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This study aimed to investigate the practices of Data Mining on the telecommunication companies in Jordan, from the viewpoint of the respondents. In order to achieve the goal of the study, and test the validity of hypotheses, the researcher has designed a questionnaire to collect data from managers and staff members from main department in the researched companies. The results shows improvements stages of the telecommunications companies towered Data Mining.

Keywords: data, mining, development, business

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Authors: Kevin Krupski

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Private Military Security Companies have grown to become a major force contributor to nations in military operations. Scholars have debated the implications of this in relation to control and efficiency related to the privatization of violence, but there has been little discussion on how these companies affect the profession of arms. Specifically, this paper seeks to address how the privatization of violence influences the military’s stewardship, whether private military security companies are capable of stewardship of the military profession, and whether there are aspects of stewardship of the military profession that private military security companies are capable of emulating. This paper reviews literature on stewardship, the relationship of the military to the state, and private military security companies in order to identify overlap between uniformed military services and the private sector. Then, it offers a typology for determining under what conditions an organization would act as a steward. Ultimately, there are insufficient reasons for private military security companies to act as stewards of the profession of arms.

Keywords: stewardship, military profession, civil-military, security

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Authors: Rodrigo Zeidan

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The paper identifies failures of decision making and corporate governance that allow non-financial companies around the world to develop hedging strategies that lead to hefty losses in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The sample is comprised of 346 companies from 10 international markets, of which 49 companies (and a subsample of 13 distressed companies) lose a combined US$18.9 billion. An event study shows that most companies that present losses in derivatives experience negative abnormal returns, including a number of companies in which the effect is persistent after a year. The results of a probit model indicate that the lack of a formal hedging policy, no monitoring to the CFOs, and considerations of hubris and remuneration contribute to the mismanagement of hedging policies.

Keywords: risk management, hedging, derivatives, monitoring, corporate governance structure, event study, hubris

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Authors: Yassine Jadi, Lin Jie

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In order to serve the society in an electronic manner, many developing countries have launched tremendous e-government projects. The strategies of development and implementation e-government system have reached different levels, and to ensure consistency of development, the governments need to evaluate e-government performance. The United nation has design e-government development ranking index (EGDI) that rely on three indexes, Online service index (OSI), Telecommunication Infrastructure index (TII), and human capital index( HCI) which are not reflecting the interaction between a government and their citizens. Based on data envelopment analyses (DEA) technique, we are using E-participating index (EPI) as an output of government effort to evaluate the performance of e-government system. Therefore, the ranking index can be achieved in efficiency manner.

Keywords: e-government, DEA, efficiency measurement, EGDI

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Authors: Manotar Tampubolon

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Although the Indonesian human rights protection has increased in recent years, but human rights violations still occur in the industrial sector. Crimes against human rights continue to occur and go unnoticed in spite of the government's legislation on human rights, employment law in addition to an international treaty that has been ratified by Indonesia. The increasing number of garment companies in Bekasi, also give rise to increased human rights violations since the government does not have a commitment to protect it. The Indonesian government and industry owners should pay attention to and protect the human rights of workers and treat them accordingly. This paper will review the human rights violations experienced by workers at garment factories in the context of the law, as well as ideas to improve the protection of workers' rights.

Keywords: human rights protection, human rights violations, workers’ rights, justice, security

