Search results for: film business

Authors: Elena Tkachenko, Vladimir Kokh, Alina Osipenko, Vladislav Surkov

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The modern period of development of Russian economy is fraught with a number of problems related to limitations in the use of traditional planning and financial management tools. Restrictions in the use of foreign software when performing an order of the Russian Government, on the one hand, and sanctions limiting the support of the major ERP and MRP II systems in the Russian Federation, on the other hand, entail the necessity to appeal to the basics of developing budgeting and analysis systems for industrial enterprises. Thus, cost calculation theory becomes the theoretical foundation for the development of industrial cost management systems. Based on the foregoing, it would be fair to make an assumption that the development of a working managerial accounting model on an industrial enterprise using an automated enterprise resource management system should rest upon the concept of the inevitability of alterations of business processes. On the other hand, optimized business processes make the architecture of financial analytics more transparent and permit the use of all the benefits of data cubes. The metrics and indicator slices provide online assessment of the state of key business processes at a given moment of time, which improves the quality of managerial decisions considerably. Therefore, the bilateral sanctions situation boosted the development of corporate business analytics and took industrial companies to the next level of understanding of business processes.

Keywords: cost culculation, ERP, OLAP, modern Russian economy

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Authors: Andrea Schnabl, Mario Bernhart

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The controlling instrument of an internal cost allocation (IT chargeback) is commonly used to make IT costs transparent and controllable. Information Technology (IT) became, especially for information industries, a central competitive factor. Consequently, the focus is not on minimizing IT costs but on the strategic aligned application of IT. Hence, an internal IT cost allocation should be designed to enhance the business-IT alignment (strategic alignment of IT) in order to support the effective application of IT from a company’s point of view. To identify design criteria for an internal cost allocation to support business alignment a case study analysis at a typical medium-sized firm in information industry is performed. Documents, Key Performance Indicators, and cost accounting data over a period of 10 years are analyzed and interviews are performed. The derived design criteria are evaluated by 6 heads of IT departments from 6 different companies, which have an internal IT cost allocation at use. By applying these design criteria an internal cost allocation serves not only for cost controlling but also as an instrument in strategic IT management.

Keywords: accounting for IT services, Business IT Alignment, internal cost allocation, IT controlling, IT governance, strategic IT management

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Authors: Aynura Valiyeva, Basil John Thomas

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Intra-firm communication is critical for building synergy amongst internal business units of a firm, where employees from various functional departments and ranks incorporate their decision-making, understanding of organizational objectives, as well as common norms and culture for better organizational effectiveness. This study builds on and assesses a framework of the causes and consequences of effective communication in business interactions between customer and supplier firms, and the path for efficient communication within a firm. The proposed study’s structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis based on 352 sample responses collected from firm representatives at different job positions ranging from marketing to logistics operations, reveals that, in the frame of reference of intra-organizational communication, organization characteristics and shared values, top management support and style of leadership, as well as information technology, are all significantly related to communication effectiveness. Furthermore, the frequency and variety of interactions enhance the outcome of communication, that improves a company’s performance. The results reveal that cultural factors are significantly related to communication effectiveness, as well as the shared beliefs and goals. In terms of organizational factors, leadership style, top management support and information technology are significant determinants of effective communication. Among the contextual factors, interaction frequency and diversity are found to be priority factors. This study also tests the relationship between supplier and supplier firm performance in the context of communication effectiveness, and finds that they are closely related, when trust and commitment is built between business partners. When firms do business in other multicultural contexts, language and shared values with destination country must be considered significant elements of communication process.

Keywords: business performance, intra-firm communication, inter-firm communication, structural equation modeling

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Authors: Zeplin Jiwa Husada Tarigan, Sautma Ronni Basana, Widjojo Suprapto

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Manufacturing companies in East Java develop their own ERP system or alter the ERP system which is developed by other companies to suit their needs. To make their own system, the companies mostly assign several employees from various departments to create a project team, and the employees are from the departments that are going to utilize the ERP system as the integrated data. The project team decides the making of the ERP system from the preparation stage until the going live implementation process. In designing the business process, the top management is working together with the project team until the project is accomplished. The completion of the ERP projects depends on the project to be undertaken itself, the strategy chosen to complete the project, the work method selection, the measurement system to monitor the project, the evaluation system of the project, and, in the end, the declaration of 'going live' of the ERP project. There is an increase in the business performance for the companies that have implemented the information technology or ERP as they manage to integrate all management functions within their companies. To investigate, some questionnaires are distributed to 100 manufacturing companies, and 90 questionnaires are returned; however, there are only 46 companies that develop their own ERP system, so the response rate is 46%. The result of data analysis using PLS shows that the management competency brings impacts to the project team and the process design. The process design is adjusted to the real process in order to implement the ERP, but it does not bring direct impacts to the business performance. The implementation of ERP brings positive impacts to the company business performance.

