Search results for: cultural influence on quality management

Authors: Sumanta Kumar Saha, Jie Qin

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This study analyzes the impact of financial inclusion on gender inequality in 126 countries belonging to different income groups during the 2005–2019 period. Due to its positive influence on poverty alleviation, economic growth, women empowerment, and income inequality reduction, financial inclusion may help reduce gender equality. This study constructs a novel composite financial inclusion index and applies both fixed-effect panel estimation and instrumental variable approach to examine the impact of financial inclusion on gender inequality. The results indicate that financial inclusion can reduce gender inequality in developing and low- and lower-middle-income countries, but not in higher-income countries. The impact is not always immediate. Past financial inclusion initiatives have a significant influence on future gender inequality. Financial inclusion is also significant if the poverty level is high and women's access to financial services is low compared to men. When the poverty level is low, or women have equal access to financial services, financial inclusion does not significantly affect gender inequality. The study finds that compulsory education and improvement in institutional quality promote gender equality in developing countries apart from financial inclusion. The study proposes that lower-income countries use financial inclusion initiatives to improve gender equality. Other countries need to focus on other aspects such as promoting educational support and institutional quality improvements to achieve gender equality.

Keywords: financial inclusion, gender inequality, institutional quality, women empowerment

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Authors: Zixuan Yang

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This paper presents an analysis of the necessary consideration culture in distributed design through a thorough literature review and case study. The literature review has identified that the need for understanding cultural differences in product design and user evaluations is highlighted by analyzing cross-cultural influences; culture plays a significant role in distributed work, particularly in establishing team cohesion, trust, and credibility early in the project. By applying approaches of Geert Hofstede's dimensions and Fukuyama's trust analysis, a case study of a global design project, i.e., multicultural distributed teamwork solving the problem in terms of reducing the risk of deep vein thrombosis, showcases cultural dynamics, emphasizing trust-building and decision-making. The lessons learned emphasized the importance of cultural awareness, adaptability, and the utilization of scientific theories to enable effective cross-cultural collaborations in global design, providing valuable insights into navigating cultural diversity within design practices.

Keywords: culture, distributed design, global design, Geert Hofstede's dimensions, Fukuyama's trust analysis

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Authors: Chanpen Meenakorn

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The purpose of this study are (1) development plan and management strategy of Virachey Natioanl Park, (2) to study stakeholders’ perception on tourism development for sustainable tourism planning and management. The data was collected through 28 sets of questionnaires with the total population of international visitors who were interested in Ecotourism in northeast Cambodia and traveled to Virachey National Park. The SPSS programme was used to analyze the level of visitors’ satisfaction and perception on tourism development. The results of the study indicated that moderate potentiality to be developed as tourist attraction for sustainable tourism development in the park. The components with moderate potential are physical condition, management, activities and process of natural and cultural tourism, and organization and participation of the local community. The study also found that most local communities satisfy with tourism development in the park as well as in their community.

Keywords: Kingdom of Cambodia, stakeholders’ perception, tourism management, Virachey National Park

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Authors: Robert Ab Butarbutar, Sutan Musa Buyana

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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to empirically test the correlation between several variables: perceived quality, overall customer satisfaction and brand attitude to brand loyalty on Maxim magazine in Indonesia. Since the room of adult magazine in Indonesia is restricted, the study of this category has became so interesting to reveal how those variables occur. Design/ methodology/ approach: The combination of exploratory, descriptive and causal research design used in this study. Non-probability sampling, specifically purposive sampling used to determine 160 respondents. Path analysis used to examine the contribution of antecedents variables, perceived quality, overall satisfaction and brand attitude in contribution to brand loyalty. Additional respondents serve for in-depth interview to enrich findings from questionnaire that directly distributed. Findings: The research shows that perceived quality positively contribute to overall satisfaction and brand attitude. Overall satisfaction also positively influence brand attitude and brand loyalty. Finally, brand attitude directly impact to brand loyalty. Despite the hypothesis testing, qualitative research also shows specific behavior of Indonesian customer in consuming adult magazine. Research limitation/implication: This research limited to adult male (18 years at minimum) and who live in big city as Jakarta. Broader geographical coverage is advisable for further research. This study also serves a call for additional empirical research into different product category that targeted to adult male, Since the research of this segment is quite scarce. Managerial Implications: Since findings show perceived quality positively impact and strong contribute to overall satisfaction and brand attitude, it implies for adult magazine to be driven by quality of content. The selection of model, information of current lifestyle of urban male became prioritizes in developing perceived quality. Differentiation also emerges as critical issues since consumer difficult to differentiate significantly one magazine to another. The way magazine deliver its content toward distinctive communication is highly recommended. Furthermore, brand loyalty faces big challenge. Interactivity toward events and social media become critically important. Originality/ value: perceived quality plays as prerequisite to develop overall satisfaction and brand attitude. Finding shows customer difficult to differentiate among adult magazines. Therefore, brand loyalty become a big challenge for company.