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Authors: Binish Ahmed

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is regarded as voluntary behaviors that contribute to the social welfare based on the concept of sustainable development. The corporations should not only stress on their economic and business outcomes but also pay attention to their effect on the society and environment. It could attract investors and customers, as well as maintain a positive interaction with the government. In spite of the broad diffusion, and its potential significance to employees' perspective, CSR is now examined and has built-in Organizational Behavior (OB), and Human Resource Management (HRM) look into the broad structure of relationship between employees' perspective, work attitudes and behavior to improve the research on CSR. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of employees’ perception of CSR on work attitudes and behaviors of employees. A conceptual framework is proposed, based on the literature and practices. The research would conduct the primary data survey of convenient sampling from the employees and managers-using detailed questionnaire- to address the following questions. The survey of 180 respondents of age greater than 20 having at least six-month experience from companies based in Karachi are source of data. The application of professional empirical models for data analysis and interpretation are source to draw the conclusion. 1. What are the dynamics of CSR in an organization? Why is it important to have a CSR department? What sort of business approach are CSR activities practiced? Do CSR activities improve the quality of life of workplace? And, how it linked with welfare of society? 2. How the positive job attitude and behavior does encourage the employees about the perception of CSR? How is it linked with the job satisfaction? What is the relationship between employees’ perception of CSR and job satisfaction?

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work behaviors

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah, Jianing Mi, Cheng Feng

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The patronage of e-government services (demand side of e-government) is vital to the successful implementation of e-government initiatives. The purpose of this study is to explore the predictors determining the willingness of African students in China to adopt and use e-government services. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) will be used as the theoretical foundation for this research. Research instrument will be developed and administered to 500 African students in China. Factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and culture will be investigated to determine its significant impact on the willingness to use e-government services. This study is a research in progress. The outcome of this study will provide valuable recommendations to improve the provision of public services through e-government.

Keywords: e-government, e-government services, predictors, UTAUT

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Authors: Joy Debski

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Due to the varying degrees of the problem posed by global warming, environmental sustainability dominates international discourse. International initiatives' aims and expectations have proven particularly challenging to put into practice in developing nations. To reduce human exploitation of the environment, stricter measures are urgently needed. However, putting them into practice has proven more difficult. Relatively recent information from the Climate Accountability Institute and academic researchers shows that fossil fuel companies are major contributors to the climate crisis. Host communities in oil and gas-producing areas, particularly in developing nations, have grown hostile toward both oil and gas companies and government policies. It is now essential that the three main stakeholders—government, the oil and gas sector, and host communities—cooperate to achieve the shared objective of environmental sustainability. This research, therefore, advocates a governance system for Nigeria that facilitates the achieving the goal of environmental sustainability. This objective is achieved by the research's examination of the main institutional framework for environmental sustainability, evaluation of the strategies used by major oil companies to increase stakeholder engagement in environmental sustainability, and examination of the involvement of host communities in environmental sustainability. The study reveals that while environmental sustainability is important to the identified stakeholders, it's challenging to accomplish without an informed synergy. Hence the research advocates the centralisation of CSR through a CSR commission for environmental sustainability. The commission’s mandate is to facilitate, partner with, and endorse companies. The commission is strongly advised to incorporate host community liaison offices into the process of negotiating contracts with oil and gas firms, as well as to play a facilitative role in helping firms adhere to both domestic and international regulations. The recommendations can benefit Nigerian policymakers in enhancing their unsuccessful efforts to pass CSR legislation. Through the research-proposed CSR department, which has competent training and stakeholder engagement strategies, oil and gas companies can enhance and centralise their goals for environmental sustainability. Finally, the CSR Commission's expertise would give host communities more leverage when negotiating their memorandum of understanding with oil and gas companies.

Keywords: environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility, CSR, oil and gas, nigeria

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Authors: Chiara Mansanta, Daniela Sani

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The present paper presents the further development of the application of a standard methodology to boost innovation inside real case studies of manufacturing companies. The proposed methodology provides a viable solution for manufacturing companies that have to evaluate new business ideas. The study underlined the concept of entrepreneurship and how a manager can use it to promote innovation inside their companies. Starting from a literature study on entrepreneurship, this paper examines the role of the manager in supporting a company’s development. The empirical part of the study is based on two manufacturing companies that used the proposed methodology to favour entrepreneurship through an alternative approach. The research demonstrated the need for companies to have a structured and well-defined methodology to achieve their goals. The purpose of this article is to understand the significance of business models inside companies and explore how they affect business strategy and innovation management. The idea is to use business models to support entrepreneurs in their decision-making processes, reducing risks and avoiding errors.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, manufacturing companies, solution validation, strategic management