Keywords: management competency, project team, process design, ERP implementation, business performance

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Authors: Lani Fraizer, Faiz Shah

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Extreme poverty continues to plague the world. Forty-seven million people live well-below the poverty line in Bangladesh, enduring poor quality of life, often with no access to basic human needs like shelter and healthcare. It is not surprising that poverty eradication is central to the mission of social change makers, such as Muhammad Yunus, who have demonstrated how enterprise-led development initiatives empower individuals at the grassroots, and can galvanize entire communities to emerge out of poverty. Such strategies call for system-wide change, and like a number of systems leaders, social business champions have typically challenged the status quo, and broken out of silos to catalyze vibrant multi-stakeholder partnerships across sectors. Apart from individual charisma, social change makers succeed because they garner collaborative impact through socially beneficial partnerships. So while enterprise-led social development evolves in scope and complexity, in step with the need to create and sustain partnerships, Partnership Brokering is emerging as an approach to facilitate collaborative processes. As such, it may now be possible for anyone motivated by the idea of social business to acquire the skills and sophistication necessary for building enriching partnerships that harness the power of the market to address poverty. This paper examines dimensions of partnership brokering in the context of social business, and explores the implications of this emerging approach on fostering poverty eradication.

Keywords: poverty, social business, partnership brokering, social entrepreneurship, systems change, enterprise-led development, change making

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Authors: Armando Luis Vieira, Carlos Costa, Arthur Araújo

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The tourism system is viewable as a network of relationships amongst business partners where the success of each actor will ultimately be determined by the success of the whole network. Especially since the publication of Gümmesson’s (1996) ‘theory of imaginary organisations’, which suggests that organisational effectiveness largely depends on managing relationships and sharing resources and activities, relationship quality (RQ) has been increasingly recognised as a main source of value creation and competitive advantage. However, there is still ambiguity around this topic, and managers and researchers have been recurrently reporting the need to better understand and capitalise on the quality of interactions with business partners. This research aims at testing an RQ model from a relational, imaginary organisation’s approach. Two mail surveys provide the perceptions of 725 hotel representatives about their business relationships with tour operators, and 1,224 corporate client representatives about their business relationships with hotels (21.9 % and 38.8 % response rate, respectively). The analysis contributes to enhance our understanding on the linkages between RQ and its determinants, and identifies the role of their dimensions. Structural equation modelling results highlight trust as the dominant dimension, the crucial role of commitment and satisfaction, and suggest customer orientation as complementary building block. Findings also emphasise problem solving behaviour and selling orientation as the most relevant dimensions of customer orientation. The comparison of the two ‘dyads’ deepens the discussion and enriches the suggested theoretical and managerial guidelines concerning the contribution of quality relationships to business performance.

Keywords: corporate clients, destination competitiveness, hotels, relationship quality, structural equations modelling, tour operators

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Authors: Samaneh Pouyanfar, Michael Oliff

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Nowadays, customer satisfaction and discovering the superior services, are counted as vital issues in most manufacturing and services companies. In these terms, gaining the competitive advantage by a business depends on products and services which are able to cause the customer satisfaction. Given the importance of this subject, this paper tries to investigate the correlation between components of customer satisfaction and gaining the competitive advantage by the business. For this purpose, after reviewing the research literature and doing deep interviews with authors and active people in the industry, based on the variables affecting the customer satisfaction and determinant components of business competitive advantage, research questionnaire was prepared. In sum, 96 executives of PARS-KHAZAR Company were asked in a survey. The results of P.L.S. Test for the research structure analysis showed that the measuring tools in terms of technical features, like convergent and divergent validity and compound reliability were very appropriate. Moreover the results showed that, the structure of products and factors related to foundation, has affected the competitive advantage performance positively and significantly; but the influence of structure of services and business environment on competitive advantage was not confirmed.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, competitive advantage, products, foundation, home appliances