Keywords: perceived quality, overall satisfaction, brand attitude, adult magazine

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Authors: Saeed Rabea Baatwah, Zalailah Salleh, Norsiah Ahmad

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This study examines whether audit committee chair with financial expertise enhances the audit committee role in financial reporting quality in emerging market. We investigate this influence by employing the direct effect and moderating effect of audit committee chair with financial expertise on financial reporting timeliness. By using Omani data and the panel data method for two proxies for financial reporting timeliness, we find that audit committee chair with financial expertise enhances the timeliness of financial reporting through making the disclosure of annual reports timely. Further, we report evidence showing that both accounting and non-accounting financial expertise on the audit committee have a positive and significant influence on the timeliness of financial reporting. We also document that the association between financial expertise and the timeliness of financial reporting is more pronounced when the chair of the audit committee has financial expertise. This study is among the first to comprehensively prove that audit committee chair with financial expertise contributes to the quality of financial reporting in emerging market.

Keywords: audit committee, chair with financial expertise, timeliness of financial reporting, Oman

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Authors: Hyeon-Kyo Lim, Tong-il Jang, Yong-Hee Lee

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As for any nuclear power plant, human error is one of the most dreaded factors that may result in unexpected accidents. Thus, for accident prevention, it is quite indispensable to analyze and to manage the influence of any factor which may raise the possibility of human errors. Among lots factors, stress has been reported to have significant influence on human performance. Stress level of a person may fluctuate over time. To handle the possibility over time, robust stress management program is required, especially in nuclear power plants. Therefore, to overcome the possibility of human errors, this study aimed to develop a stress management program as a part of Fitness-for-Duty (FFD) Program for the workers in nuclear power plants. The meaning of FFD might be somewhat different by research objectives, appropriate definition of FFD was accomplished in this study with special reference to human error prevention, and diverse stress factors were elicited for management of human error susceptibility. In addition, with consideration of conventional FFD management programs, appropriate tests and interventions were introduced over the whole employment cycle including selection and screening of workers, job allocation, job rotation, and disemployment as well as Employee-Assistance-Program (EAP). The results showed that most tools mainly concentrated their weights on common organizational factors such as Demands, Supports, and Relationships in sequence, which were referred as major stress factors.

Keywords: human error, accident prevention, work performance, stress, fatigue

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Authors: Canan Cetin

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This essay analyses how gendered shaped views influence on our understanding of global politics. To do so, feminism used as a framework theory, thus masculinity is discussed in order to explain the male-dominated international relations (IR) discipline and the differences of reflections on our perspective considering the politics in a broader perspective. Particularly, it is highlighted that the social and cultural structures of societies have also an impact on our views about international relations and politics. From a different perspective, it is aimed that the sociological and cultural impression of the shifted gender perspectives on the political approach of different nations and societies will be examined by drawing on a range of sources. Instead of supporting one feminist theory, this essay engages with all traditions and enriches their arguments. Specifically, the main objective of the essay is hegemonic and plural masculinity on societies. The essay sets things up theoretically by looking at the nature of masculinity – the stage is set to show how this informs our understanding of IR.

Keywords: feminism, politics, international affairs, social life

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Authors: Narjes Dashti, Nida Ali, Magdy Montasser, Vineetha Cherian

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The influence of two PGPR strains, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas rhizophilia, on fruit yields, pomological traits and chemical contents of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruits were studied. The study was conducted separately on two different cultivar varieties of tomato, namely Supermarmande and UC82B. The results indicated that the presence of the PGPR almost doubled the average yield per plant. There was a significant improvement in the pomological qualities of the PGPR treated tomato fruits compared to the corresponding healthy treatments especially in traits such as the average fruit weight, height, and fruit volume. The chemical analysis of tomato fruits revealed that the presence of the PGPRs increased the total protein, lycopene, alkalinity and phenol content of the tomato fruits compared to the healthy controls. They had no influence on the reduced sugar, total soluble solids or the titerable acid content of fruits. However their presence reduced the amount of ascorbic acid in tomato fruits compared to the healthy controls.