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Authors: Ivana Tadic, Snjezana Pivac

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Although human resources are recognized as the crucial companies’ resources and their positive influence on companies’ performances has been confirmed through different researches, scientists are still debating it. In order to contribute this debate, this paper firstly discusses the most important human resource management elements and practices and its influence on companies’ success. Afterwards it defines human resource “bundles” – interrelated and internally consistent human resource practices, complementary to each other, or the most important human resource practices and elements regarding Croatian companies and its human resource management activities. Finally, the paper provides empirical results; more precisely it reveals the relation of the level of development of human resource management function (“bundles”) and companies’ financial performances (using profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, solvency ratios and a group of additional ratios related to employees’ indicators).

Keywords: companies’ performances, human resource bundles, multivariate statistical analysis, marketing

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Authors: Mostafa Ahmed Shokshok

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Libyan industrial companies face many challenges in today's competitive market. Quality management culture approaches is one of these challenges which may furnish the road to the Libyan industrial companies to effectively empower their employees and improve their ability to respond to the international competition. The primary objective of this paper is to design a practical approach to guide Libyan industrial companies toward successful quality culture implementation.

Keywords: TQM, quality culture, Libyan manufacturing industries, quality framework

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Authors: Gordon Newlove Asamoah, Wendy Ama Oti

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This study focused on evaluating access to finance for local oil field companies in Ghana. The study adopted a census survey design in evaluating access to finance for local oil field companies in Ghana. The respondents of this study were 30 management members of three oil field companies in Ghana. The data collected was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) to generate tables and graphs for interpretation. The results show that most companies use equity financing in combination with other forms of financing to finance their business activities. This research has shown the various challenges bordering on the financing of local oil and gas projects, with emphasis on the challenges of raising funds by indigenous oil companies. Financing of the projects by indigenous oil field companies in Ghana is preferably achieved through equity finance mainly because it is the easiest to get compared to all the other forms of financing available. Other sources of financing available are debt financing, joint venture, and retained earnings from the profits generated from their operations. The study made recommendations to local oil field companies as to how they can make good use of the capital market to raise financing.

Keywords: access, financing, oil fields, Ghana

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Authors: Jing (Claire) LI

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The topic of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is significant for pharmaceutical companies in China at this current stage. This is because, as a rapid growth industry in China in recent years, the pharmaceutical industry in China has been undergone continuous and terrible incidents relating to CSR. However, there is limited research and practice of CSR in Chinese pharmaceutical companies. Also, there is an urgent call for more research in an international context to understand the implications of corporate life cycle on CSR performance. To respond to the research need and research call, this study examines the relationship between corporate life cycle and CSR performance of Chinese listed companies in pharmaceutical industry. This research studies Chinese listed companies in pharmaceutical industry for the period of 2010-2017, where the data is available in database. Following the literature, this study divides CSR performance with regards to CSR dimensions, including shareholders, creditors, employees, customers, suppliers, the government, and the society. This study uses CSR scores of HEXUN database and financial measures of these CSR dimensions to measure the CSR performance. This study performed regression analysis to examine the relationship between corporate life cycle stages and CSR performance with regards to CSR dimensions for pharmaceutical listed companies in China. Using cash flow pattern as proxy of corporate life cycle to classify corporate life cycle stages, this study found that most (least) pharmaceutical companies in China are in maturity (decline) stage. This study found that CSR performance for most dimensions are highest (lowest) in maturity (decline) stage as well. Among these CSR dimensions, performing responsibilities for shareholder is the most important among all CSR responsibilities for pharmaceutical companies. This study is the first to provide important empirical evidence from Chinese pharmaceutical industry on the association between life cycle and CSR performance, supporting that corporate life cycle is a key factor in CSR performance. The study expands corporate life cycle and CSR literatures and has both empirical and theoretical contributions to the literature. From perspective of empirical contributions, the findings contribute to the argument that whether there is a relationship between CSR performance and various corporate life cycle stages in the literature. This study also provides empirical evidence that companies in different corporate life cycles have difference in CSR performance. From perspective of theoretical contributions, this study relates CSR and stakeholders to corporate life cycle stages and complements the corporate life cycle and CSR literature. This study has important implications for managers and policy makers. First, the results will be helpful for managers to have an understanding in the essence of CSR, and their company’s current and future CSR focus over corporate life cycle. This study provides a reference for their actions and may help them make more wise resources allocation decisions of CSR investment. Second, policy makers (in the government, stock exchanges, and securities commission) may consider corporate life cycle as an important factor in formulating future regulations for companies. Future research can explore the "process-based" differences in CSR performance and more industries.