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Authors: Sivakumar Singaravelu, Giriprasath Ramanathan, M. D. Raja, Uma Tirichurapalli Sivagnanam

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The goal of the present study was to develop and evaluate composite film for tissue engineering application. The keratin was extracted from bovine horn and used for preparation of keratin (HK), physiologically clotted fibrin (PCF) and gelatin (G) blend films in different stoichiometric ratios (1:1:1, 1:1:2 and 1:1:3) by using solvent casting method. The composite films (HK-PCF-G) were characterized physiochemically using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The mechanical properties of the composite films were analyzed. The results of tensile strength show that ultimate strength and elongation were 10.72 Mpa and 4.83 MPA respectively for 1:1:3 ratio combination. The SEM image showed a slight smooth surface for 1:1:3 ratio combination compared to other films. In order to impart antibacterial activities, the composite films were loaded with Mupirocin (MP) to act against infection. The composite films acted as a suitable carrier to protect and release the drug in a controlled manner. This developed composite film would be a suitable alternative material for tissue engineering application.

Keywords: bovine horn, keratin, fibrin, gelatin, tensile strength

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Authors: Ishmael Obaeko Iwara

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The Point of Sale (POS) cash and cashless semi-formal business has emerged as a significant driver of employment in countries like Nigeria and Kenya, similar to other micro and small-scale enterprises. This business model enables individuals to establish cash in/out outlets, offering entrepreneurs and small business owners a lucrative opportunity to generate additional income. However, the benefits extend beyond employment, as the POS model has become an integral part of the payment system in these countries. It facilitates convenient fund transfers, cash deposits, and withdrawals for individuals residing in both urban and rural areas. Given South Africa's high youth unemployment rate and limited banking services in rural households, coupled with a vibrant informal business economy akin to Nigeria and Kenya, the POS model potentially presents a business opportunity for the unemployed and serves as a banking solution for remote communities. Nonetheless, its implementation within South Africa's entrepreneurial landscape remains a subject of contention. Through qualitative research employing a participatory community-led action research approach, this study analyzes feedback, critiques, and potential interventions from various stakeholders, including business actors, grassroots communities, financial institutions, and policymakers. The findings offer crucial insights into the challenges associated with the adoption of the POS model and suggest mitigating factors to facilitate its successful implementation.

Keywords: grassroots entrepreneurs, rural households, POS banking, youth employment

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Authors: Mohd Nizam Osman

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This study explores issues and challenges of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption and application for business-related performance of Agro-based small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Globally, SMEs have championed the socio-economic development of nations across the globe, including Malaysia. Thus, the objectives of this study explore issues and challenges of agro-based SMEs' adoption and usage of ICT, the business-related performance of SMEs via the adoption of ICT, and the impact of incentives on SMEs' adoption and use of ICT. The study was conducted in Selangor, Malaysia. A qualitative research approach was deployed for the study. Data for the study emanated from semi-structured interviews and field note observation of 14 informants who are registered as small-scale business owners and operators. Based on thematic analysis, data were triangulated to ensure consistency and validation of findings for the study. Findings revealed that SMEs are faced with a lack of funding, low expertise, and lack of storage, leading to an unsustainable supply of goods and services. Although effective communication, ease of business activities/transactions, and information search by way of research were among the business performance experienced by SMEs' adoption of ICT. Further findings showed that loan conditions and personal and business interests hindered SMEs' reception and access to programs, schemes, and incentives geared at aiding the continuous growth and development of agro-based SMEs. The study suggests the need for policy change in terms of diversification of channels of funding and access to funds to enable credit guarantee schemes and peer or community-based financing. Consequently, the study recommends the engagement of SMEs in policy decision-making to ascertain the type of incentives relevant to their business operations. Likewise, from a technological standpoint, the study suggests the expansion of the framework of technology acceptance with focuses on affordability, type of users, and level of usage.