Keywords: PGPR, tomato, fruit quality

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Authors: Lau Sing Yew

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The purpose of this research is to investigate and analyse the host-guests interaction in a homestay setting with the sub context of cultural exchange and cultural differences between both parties. The research were carried out in Malaysia, specifically in the state of Sabah and Sarawak which are more well-known for its’ rural tourism and homestay programs. The research problem addressed here is on the suitability of the homestay setting as a platform for intercultural communication between the host and foreign tourists. The key issues that were discussed include ‘cultural representations’, ‘touristic representations’ and ‘social representations’ which contoured the image that tourists form about destinations and local communities while debating on the benefits and disbenefits of cultural exchange. These issues were deliberated through observation and interviews and it was found that the homestay setting in Malaysia though there are varied types available acts as a suitable platform to encourage intercultural interaction between tourists and local communities.

Keywords: homestay program, Malaysia, host-guest interactions, cultural representations

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Authors: A. Pesin, D. Pustovoytov, M. Sverdlik

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During production of rolled steel strips the quality of the surface of finished strips influences steel consumption considerably. The most critical areas for crack formation during rolling are lateral sides of slabs. Deformation behaviors of the slab edge in roughing rolling process were analyzed by the finite element method with Deform-3D. In this study our focus is the analysis of the influence of edger’s form on the possibility to decrease surface cracking during roughing hot rolling.

Keywords: roughing hot rolling, FEM, crack, bulging

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Authors: Thuy T. T. Tran, Hamish Coates, Sophie Arkoudis

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Evaluation instruments of teaching are abundant; however, these do not prompt any enhancement in the quality of teaching, not least because these instruments are framed only by teacher-centered conceptions of teaching. There is a need for more sophisticated teaching evaluation measures that focus on student learning and multi-stakeholder involvement. This study aims to develop such an evaluation instrument for Vietnamese higher education. The study uses several kinds of methods. The instrument was initially drafted through in-depth review of research, paying close attention to Vietnamese higher education. Draft evaluation instruments were produced and reviewed by 34 experts. The outcomes of this qualitative and quantitative data reveal an instrument that highlights the value of a multisource student-centered approach, and the rich integration of contextual and cultural traits where Confucian values are emphasized. The validation affirms that evaluating teaching in such way will facilitate the continuous learning growth of all stakeholders involved.

Keywords: multi stakeholders, quality teaching, student learning, teaching evaluation

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Authors: Diane Ghanem, Whitney Kagabo, Rebecca Engels, Uma Srikumaran, Babar Shafiq

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Hospitalist co-management of orthopaedic surgery patients is a growing trend across the country. It was created as a collaborative effort to provide overarching care to patients with the goal of improving their postoperative care and decreasing in-hospital medical complications. The aim of this project is to provide a guide for implementing and optimizing a hospitalist co-management service in orthopaedic surgery. Key leaders from the hospitalist team, orthopaedic team and quality, safety and service team were identified. Multiple meetings were convened to discuss the comanagement service and determine the necessary building blocks behind an efficient and well-designed co-management framework. After meticulous deliberation, a consensus was reached on the final service agreement and a written guide was drafted. Fundamental features of the service include the identification of service stakeholders and leaders, frequent consensus meetings, a well-defined framework, with goals, program metrics and unified commands, and a regular satisfaction assessment to update and improve the program. Identified pearls for co-managing orthopaedic surgery patients are standardization, timing, adequate patient selection, and two-way feedback between hospitalists and orthopaedic surgeons to optimize the protocols. Developing a service agreement is a constant work in progress, with meetings, discussions, revisions, and multiple piloting attempts before implementation. It is a partnership created to provide hospitals with a streamlined admission process where at-risk patients are identified early, and patient care is optimized regardless of the number or nature of medical comorbidities. A wellestablished hospitalist co-management service can increase patient care quality and safety, as well as health care value.

Keywords: co-management, hospitalist co-management, implementation, orthopaedic surgery, quality improvement

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Authors: Abdelghani Boudiaf

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The profusion of studies relating to the concept of organizational learning shows the importance that has been given to this concept in the management sciences. A few years ago, companies leaned towards ISO 9001 certification; this requires the implementation of the quality management system (QMS). In order for this objective to be achieved, companies must have a set of skills, which pushes them to develop learning through continuous training. The results of empirical research have shown that implementation of the QMS in the company promotes the development of learning. It should also be noted that several types of learning are developed in this sense. Given the nature of skills development is normative in the context of the quality demarche, companies are obliged to qualify and improve the skills of their human resources. Continuous training is the keystone to develop the necessary learning. To carry out continuous training, companies need to be able to identify their real needs by developing training plans based on well-defined engineering. The training process goes obviously through several stages. Initially, training has a general aspect, that is to say, it focuses on topics and actions of a general nature. Subsequently, this is done in a more targeted and more precise way to accompany the evolution of the QMS and also to make the changes decided each time (change of working method, change of practices, change of objectives, change of mentality, etc.). To answer our problematic we opted for the method of qualitative research. It should be noted that the case study method crosses several data collection techniques to explain and understand a phenomenon. Three cases of companies were studied as part of this research work using different data collection techniques related to this method.