Keywords: China, corporate life cycle, corporate social responsibility, pharmaceutical industry

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Authors: Seyedeza Baharisaravi

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As we know, we are living in the hyper competitive environment and all of companies strive hard to engross more and more customers. Thus, in this milieu, we should produce and deliver diverse commodities, regarding with the consumers' interests. So, all companies elicit that they should pay attention on the external resources besides the internal ones. Hence, the meaning of supply chain management has been introduced as a fundamental issue for global e-business, e-commerce and e-government. The present paper explains prominences, challenges, keys, various descriptions, advantages and disadvantages, globalization and the future of one of the vital issues in the business realm which is supply chain management (SCM). This issue is one of the newest concepts of business science that has transformed the essence of every business and attitude of marketers.

Keywords: SCM concepts, supply chain management, the importance of SCM, SCM in organization

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Authors: Devina Aprilia Gunawan, Tasya Aspiranti, Inugrah Ratia Pratiwi

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This research aims to classify the mining sector companies based on Altman’s Z-score model, and providing an analysis based on the Altman’s Z-score model’s financial ratios to provide a picture about the financial condition in mining sector companies in Indonesia and their viability in the future, and to find out the partial and simultaneous impact of each of the financial ratio variables in the Altman’s Z-score model, namely (WC/TA), (RE/TA), (EBIT/TA), (MVE/TL), and (S/TA), toward the financial condition represented by the Z-score itself. Among 38 mining sector companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), 28 companies are selected as research sample according to the purposive sampling criteria.The results of this research showed that during 3 years research period at 2010-2012, the amount of the companies that was predicted to be healthy in each year was less than half of the total sample companies and not even reach up to 50%. The multiple regression analysis result showed that all of the research hypotheses are accepted, which means that (WC/TA), (RE/TA), (EBIT/TA), (MVE/TL), and (S/TA), both partially and simultaneously had an impact towards company’s financial condition.

Keywords: Altman’s Z-score model, financial condition, mining companies, Indonesia

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Authors: Eworo David

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It is dearly evident that a company which does not and will not innovate faces the grave danger of being pushed out of existence. The purpose of this study is to bring to knowledge of companies the significance of capital budgeting in viable project implementation and for proper investment appraisal as regards steps involved in effective investment strategies. The study examines investment policies of Nigeria companies. It deals with an overview of capital budgeting. The analysis covers the data gathered from two multi-national companies in Nigeria. The population of the study was the senior managers and the top management staff of the companies. The system of capital budgeting structure and project implementation styles were compared and contrasted to determine whether the system has MADE or MARRED the development of the organizations. The recommendations contribute towards Nigeria companies to remain and survive in business through the use of capital budgeting.