Keywords: ICT adoption, business related performance, agro-based SMEs, ICT application for SMEs

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Authors: Chen Jin

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This topic seeks to re-examine the New Women Incident in 1935 Shanghai from the perspective of the influence of leftist cinematic aesthetics on public discourse in 1930s Shanghai. Accordingly, an original means of interpreting the death of Ruan Lingyu will be provided. On 8th March 1935, Ruan Lingyu, the queen of Chinese silent film, committed suicide through overdosing on sleeping tablets. Her last words, ‘gossip is fearful thing’, interlinks her destiny with the protagonist she played in the film The New Women (Cai Chusheng, 1935). The coincidence was constantly questioned by the masses following her suicide, constituting the enduring question: ‘who killed Ruan Lingyu?’ Responding to this query, previous scholars primarily analyze the characters played by women -particularly new women as part of the leftist movement or public discourse of 1930s Shanghai- as a means of approaching the truth. Nevertheless, alongside her status as a public celebrity, Ruan Lingyu also plays as a screen image of mechanical reproduction. The overlap between her screen image and personal destiny attracts limited academic focus in terms of the effect and implications of leftist aesthetics of reality in relation to her death, which itself has provided impetus to this research. With the reconfiguration of early Chinese film theory in the 1980s, early discourses on the relationship between cinematic reality and consciousness proposed by Hou Yao and Gu Kenfu in the 1920s are integrated into the category of Chinese film ontology, which constitutes a transcultural contrast with the Euro-American ontology that advocates the representation of reality. The discussion of Hou and Gu overlaps cinematic reality with effect, which emphasizes the empathy of cinema that is directly reflected in the leftist aesthetics of the 1930s. As the main purpose of leftist cinema is to encourage revolution through depicting social reality truly, Ruan Lingyu became renowned for her natural and realistic acting proficiency, playing leading roles in several esteemed leftist films. The realistic reproduction and natural acting skill together constitute the empathy of leftist films, which establishes a dialogue with the virtuous female image within the 1930s public discourse. On this basis, this research considers Chinese cinematic ontology and affect theory as the theoretical foundation for investigating the relationship between the screen image of Ruan Lingyu reproduced by the leftist film The New Women and the female image in the 1930s public discourse. Through contextualizing Ruan Lingyu’s death within the Chinese leftist movement, the essay indicates that the empathy embodied within leftist cinematic reality limits viewers’ cognition of the actress, who project their sentiments for the perfect screen image on to Ruan Lingyu’s image in reality. Essentially, Ruan Lingyu is imprisoned in her own perfect replication. Consequently, this article states that alongside leftist anti-female consciousness, the leftist aesthetics of reality restricts women in a passive position within public discourse, which ultimately plays a role in facilitating the death of Ruan Lingyu.

Keywords: cinematic reality, leftist aesthetics, Ruan Lingyu, The New Women

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Authors: M. M. Moharam, E. M. Elsayed, M. M. Rashad

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Single phase Cu₂O films have been prepared via an electrodeposition technique onto ITO glass substrates at room temperature. Likewise, Cu₂O films were deposited using a potentiostatic process from an alkaline electrolyte containing copper (II) nitrate and 1M sodium citrate. Single phase Cu₂O films were electrodeposited at a cathodic deposition potential of 500mV for a reaction period of 90 min, and pH of 12 to yield a film thickness of 0.49 µm. The mechanism for nucleation of Cu₂O films was found to vary with deposition potential. Applying the Scharifker and Hills model at -500 and -600 mV to describe the mechanism of nucleation for the electrochemical reaction, the nucleation mechanism consisted of a mix between instantaneous and progressive growth mechanisms at -500 mV, while above -600 mV the growth mechanism was instantaneous. Using deposition times from 30 to 90 min at -500 mV deposition potential, pure Cu2O films with different microstructures were electrodeposited. Changing the deposition time from 30 to 90 min varied the microstructure from cubic to more complex polyhedra. The transmittance of electrodeposited Cu₂O films ranged from 20-70% in visible range, and samples exhibited a 2.4 eV band gap. The electrical resistivity for electrodeposited Cu₂O films was found to decrease with increasing deposition time from 0.854 x 105 Ω-cm at 30 min to 0.221 x 105 Ω-cm at 90 min without any thermal treatment following the electrodeposition process.