Keywords: changing mentalities, continuing training, organizational learning, quality management system, skills development

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Authors: Chih-Ping Chen

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In recent years, some scholars established the reflection of cultural values in advertisements. However, despite the Internet’s rapid development, few studies have focused on observing cross-cultural differences of values reflected in online advertisements. As mirrors of culture, advertisements are believed to reflect values relevant to consumers. Therefore, this research aims to examine the cultural values reflected on online skincare advertisements between countries with different cultural influences. We argue that culture affects the values presented in the slogans, endorsers, brand prominence, and product prominence of online advertisements; a concept that challenges the standardized manner of communication utilized by most multinational brands. Results highlight that the Philippines and Taiwan are neither located on extreme low-context nor extreme high-context cultures. Moreover, although advertisements reflect culture, it may be affected by potential value shifting caused by globalization, standardized communication, and the advertisers’ marketing priorities.

Keywords: cross-culture, cultural values, online advertising, prominence, beauty

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Authors: Mahmood Salahi, Fatemeh Abbasi

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Increasing urbanization will be one of the defining features of the 21st century. This produces particular environmental challenges, but also creates opportunities for urban development that can contribute to broader goals of improving the quality of life for urban residents while achieving greater levels of global sustainability. Half of the world’s population already lives in urban areas, with a growing number of these people living in towns and cities in low and middle-income countries. As well as being a demographic phenomenon, urbanisation is intricately linked with economic, social and environmental transitions. The increasing proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas has been driven by the growing concentration of new investment and employment opportunities. In general, nations with the most rapid and sustained economic growth have urbanized most.2 Urban centres provide opportunities for a range of social and cultural activities, as well as being critical for innovations in science, technology and education. Indeed, urban areas are of critical importance for social and economic development: as the Cities Alliance recognizes, 'only sustained urban growth has the capacity to lift both rural and urban populations out of poverty'.

Keywords: environment, urban planning, management, urbanization

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Authors: Shaojun Zheng, Lei Xu, Yunzi Wang

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The main purpose of the research is to use the cultural ecology to analyze the renewal of Shenzhen urban village in the process of China's urbanization and to evaluate and guide the renewal, which will combine the society value and economic efficiency and activate urban villages. The urban village has a long history. There are also many old buildings, various residents, and a strong connection with the surrounding environment. Cultural ecology, which uses the knowledge of ecology to study culture, provides us a cultural perspective in the renewal. We take Hubei village in Shenzhen as our example. By using cultural ecology, we find a new way dealing with the relationship between culture and other factors. It helps us to give the buildings and space the culture meanings from different scales. It enables us to find a unique development pattern of urban village. After analyzing several famous cultural blocks cases, we find it is possible to connect the unique culture of urban village with the renovation of its buildings, community, and commerce. We propose the following strategies with specific target: 1. Building renovation: We repair and rebuild the origin buildings as little as possible, and retain the original urban space tissue as much as possible to keep the original sense of place and the cultural atmosphere. 2. Community upgrade: We reshape the village stream, fix the original function, add event which will activate people to complete the existing cultural circle 3. District commerce: We implant food and drink district, boutique commercial, and creative industries, to make full use of the historical atmosphere of the site to enhance the culture feelings For the renewal of a seemingly chaotic mixed urban village, it is important to break out from the conventional practices of building shopping malls or residential towers. Without creating those building landmarks, cultural ecology activates the urban village by exploiting its unique culture, which makes the old and new combine and becomes a new stream of energy, forming the new cultural, commercial and stylish landmark of the city.