Keywords: appraisal, budgeting structure, capital budgeting, effective investment strategies

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Authors: Abdoullah Fath-Allah, Laila Cheikhi, Rafa E. Al-Qutaish, Ali Idri

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Many quality models have been used to measure e-government portals quality. However, the absence of an international consensus for e-government portals quality models results in many differences in terms of quality attributes and measures. The aim of this paper is to compare and analyze the existing e-government quality models proposed in literature (those that are based on ISO standards and those that are not) in order to propose guidelines to build a good and useful e-government portals quality model. Our findings show that, there is no e-government portal quality model based on the new international standard ISO 25010. Besides that, the quality models are not based on a best practice model to allow agencies to both; measure e-government portals quality and identify missing best practices for those portals.

Keywords: e-government, portal, best practices, quality model, ISO, standard, ISO 25010, ISO 9126

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Authors: Olha Oleshchuk

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Such companies as Apple, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Samsung are well-known, but most people do not know about their economic and political influence on society at national and international levels. This ignorance is beneficial for transnational corporations because it reduces the risk of possible resistance of the society and creates favourable conditions for the formation of a new governmental political form. The aim of the research to analyse the opportunity of creating of a new governmental political form. The aim of the research is realized by implementation of such objectives: 1) to consider the possibility of the formation of new political forms of government; 2) to determine the influence of TNCs on the state, which is necessary for a mature, aware citizen; 3) to learn the roles of TNCs, which provide the awareness in the spheres of the world politics, economics, and everyday life. The relevance of the research is confirmed by the fact that new political forms of government are poorly studied.

Keywords: objective factors of losing leading position by state, transnational corporations, TNCs' economic influence, TNCs' political influence

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Authors: Hilmi Rafet Yüncü

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Today Internet has very important role to promote products and services all over the world. Companies and destinations in tourism industry use Internet to sell and to promote their core products to directly potential tourists. Internet technologies have redefined the relationships between tourists, tourism companies, and travel agents. The new relationship allows for accessing and tapping tourism information and services. Internet technologies ensure new opportunities to available for the tourism industry, including travel accommodation, and tourist destination organizations. Websites are important devices to the marketing of a destination. Most people make a research about the destination before arriving via internet. Governments have a considerable role in the process of marketing tourism destinations. Governments make policies and regulations; furthermore, they help to market destinations to potential tourists. Governments have a comprehensive overview of the sector to see changes in tourism market and design better policies, programs and marketing plans. At the same time, governments support developing of alternative tourism in the country with regulations and marketing tools. The aim of this study is to analyse of an Internet website of governmental tourism portal in Turkey to determine effectiveness about gastronomy tourism. The Turkish government has established a culture portal for foreign and local tourists. The Portal provides local and general information about tourism attractions of cities and Turkey. There are 81 official cities in Turkey and all these cities are conducted to analyse to determine how effective marketing is done by Turkish Government in the manner of gastronomy tourism. A content analysis will be conducted to Internet website of the portal with food content, recipes and gastronomic feature of cities.

Keywords: culture portal, gastronomy tourism, government, Turkey

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Authors: Azaz Zaman, Mirazur Rahman

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Capital market is a crucial financial market place where companies and the government can raise long-term funds and, at the same time, investors get the opportunity to invest in the listed companies. Capital markets play a vital role not only in shifting the funds from surplus entity to deficit for investment, but also in the overall economic development of any developing country like Bangladesh. Being the first and biggest capital market of Bangladesh, Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) is the prime bourse of the country. The differences in the investment preference— among three broad categories of investors in DSE including individual investors, institutional investors, and government— are easily observed. Authors of this article have used five categories of investors such as sponsors or directors of the company, institutional investors, foreign investors, government, and the general public in order to present a comparative analysis of their investment patterns. Obtaining data on the percentage of investment by these five types of investors in different sectors from the DSE website, this study aims to analyze the sector-wise investment preference of these investors using August 2018 data. The study has found that the sponsors or directors of the company have the highest percentage of investment in the textile industry which is close to 16%. The Bangladesh government, as an investor, has the highest percentage of investment in the fuel & power sector, approximately 32%. It has also found that the mutual funds' sector is mostly financed by institutional investors, nearly 28%. Foreign investors have their most investments in the banking sector, which is close to 22%. It has also revealed that the textile sector is mostly financed by the general public, close to 17%. Nevertheless, general public, surprisingly, has the lowest percentage of investment in the telecommunication sector, which is 0.10%.