Keywords: Cu₂O, electrodeposition, film thickness, characterization, optical properties

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Authors: Abhimanyu Pati, Krishna Kumar Veluri

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The paper intends to bring out a real life experience encountered during actual implementation of a large scale Tier-1 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in a multi-location, discrete manufacturing organization in India, involved in manufacturing of auto components and aggregates. The business complexities, prior to the implementation of ERP, include multi-product with hierarchical product structures, geographically distributed multiple plant locations with disparate business practices, lack of inter-plant broadband connectivity, existence of disparate legacy applications for different business functions, and non-standardized codifications of products, machines, employees, and accounts apart from others. On the other hand, the manufacturing environment consisted of processes like Assemble-to-Order (ATO), Make-to-Stock (MTS), and Engineer-to-Order (ETO) with a mix of discrete and process operations. The paper has highlighted various business plan areas and concerns, prior to the implementation, with specific focus on strategic issues and objectives. Subsequently, it has dealt with the complete process of ERP implementation, starting from strategic planning, project planning, resource mobilization, and finally, the program execution. The step-by-step process provides a very good learning opportunity about the implementation methodology. At the end, various organizational challenges and lessons emerged, which will act as guidelines and checklist for organizations to successfully align and implement ERP and achieve their business objectives.

Keywords: ERP, ATO, MTS, ETO, discrete manufacturing, strategic planning

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Authors: Sanket S. Jugade, Swapneel U. Naphade, Satyabodh M. Kulkarni

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Microscale energy harvesters can be used to convert ambient mechanical vibrations to electrical energy. Such devices have great applications in low powered electronics in remote environments like powering wireless sensor nodes of Internet of Things, lightings on highways or in ships, etc. In this paper, a Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based energy harvester has been modeled using Analytical and Finite Element Method (FEM). The device consists of a microcantilever with a proof mass attached to its free end and a Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric thin film deposited on the surface of microcantilever in a unimorph or bimorph configuration. For the analytical method, the energy harvester was modeled as an equivalent electrical system in SIMULINK. The Finite element model was developed and analyzed using the commercial package COMSOL Multiphysics. The modal analysis was performed first to find the fundamental natural frequency and its variation with geometrical parameters of the system. Then the harmonic analysis was performed to find the input mechanical power, output electrical voltage, and power for a range of excitation frequencies and base acceleration values. The variation of output power with load resistance, PVDF film thickness, and damping values was also found out. The results from FEM were then validated with that of the analytical model. Finally, the performance of the device was optimized with respect to various electro-mechanical parameters. For a unimorph configuration consisting of single crystal silicon microcantilever of dimensions 8mm×2mm×80µm and proof mass of 9.32 mg with optimal values of the thickness of PVDF film and load resistance as 225 µm and 20 MΩ respectively, the maximum electrical power generated for base excitation of 0.2g at 630 Hz is 0.9 µW.

Keywords: bimorph, energy harvester, FEM, harmonic analysis, MEMS, PVDF, unimorph

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Authors: Chico A. E. Hindarto

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Knowledge management practices are more contextual when they combine with the corporate culture. Each entity has a specific cultural climate that enables knowledge sharing in both functional and individual levels. The interactions between people within organization can be influenced by the culture and how the knowledge is transmitted. On the other hand, these interactions have impacts in culture modification as well. Storytelling is one of the methods in delivering the knowledge throughout the organization. This paper aims to explore the possibility in using a quasi-folklore in the family-based business. Folklore is defined as informal tradition culture that spreading through a word-of-mouth, without knowing the source of the story. In this paper, the quasi-folklore term is used to differentiate it with the original term of folklore. The story is created by somebody in the organization, not like the folklore with unknown source. However, the source is not disclosed, in order to avoid the predicted interest from the story origin. The setting of family-based business is deliberately chosen, since the kinship is considerably strong in this type of entity. Through a thorough literature review that relates to knowledge management, storytelling, and folklore, this paper determines how folklore can be an option for knowledge sharing within the organization.

Keywords: folklore, family business, organizational culture, knowledge management, storytelling

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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: Ke-Jing Lee, Cheng-Jung Lee, Yu-Chi Chang, Li-Wen Wang, Yeong-Her Wang