Keywords: cultural ecology, urban village, renewal, combination

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Authors: F. O Anugom

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The general functions of the university amongst other things include teaching, research and community service. Universities are recognized as the apex of learning, accumulating and imparting knowledge and skills of all kinds to students to enable them to be productive, earn their living and to make optimum contributions to national development. This is equivalent to the production of human capital in the form of high level manpower needed to administer the educational society, be useful to the society and manage the economy. Quality has become a matter of major importance for university education in Nigeria. Accreditation is the systematic review of educational programs to ensure that acceptable standards of education, scholarship and infrastructure are being maintained. Accreditation ensures that institution maintain quality. The process is designed to determine whether or not an institution has met or exceeded the published standards for accreditation, and whether it is achieving its mission and stated purposes. Ensuring quality assurance in accreditation process falls in the hands of university management which justified the need for this study. This study examined accreditation and quality assurance: the management imperative. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The design was a correlation survey with a population of 2,893 university administrators out of which 578 Heads of department and Dean of faculties were sampled. The instrument for data collection was titled Programme Accreditation Exercise scale with high levels of reliability. The research questions were answered with Pearson ‘r’ statistics. T-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses. It was found among others that the quality of accredited programme depends on the level of funding of universities in Nigeria. It was also indicated that quality of programme accreditation and physical facilities of universities in Nigeria have high relationship. But it was also revealed that programme accreditation is positively related to staffing in Nigerian universities. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommend that academic administrators should be included in the team of those who ensure quality programs in the universities. Private sector partnership should be encouraged to fund programs to ensure quality of programme in the universities. Independent agencies should be engaged to monitor the activities of accreditation teams to avoid bias.

Keywords: accreditation, quality assurance, national universities commission , physical facilities, staffing

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Authors: E. Erdogan, M. Ulusoy

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In terms of tourism, the concept of sustainability can be defined as preserving and developing natural, historical, cultural, social, and aesthetic values and enabling their permanency. Sustainable tourism aims to preserve natural, historical, cultural, and social resources, also by supporting economic progress protecting economic development and environmental values that emerge as a consequence of tourism activities. Cultural tourism feeds on sustainable cultural treasures inherently and is the most effective touristic activity. Traditional configurations and structural characteristics play an important role in generating cultural tourism in a region. Sustainable cultural tourism is related to trips upon people who embark with the aim of visiting culturally rich regions, learning about and observing fast-disappearing lifestyles and collecting cultural values as memories. With its huge tourism potential, Karadağ is the most significant cultural asset of the Karaman province, possessing unique riches in terms of cultural world history. Host to one of the most important Byzantine cities in Anatolia, Karadağ is like an open-air museum with its unparalleled architectural structures. There is a village named Madenşehir in the plain at the outskirts of Karadağ, near to which are located the “Thousand and One Churches” ruins. The 80-household house is located near the ruins in an area that been declared a 1st degree historic preservation district. stones gathered from local churches were used in the construction of these households. A ministry has assigned a new residential site near the boundaries of the 2nd degree preservation district, and the decision has been made to move the occupants to this area. The most important issue here is to enable locals’ sociocultural and socioeconomic sustainability. It is also important to build these structures in a manner compatible with the historical visual look, ecological system and environmental awareness. Therefore this new site will be planned as touristic area in terms of sustainable cultural tourism and in these new plans, shall fulfill functions oriented toward both tourists and locals. It is very important that this change be sustainable and also support cultural tourism.

Keywords: cultural tourism, new village settlement, socio cultural sustainability, “thousand and one churches” site

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Authors: Agustin Baidez, Yolanda Ramirez

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There is currently a growing interest in the improvement of university governance and the disclosure of information on governance processes as an essential part of the transparency and accountability of universities. This paper aims to examine the extent and quality of voluntary corporate governance disclosure by public Spanish universities on their websites in relation to information need of stakeholders. The results of this study show that Spanish university stakeholders attach great importance to the disclosure of specific information on aspects of corporate governance. However, the quality of disclosed information on university governance in public Spanish universities websites is in the middle level. In order to satisfy the information needs of university stakeholders, Spanish universities can be recommended to focus on reporting higher quality information on university autonomy in financing, autonomy in management, autonomy regarding student selection and assessment, degree of consanguinity of executive directors, report on assigned public funding based on results, and management reports.

Keywords: university, governance, transparency, stakeholders

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Authors: Sisi Xia, Dezhuan Tao

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Urban Double Reform is an effective means to improve the quality of ecological space, based on improving the living environment and urban functions and promoting the organic integration of the city and nature. This paper takes the design of Qinyang Wetland Park in Jiaozuo, Henan Province, as an example, attempting to closely link the ecological restoration of wetland with the urban culture and to extend the urban spirit of the ancient county of Qinyang while purifying the ecological water system. This design uses ecological technology to repair underwater forests and underwater turf, rapidly improving the quality of urban water without biological side effects. The ecological grass slope is used to create multiple bank forms, combining with a number of hydrophilic platforms to provide a good view of the public. Through the placement of ecological education bases, urban cultural exhibition halls, and other means, the cultural value of wetland parks will be enhanced, and the citizens will return to nature and experience the ecology and appreciate the charm of urban culture in the ecological space. Repair the ecosystem, sculpt the urban culture, let the public return to nature, experience the ecology, and experience the charm of urban culture in the ecological space.