Keywords: stock market investment, Dhaka stock exchange, capital market, Bangladesh

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Authors: Kateřina Struhařová

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The paper gives the evidence of quality of accounting information of Czech private companies. In general the private companies in the Czech Republic do not see the benefits of providing accounting information of high quality. Based on the research of financial statements of entrepreneurs and companies in Zlin region it was confirmed that the quality of accounting information differs among the private entities and that the major impact on the accounting information quality has the fact if the financial statements are audited as well as the size of the entity. Also the foreign shareholders and lenders have some impact on the accounting information quality.

Keywords: accounting information quality, financial statements, Czech Republic, private companies

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Authors: Palash Bandyopadhyay

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Background and significance of the study: Crude oil and natural gas is of crucial importance due to its increasing demand in India. The demand has been increased because of change of lifestyle overtime. Since India has poor utilization of oil production capacity, constantly the import of it has been increased progressively day by day. This ultimately hit the foreign exchange reserves of India, however it negatively affect the Indian economy as well. The financial performance of crude oil and natural gas companies in India has been trimmed down year after year because of underutilization of production capacity, enhancement of demand, change in life style, and change in import bill and outflows of foreign currencies. In this background, the current study seeks to measure the financial performance of crude oil and natural gas companies of India in the post liberalization period. Keeping in view of this, this study assesses the financial performance in terms of liquidity management, solvency, efficiency, financial stability, and profitability of the companies under study. Methodology: This research work is encircled on yearly ratio data collected from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) Prowess database for the periods between 1993-94 and 2012-13 with 20 observations using liquidity, solvency and efficiency indicators, profitability indicators and financial stability indicators of all the major crude oil and natural gas companies in India. In the course of analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation statistics, and linear regression test have been utilized. Major findings: Descriptive statistics indicate that liquidity position is satisfactory in case of three crude oil and natural gas companies (Oil and Natural Gas Companies Videsh Limited, Oil India Limited and Selan exploration and transportation Limited) out of selected companies under study but solvency position is satisfactory only for one company (Oil and Natural Gas Companies Videsh Limited). However, efficiency analysis points out that Oil and Natural Gas Companies Videsh Limited performs effectively the management of inventory, receivables, and payables, but the overall liquidity management is not well. Profitability position is very much satisfactory in case of all the companies except Tata Petrodyne Limited, but profitability management is not satisfactory for all the companies under study. Financial stability analysis shows that all the companies are more dependent on debt capital, which bears a financial risk. Correlation and regression test results illustrates that profitability is positively and negatively associated with liquidity, solvency, efficiency, and financial stability indicators. Concluding statement: Management of liquidity and profitability of crude oil and natural gas companies in India should have been improved through controlling unnecessary imports in spite of the heavy demand of crude oil and natural gas in India and proper utilization of domestic oil reserves. At the same time, Indian government has to concern about rupee depreciation and interest rates.

Keywords: financial performance, crude oil and natural gas companies, India, linear regression

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Authors: Jose Gonzalez, Fai Cheng, Ivy Fan

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Shipping has a mature and ever expanding worldwide market. The future of the marine industry itself is not only irrevocably linked with the global economic, social, and political landscape; it is also subject to the technological developments in different fields. Some of them may have never been linked to the marine industry before. Companies in the marine sector are getting more dependent on technologies to achieve competitive advantage in an increasing open market. Technologies can be fused across different business functions and geopolitical influences. A successful marine business should be prepared to embrace such potential changes that lie ahead. The present paper intends to articulate long-term marine technology strategies from an industrial perspective. Methodology and current development are introduced. The paper will also provide insight into future technological trends demand for major commercial ship types. It may also assist different stakeholders in tailoring their long-term strategies to achieve a Sea Change and to uncap opportunity.