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To avoid the cross-talk issue of only resistive random access memory (RRAM) cell, one transistor and one resistor (1T1R) architecture with a TiO₂-based RRAM cell connected with solution barium zirconate nickelate (BZN) organic thin film transistor (OTFT) device is successfully demonstrated. The OTFT were fabricated on a glass substrate. Aluminum (Al) as the gate electrode was deposited via a radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering system. The barium acetate, zirconium n-propoxide, and nickel II acetylacetone were synthesized by using the sol-gel method. After the BZN solution was completely prepared using the sol-gel process, it was spin-coated onto the Al/glass substrate as the gate dielectric. The BZN layer was baked at 100 °C for 10 minutes under ambient air conditions. The pentacene thin film was thermally evaporated on the BZN layer at a deposition rate of 0.08 to 0.15 nm/s. Finally, gold (Au) electrode was deposited using an RF magnetron sputtering system and defined through shadow masks as both the source and drain. The channel length and width of the transistors were 150 and 1500 μm, respectively. As for the manufacture of 1T1R configuration, the RRAM device was fabricated directly on drain electrodes of TFT device. A simple metal/insulator/metal structure, which consisting of Al/TiO₂/Au structures, was fabricated. First, Au was deposited to be a bottom electrode of RRAM device by RF magnetron sputtering system. Then, the TiO₂ layer was deposited on Au electrode by sputtering. Finally, Al was deposited as the top electrode. The electrical performance of the BZN OTFT was studied, showing superior transfer characteristics with the low threshold voltage of −1.1 V, good saturation mobility of 5 cm²/V s, and low subthreshold swing of 400 mV/decade. The integration of the BZN OTFT and TiO₂ RRAM devices was finally completed to form 1T1R configuration with low power consumption of 1.3 μW, the low operation current of 0.5 μA, and reliable data retention. Based on the I-V characteristics, the different polarities of bipolar switching are found to be determined by the compliance current with the different distribution of the internal oxygen vacancies used in the RRAM and 1T1R devices. Also, this phenomenon can be well explained by the proposed mechanism model. It is promising to make the 1T1R possible for practical applications of low-power active matrix flat-panel displays.

Keywords: one transistor and one resistor (1T1R), organic thin-film transistor (OTFT), resistive random access memory (RRAM), sol-gel

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Authors: Oscar Armando González-Marin, Jhon F. Rodríguez-León, Oscar Mota-Pérez, Jorge Pineda-Piñón, Roberto S. Velázquez-González., Julio C. Sosa-Savedra

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Over the past six years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has recorded the warmest years since 1880, primarily attributed to climate change. In addition, the overexploitation of agricultural lands, combined with food and water scarcity, has highlighted the urgent need for sustainable cultivation methods. Hydroponics has emerged as a sustainable farming technique that enables plant cultivation using nutrient solutions without the requirement for traditional soil. Among hydroponic methods, the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) facilitates plant growth by circulating a nutrient solution continuously. This approach allows the monitoring and precise control of nutritional parameters, with potential for automation and technological integration. This study aims to present the state of the art of automated NFT hydroponic systems, discussing their design methodologies and considerations for implementation. Moreover, a medium-scale NFT system developed at CICATA-QRO is introduced, detailing its current manual management and progress toward automation.

Keywords: automation, hydroponics, nutrient film technique, sustainability

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Authors: Denis Ushakov

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Cities are the main actors of global production and trade, and dominant share of international business activity is now concentrating within a frame of global urban net. This trend transforms mechanisms and patterns of market economy institutes’ (such as competition, division of labor, international movement of capital and labor force) functioning; stimulates an appearance of new economical (development of rural areas), social (urbanization) and political (political and economical unity of the big countries) problems. All these reasons identified relevance and importance of purpose of this study – to consider a modern role of cities’ business systems in the global economy, to identify sources for global urban competitive advantages, to clear inter-cities economic relationships and patterns of cities’ positioning within a frame of global net.

Keywords: globalization, urban business system, global city, transnationalization, networking

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Authors: Seyed Abbas Tabatabaei, Fereydoon Moghadas Nejad, Mohammad Saed

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The bleeding prediction of the asphalt is one of the most complex subjects in the pavement engineering. In this paper, an Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) is used for modeling the effect of important parameters on bleeding is trained and tested with the experimental results. bleeding index based on the asphalt film thickness differential as target parameter,asphalt content, temperature depth of two centemeter, heavy traffic, dust to effective binder, Marshall strength, passing 3/4 sieves, passing 3/8 sieves,passing 3/16 sieves, passing NO8, passing NO50, passing NO100, passing NO200 as input parameters. Then, we randomly divided empirical data into train and test sections in order to accomplish modeling. We instructed ANFIS network by 72 percent of empirical data. 28 percent of primary data which had been considered for testing the approprativity of the modeling were entered into ANFIS model. Results were compared by two statistical criterions (R2, RMSE) with empirical ones. Considering the results, it is obvious that our proposed modeling by ANFIS is efficient and valid and it can also be promoted to more general states.