Keywords: urban double reform, ecological space, improvement strategy, wetland park design

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Authors: Rubijesmin Abdul Latif

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This paper focuses on evaluating what are quality components of university websites in Malaysia especially the private universities. It is believed that with websites that prioritize quality, the websites will serve its intended users satisfactory. From the compiled analysis of other studies, quality components were identified and tested among 30 randomly selected respondents. Four Malaysia private university websites were compared and the highlights were better understanding of what users want for a quality university website.

Keywords: website evaluation, criteria, quality, usability, user experience, university website

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Authors: Wei-Ting Hung

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Inbound tourist expenditure might not only have influenced by individual tourist characteristics but may also be affected by nationality characteristics. The cross national distance effects on tourist consumption behavior should be incorporated in the analytical framework. Additionally, the often used factor analysis, cluster analysis and regression analysis overlook the hierarchical tourist consumption data structure and may lead to misleading results. The objectives of the present study were twofold. First, we propose a multilevel model that takes individual and cross-national differences into account under a hierarchical framework. Second, we further sought to determine the types of cross-national differences affecting tourist expenditure. Thus, this study incorporates the individual tourist effects and cross national distance effects simultaneously, uses the data of 2010 Annual Survey Report on Visitors’ Expenditure and Trends in Taiwan to investigate the determinants of inbound tourist expenditure. Multilevel analysis was used to investigate the influence of individual tourist effects and cross national distance effects on inbound tourist expenditure. The empirical results show that cross national distance plays a crucial role in tourist consumption behavior. Our findings also indicate age and income have positive influence on tourism expenditure., whereas education and gender do not have significant impact. Regarding macro-level factors, geographic and cultural differences exhibited significant positive relationships on tourism expenditure, while economic differences did not. Based on the above empirical results, it is suggested that tour operators should take tourists’ individual attributes, particularly their income and age, into consideration when arranging tours. In addition, nationality holds sway over tourists’ consumption behavior, of which geographic and cultural differences are the two major factors at play. The empirical results of this study serve as practical suggestions for tourism marketing strategies and policy implications for government policies.

Keywords: cross national distance, inbound tourist, multilevel analysis, tourist expenditure

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Authors: Mehran Barani Shikhrobat, Roger Flanagan

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The construction planning and scheduling based on using the current tools and techniques is resulted deterministic in nature (Gantt chart, CPM) or applying a very little probability of completion (PERT) for each task. However, every project embodies assumptions and influences and should start with a complete set of clearly defined goals and constraints that remain constant throughout the duration of the project. Construction planners continue to apply the traditional methods and tools of “hard” project management that were developed for “ideal projects,” neglecting the potential influence of complexity on the design and construction process. The aim of this research is to investigate the emergence and growth of complexity in project planning and to provide a model to consider the influence of complexity on the total project duration at the post-contract award pre-construction stage of a project. The literature review showed that complexity originates from different sources of environment, technical, and workflow interactions. They can be divided into two categories of complexity factors, first, project tasks, and second, project organisation management. Project tasks may originate from performance, lack of resources, or environmental changes for a specific task. Complexity factors that relate to organisation and management refer to workflow and interdependence of different parts. The literature review highlighted the ineffectiveness of traditional tools and techniques in planning for complexity. However, this research focus on understanding the fundamental causes of the complexity of construction projects were investigated through a questionnaire with industry experts. The results were used to develop a model that considers the core complexity factors and their interactions. System dynamics were used to investigate the model to consider the influence of complexity on project planning. Feedback from experts revealed 20 major complexity factors that impact project planning. The factors are divided into five categories known as core complexity factors. To understand the weight of each factor in comparison, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis method is used. The comparison showed that externalities are ranked as the biggest influence across the complexity factors. The research underlines that there are many internal and external factors that impact project activities and the project overall. This research shows the importance of considering the influence of complexity on the project master plan undertaken at the post-contract award pre-construction phase of a project.