Keywords: commercial sector, marine, trends, technology

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Authors: Pavel Porubiak, Lukas Kudlacek

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Introduction Transplant tourism is a controversial method of obtaining an organ, and that goes all the more for a country such as China, where sources of evidence point out to the possibility of organs being harvested illegally. This research aimed at listing the individual countries these tourists come from, or which medical companies sell transplant related products in there, with China being used as an example. Materials and methods The methodology of scoping study was used for both parts of the research. The countries from which transplant tourists come to China were identified by a search through existing medical studies in the NCBI PubMed database, listed under the keyword ‘transplantation in China’. The search was not limited by any other criteria, but only the studies available for free – directly on PubMed or a linked source – were used. Other research studies on this topic were considered as well. The companies were identified through multiple methods. The first was an online search focused on medical companies and their products. The Bloomberg Service, used by stock brokers worldwide, was then used to identify the revenue of these companies in individual countries – if data were available – as well as their business presence in China. A search through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was done in the same way. Also a search on the Chinese internet was done, and to obtain more results, a second online search was done as well. The results and discussion The extensive search has identified 14 countries with transplant tourists to China. The search for a similar studies or reports resulted in finding additional six countries. The companies identified by our research also amounted to 20. Eight of them are sourcing China with organ preservation products – of which one is just trying to enter the Chinese market, six with immunosuppressive drugs, four with transplant diagnostics, one with medical robots which Chinese doctors use for transplantation as well, and another one trying to enter the Chinese market with a consumable-type product also related to transplantation. The conclusion The question of the ethicality of transplant tourism may be very pressing, since as the research shows, just the sheer amount of participating countries, sourcing transplant tourists to another one, amounts to 20. The identified companies are facing risks due to the nature of transplantation business in China, as officially executed prisoners are used as sources, and widely cited pieces of evidence point out to illegal organ harvesting. Similar risks and ethical questions are also relevant to the countries sourcing the transplant tourists to China.

Keywords: China, illegal organ harvesting, transplant tourism, organ harvesting technology

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Authors: Abdelbaset Rabaiah

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e-Government mobile applications provide an extension for effective e-government services in today’s omniconnected world. They constitute part of m-government platforms. This study explores the usefulness, availability, discoverability and maturity of such applications. While this study impacts theory by addressing a relatively lacking area, it impacts practice more. The outcomes of this study suggest valuable recommendations for practitioners-developers of e-government applications. The methodology followed is to examine a large number of e-government smartphone applications. The focus is on applications available at the Google Play Store. Moreover, the study investigates applications published on government portals of a number of countries. A sample of 15 countries is researched. The results show a diversity in the level of discoverability, development, maturity, and usage of smartphone apps dedicated for use of e-government services. It was found that there are major issues in discovering e-government applications on both the Google Play Store and as-well-as on local government portals. The study found that only a fraction of mobile government applications was published on the Play Store. Only 19% of apps were multilingual, and 43% were developed by third parties including private individuals. Further analysis was made, and important recommendations are suggested in this paper for a better utilization of e-government smartphone applications. These recommendations will result in better discoverability, maturity, and usefulness of e-government applications.

Keywords: mobile applications, e-government, m-government, Google Play Store

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Authors: Dora Martins, Susana Silva, Cândida Silva

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Human Resources Management (HRM) has been recognized by academics and practitioners as an important element in organizations. Therefore, this paper explores the best practices of HRM and seeks to understand the level of participation in the development of these practices by human resources managers in the hospitality industry and compare it with other industries. Thus, the study compared the HRM practices of companies in the hospitality sector with HRM practices of companies in other sectors, and identifies the main differences between their HRM practices. The results show that the most frequent HRM practices in all companies, independently of its sector of activity, are hiring and training. When comparing hospitality sector with other sectors of activity, some differences were noticed, namely in the adoption of the practices of communication and information sharing, and of recruitment and selection. According to these results, the paper discusses the major theoretical and practical implications. Suggestions for future research are also presented.