Keywords: bleeding, asphalt film thickness differential, Anfis Modeling

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Authors: Sarthak Mishra, Astha Sinha

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There’s no doubt about the convenience of making commercial and business transactions over the Internet under the new business model known as the e-Commerce. The term 'Electronic commerce' or e-Commerce refers to the use of an electronic medium to carry out commercial transactions. E-Commerce is one of the parts of Information Science framework and its uses are gradually becoming popular. Thus, the threat of security issues in Information Science has now become an important subject of discussion amongst the concerned users. These two issues i.e. security and privacy are required to be looked into through social, organizational, technical and economic perspectives. The current paper analyses the effect of these two issues in the arena of e-commerce. Here, no specification has been discussed rather an attempt has been made to provide a general overview. Further, attempts have been made to discuss the security and privacy issues in relation to the E-Commerce financial transactions. We shall also discuss in particular different steps required to be taken before online shopping and also shall discuss the purpose of security and privacy in E-Commerce and why it has currently become the need of the present hour. Lastly, an attempt has been made to discuss the plausible future course of development of this practice and its impact upon the global economy and if any changes should be bought about to ensure a smooth evolution of the practice. This paper has adopted a descriptive methodology to undertake its major area of study, wherein the major source of information has been via the secondary resources. Also, the study is of a comparative nature wherein the position of the various national regimes have compared with regards to the research question.

Keywords: business-business transaction (B2B), business-consumer transaction (B2C), e-commerce, online transaction, privacy and security threats

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Authors: Yangwon Hyun

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Nowadays, business settings are becoming increasingly multilingual and multicultural under the conditions of globalization. When people from different linguistic and cultural background interact, their divergent cultural conceptualizations may result in communicative problems. Even though intercultural business communication between Thais and South Koreans has become increasingly significant along with the development of international trade relations, there have been very few attempts to conduct research on interactional problems in that context. Based on a Cultural Linguistics perspective, this study analyzes Thai cultural conceptualizations that underly interactional problems with Koreans at Korean business organizations where were located in Thailand. The data was gathered through in-depth interviews with ten Korean and ten Thai employees as well as through six months of field observations. The results indicate that there are three cultural pragmatic schemas that underly problems of interaction between the two groups; (1) the schema of kreng-jai as a communicative strategy of withholding one’s intentions in order to not hurt another’s emotion, (2) the schema of mai-pen-rai as a linguistic strategy of inducing interlocutors to not be concerned about substantial matters so as to avoid confrontations, and (3) the schema of jai-yen as a linguistic expression used for persuading interlocutors to maintain a calm state of mind in order to avoid conflicts. The linguistic behaviors of Thai employees in relation to these three cultural schemas had led to misunderstandings and interpersonal conflicts with Korean supervisors and co-workers. These interactional problems were caused not only because Koreans were unfamiliar with Thai cultural conceptualizations, but also because these conceptualizations were incompatible with goal-oriented Korean business discourse. The findings of this study can enhance mutual understandings between Thai and Korean employees. Thus, it contributes to the promotion of smooth intercultural communication in the workplace.

Keywords: business context, cultural conceptualizations, cultural linguistics, intercultural communication, thai culture

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Authors: Paul Saah, Charles Mbohwa, Nelson Sizwe Madonsela

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In the context of developing countries, this study explores a crucial component of economic development by examining the reasons behind the failure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are acknowledged as essential drivers of economic expansion, job creation, and poverty alleviation in emerging countries. This research uses South Africa as a case study to evaluate the reasons why SMEs fail in developing nations. This study explores a quantitative research methodology to investigate the complex causes of SME failures using statistical tools and reliability tests. To ensure the viability of data collection, a sample size of 400 small business owners was chosen using a non-probability selection technique. A closed-ended questionnaire was the primary technique used to obtain detailed information from the participants. Data was analysed and interpreted using computer software packages such as the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). According to the findings, the main reasons why SMEs fail in developing nations are a lack of strategic business planning, a lack of funding, poor management, a lack of innovation, a lack of business research and a low level of education and training. The results of this study show that SMEs can be sustainable and successful as long as they comprehend and use the suggested small business success determining variables into their daily operations. This implies that the more SMEs in developing countries implement the proposed determinant factors of small business success in their business operations the more the businesses are likely to succeed and vice versa.