Keywords: project planning, project complexity measurement, planning uncertainty management, project risk management, strategic project scheduling

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Authors: Baohua Yu

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Despite widely reported 'Mainland-Hong Kong conflicts', recent years have witnessed progressive growth in the numbers of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong’s universities. This research investigated Mainland Chinese students’ intercultural communication in relation to cross-cultural adaptation in a major university in Hong Kong. The features of intercultural communication examined in this study were competence in the second language (L2) communication and L2 Willingness to Communicate (WTC), while the features of cross-cultural adaptation examined were socio-cultural, psychological and academic adaptation. Based on a questionnaire, structural equation modelling was conducted among a sample of 196 Mainland Chinese students. Results showed that the competence in L2 communication played a significant role in L2 WTC, which had an influential effect on academic adaptation, which was itself identified as a mediator between the psychological adaptation and socio-cultural adaptation. Implications for curriculum design for courses and instructional practice on international students are discussed.

Keywords: L2 willingness to communicate, competence in L2 communication, psychological adaptation, socio-cultural adaptation, academic adaptation, structural equation modelling

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Authors: Surendar Vaddepalli

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Management education plays a crucial role to enable industry to cope with emerging challenges. It has spread in the last fifteen-twenty years in India and gained popularity as it was aimed at imbibing versatility and multi-tasking abilities in student community. Several management institutions started looking at upgrading their competencies in terms of faculty, research and industry interaction. The competitive business environment has been one of the drivers that paved the way for growing demand for management graduates in the employment market. Industry expects their executives to be engaged in a constant learning process. The ever-increasing demand for managers has led to establish more management institutions; however, the growth was not in line with the expectations from the industry. While top Business Schools are continuously changing the contents and delivery methodologies, academic standards of most of the other Business Schools are not up to the mark and quality of service provided by these institutes has opened various issues for discussion. On this back ground it is important to address the concerns of Indian management education experiencing with time and we have to rethink about the management education and efforts should be made to create a dynamic environment. This paper ties to study the current trends and tries to find out need for value based management education in India to rejuvenate it.

Keywords: management education, management, value based management education, business school, India

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Authors: Vaida Jurgile

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Intercultural learning is one of the approaches taken to understand the cultural diversity of the modern world and to accept changes in cultural identity and otherness and the expression of tolerance. During intercultural learning, students develop their abilities to interact and communicate with their group members. These abilities help to understand social and cultural differences, to form one’s identity, and to give meaning to intercultural learning. Intercultural education recognizes that a true understanding of differences and similarities of another culture is necessary in order to lay the foundations for working together with others, which contributes to the promotion of intercultural dialogue, appreciation of diversity, and cultural exchange. Therefore, it is important to examine the concept of intercultural learning, revealed through students’ learning experiences and understanding of how this learning takes place and what significance this phenomenon has in higher education. At a scientific level, intercultural learning should be explored in order to uncover the influence of cultural identity, i.e., intercultural learning should be seen in a local context. This experience would provide an opportunity to learn from various everyday intercultural learning situations. Intercultural learning can be not only a form of learning but also a tool for building understanding between people of different cultures. The research object of the study is the process of intercultural learning. The aim of the dissertation is to develop a grounded theory of the process of learning in an intercultural study environment, revealing students’ learning experiences. The research strategy chosen in this study is a constructivist grounded theory (GT). GT is an inductive method that seeks to form a theory by applying the systematic collection, synthesis, analysis, and conceptualization of data. The targeted data collection was based on the analysis of data provided by previous research participants, which revealed the need for further research participants. During the research, only students with at least half a year of study experience, i.e., who have completed at least one semester of intercultural studies, were purposefully selected for the research. To select students, snowballing sampling was used. 18 interviews were conducted with students representing 3 different fields of sciences (social sciences, humanities, and technology sciences). In the process of intercultural learning, language expresses and embodies cultural reality and a person’s cultural identity. It is through language that individual experiences are expressed, and the world in which Others exist is perceived. The increased emphasis is placed on the fact that language conveys certain “signs’ of communication and perception with cultural value, enabling the students to identify the Self and the Other. Language becomes an important tool in the process of intercultural communication because it is only through language that learners can communicate, exchange information, and understand each other. Thus, in the process of intercultural learning, language either promotes interpersonal relationships with foreign students or leads to mutual rejection.

Keywords: intercultural learning, grounded theory, students, other

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Authors: Afshin Azari, Farzad Peiravian, Nazila Yousefi