Keywords: exploratory study, human resources management practices, human resources manager, hospitality companies, Portuguese companies

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Authors: Ahmed M. Jamel

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Electronic government initiatives and public participation to them are among the indicators of today's development criteria of the countries. After consequent two wars, Iraq's current position in, for example, UN's e-government ranking is quite concerning and did not improve in recent years, either. In the preparation of this work, we are motivated with the fact that handling geographic data of the public facilities and resources are needed in most of the e-government projects. Geographical information systems (GIS) provide most common tools not only to manage spatial data but also to integrate such type of data with nonspatial attributes of the features. With this background, this paper proposes that establishing a working GIS in the health sector of Iraq would improve e-government applications. As the case study, investigating hospital locations in Erbil is chosen.

Keywords: e-government, GIS, Iraq, Erbil

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Authors: Prateep Wajeetongratana

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The objectives of the research were to examine that how management accounting techniques were perceived and used by companies listed on the stock exchange and to investigate similarities or differences of management accounting practices between companies listed on the stock exchange and Thai SMEs. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. The finding found that almost all of the companies used traditional management accounting techniques more than advanced management accounting techniques. Four management accounting techniques having no significant association with business characteristic were standard costing, job order costing, process costing. The barriers that Thai SMEs encountered were a lack of proper accounting system and the insufficient knowledge in management accounting of the accountants. The comparison results revealed that both companies listed on the stock exchange and Thai SMEs used traditional management accounting techniques more than advanced techniques.

Keywords: companies listed on the stock exchange, financial budget, management accounting, operating budget

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Authors: Mirko Klaric

Abstract:

In different countries, sub-municipal units have different organizational and political positions. In some countries, the role of sub-municipal units is important; in others, it is marginal. That depends on the organization of the local government system in different countries, and the political role of local self-government units, their size, public authorities, and the possibility for managing various local public tasks. This paper attempts to analyze the sub-municipal government as an organizational form of local governance participation of citizens in the local community with a comparative perspective. Secondly, it presents elements that generally format sub-municipal government as a tool for strengthening of democratization processes in local government units. Those elements are crucial for the understanding of the dynamic in relation to local government vs. sub-municipal government. Special focus is put on the sub-municipal government in South-Eastern European countries, which have a common history and institutional framework, with this main question: how can sub-municipal government contribute to strengthening democratic processes in these countries. In centralized countries, the sub-municipal government usually has a reduced role, which relates to managing public tasks connected with local community needs. The purpose of this comparative research methodology is used for analyzing the present organization and role of sub-municipal government in local government systems in Croatia and other significant countries in Europe, with a special focus on the states in South-Eastern Europe and Croatia. Comparative analyses attempt to show that local government systems with bigger local government units have more significant sub-municipal government. On the other hand, local government systems with small local government units don’t have a strong sub-municipal government. Finally, this paper aims to present ideas on how the sub-municipal government can improve decentralization and contribute to better development of the local community and the whole of society.

Keywords: public administration, local government, sub-municipal government, decentralization

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah, Jianing Mi, Cheng Feng

Abstract:

Electronic government is the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by the government to improve public service delivery to citizens and businesses. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors influencing the adoption and use of e-government services from different nationalities perspectives. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) will be used as the theoretical framework for the study. A questionnaire would be developed and administered to 500 potential respondents who are students from different nationalities in China. Predictors such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, computer self-efficacy, trust in both the internet and government, social influence and perceived service quality would be examined with regard to their impact on the intention to use e-government services. This research is currently at the design and implementation stage. The completion of this study will provide useful insights into understanding factors impacting the decision to use e-government services from a cross and multi nationalities perspectives.

Keywords: different nationalities, e-government, e-government services, technology acceptance model (TAM)

Procedia PDF Downloads 402