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Introduction: Community pharmacies have been always played an important role in public health. Therefore, having a decent service provided by these pharmacies is of paramount importance for the healthcare system. The issue of pharmacy ownership and its possible impact on the quality of services and amount of violations has been argued for many years, and there are different opinions around this debate. Since, so far, no scientific research has been performed to investigate this issue in Iran, this study aimed to examine the differences between these two types of pharmacies ownership in terms of violations and service quality. Method: This study investigates the impact of two different kinds of pharmacy ownership (pharmacists and non-pharmacist’s ownership) on the pharmacies’ amount of violations and services quality. Pharmacies’ amount of violations was examined using “pharmacy inspection reports” between September 2018 and September 2019, in their distinguishable categories: minor, major and critical violations. Then, service quality was examined using a questionnaire from the perspective of pharmacy customers. Results: Considering violations, there was no evidence to prove a significant relationship between critical violations and major violations with the type of pharmacy ownership. However, in minor violations, the average of violations was higher in pharmacies owned by pharmacists in comparison to their non-pharmacist owned counterparts. Regarding service quality, the results showed that there is no significant relationship between the quality of service and the type of pharmacy ownership. Discussion and Conclusion: In this study, no significant relationship was found between the amount of violations and the type of pharmacy ownership. This could indicate that the pharmacy ownership would not influence the rate of violations. Considering that more inspections have been carried out in non-pharmacist owned pharmacies, it can be concluded that these pharmacies are more under control, and in fact, this monitoring has reduced violations in these pharmacies. The quality of services in the two types of pharmacies were not significantly different from each other, and this shows that non-pharmacist-owned pharmacies also try to maintain the desired level of service in competition with their competitors.

Keywords: pharmacy ownership, quality of service, violation, community pharmacy

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Authors: Tengku Ezni Balqiah, Fanny Martdianty, Rifelly Dewi Astuti, Mutia Nurazizah Rachmawati

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The Corona Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed the world considerably and has disrupted businesses and people’s lives globally. In response to the pandemic, businesses have seen increased demand for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Businesses can increase their investments in CSR initiatives during the pandemic through various actions. This study examines how the various motives of philanthropy CSR influence perceived quality of life, company image, and advocacy. This study employed surveys of 719 respondents from seven provinces in Indonesia that had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. A structural equation model was used to test the hypothesis. The results showed that value and strategic motives positively influenced the perceived quality of life and corporate image, while the egoistic motive was negatively associated with both the perceived quality of life and the image of the company. The study also suggested that advocacy was strongly related to the perceived quality of life instead of a corporate image. The results indicate that, during a pandemic, both public- (i.e. value) and firm-serving (i.e. strategic) motives can have the same impact as long as people perceive that the businesses are sincere.

Keywords: advocacy, COVID 19, CSR motive, Indonesia, quality of life

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Authors: Gurmeet Kaur

Abstract:

Agile software development methods are being recognized as popular, and efficient approach to the development of software system that has a short delivery period with high quality also that meets customer requirements with zero defect. In agile software development, quality means quality of code where in the quality is maintained through the use of methods or approaches like refactoring, test driven development, behavior driven development, acceptance test driven development, and demand driven development. Software quality is measured in term of metrics such as the number of defects during development of software. Usage of above mentioned methods or approaches, reduces the possibilities of defects in developed software, and hence improve quality. This paper focuses on study of agile based quality methods or approaches for software development that ensures improved quality of software as well as reduced cost, and customer satisfaction.

Keywords: ATDD, BDD, DDD, TDD

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Authors: Esmeralda Hysenbelliu

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present the QoE (Quality of Experience) IPTV SDN-based media streaming server enhanced architecture for configuring, controlling, management and provisioning the improved delivery of IPTV service application with low cost, low bandwidth, and high security. Furthermore, it is given a virtual QoE IPTV SDN-based topology to provide an improved IPTV service based on QoE Control and Management of multimedia services functionalities. Inside OpenFlow SDN Controller there are enabled in high flexibility and efficiency Service Load-Balancing Systems; based on the Loading-Balance module and based on GeoIP Service. This two Load-balancing system improve IPTV end-users Quality of Experience (QoE) with optimal management of resources greatly. Through the key functionalities of OpenFlow SDN controller, this approach produced several important features, opportunities for overcoming the critical QoE metrics for IPTV Service like achieving incredible Fast Zapping time (Channel Switching time) < 0.1 seconds. This approach enabled Easy and Powerful Transcoding system via FFMPEG encoder. It has the ability to customize streaming dimensions bitrates, latency management and maximum transfer rates ensuring delivering of IPTV streaming services (Audio and Video) in high flexibility, low bandwidth and required performance. This QoE IPTV SDN-based media streaming architecture unlike other architectures provides the possibility of Channel Exchanging between several IPTV service providers all over the word. This new functionality brings many benefits as increasing the number of TV channels received by end –users with low cost, decreasing stream failure time (Channel Failure time < 0.1 seconds) and improving the quality of streaming services.

Keywords: improved quality of experience (QoE), OpenFlow SDN controller, IPTV service application, softwarization

Procedia PDF Downloads 138