Keywords: failure, developing countries, SMEs, economic development, South Africa

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Authors: Marcelo T. Okano, Jaqueline C. Bueno, Oduvaldo Vendrametto, Osmildo S. Santos, Marcelo E. Fernandes, Heide Landi

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Developing countries are increasingly finding that entrepreneurship and innovation are the ways to speed up their developments and initiate or encourage technological development. The educational institutions such as universities, colleges and colleges of technology, has two main roles in this process, to guide and train entrepreneurs and provide technological knowledge and encourage innovation. Thus there was completing the triple helix model of innovation with universities, government and industry. But the teaching of entrepreneurship and innovation can not be only the traditional model, with blackboard, chalk and classroom. The new methods and methodologies such as Canvas, elevator pitching, design thinking, etc. require students to get involved and to experience the simulations of business, expressing their ideas and discussing them. The objective of this research project is to identify the main methods and methodologies used for the teaching of entrepreneurship and innovation, to propose a framework, test it and make a case study. To achieve the objective of this research, firstly was a survey of the literature on the entrepreneurship and innovation, business modeling, business planning, Canvas business model, design thinking and other subjects about the themes. Secondly, we developed the framework for teaching entrepreneurship and innovation based on bibliographic research. Thirdly, we tested the framework in a higher education class IT management for a semester. Finally, we detail the results in the case study in a course of IT management. As important results we improve the level of understanding and business administration students, allowing them to manage own affairs. Methods such as canvas and business plan helped students to plan and shape the ideas and business. Pitching for entrepreneurs and investors in the market brought a reality for students. The prototype allowed the company groups develop their projects. The proposed framework allows entrepreneurship education and innovation can leave the classroom, bring the reality of business roundtables to university relying on investors and real entrepreneurs.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, innovation, Canvas, traditional model

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Authors: Syong-Yang Chung, Xin-An Chen

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This study aims to explore the less well-known animation “Final Flight of the Osiris”, consisting of an initial exploration of the film color, storyline, and the simulacrum meanings of the roles, which leads to a further exploration of the light-shadow contrast and the psychological images presented by the screen colors and the characters. The research is based on literature review, and all data was compiled for the analysis of the visual vocabulary evolution of the characters. In terms of the structure, the relational study of the animation and the historical background of that time came first, including The Wachowskis’ and Andy Jones’ impact towards the cinematographic version and the animation version of “The Matrix”. Through literature review, the film color, the meaning and the relevant points were clarified. It was found in this research that “Final Flight of the Osiris” separates the realistic and virtual spaces by the changing the color tones; the "self" of the audience gradually dissolves into the "virtual" in the simulacra world, and the "Animatrix" has become a virtual field for the audience to understand itself about "existence" and "self".

Keywords: the matrix, the final flight of Osiris, Wachowski brothers, simulacres

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Authors: Bouchra Abdelilah, Akram El Korchi, Atmane Baddou

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With the very competitive business era that we witness nowadays, companies needs more that anytime to use all the resources they have in order to maximize performance and satisfy the customers’ needs. The changes occurring in the market business are often due to the variations of demand, which requires a very specific supply chain strategy. Supply chains aims to balance cost, quality, and service level and lead time. Still, managers are confused when faced with the strategies working the best for the supply chain: lean, agile and leagile. This paper presents a decision making tool that aims to assist the manager in choosing the supply chain strategy that suits the most his business, depending on the type of product and the nature of demand. Analyzing the different characteristics of supply chain will enable us to guide the manager to the suitable strategy between lean, agile and leagile.

Keywords: supply chain, lean, agile, flexibility, performance

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Authors: Gagik Ayvazyan, Levon Hakhoyan, Surik Khudaverdyan, Laura Lakhoyan

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Black Si (b-Si) is a nano-structured Si surface formed by a self-organized, maskless process with needle-like surfaces discernible by their black color. The combination of low reflectivity and the semi-conductive properties of Si found in b-Si make it a prime candidate for application in solar cells as an antireflection surface. However, surface recombination losses significantly reduce the efficiency of b-Si solar cells. Surface passivation using suitable dielectric films can minimize these losses. Nowadays some works have demonstrated that excellent passivation of b-Si nanostructures can be reached using Al₂O₃ films. However, the negative fixed charge present in Al₂O₃ films should provide good field effect passivation only for p- and p+-type Si surfaces. HfO2 thin films have not been practically tested for passivation of b-Si. HfO₂ could provide an alternative for n- and n+- type Si surface passivation since it has been shown to exhibit positive fixed charge. Using optical simulation by Finite-Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method, the possibility of b-Si passivation by HfO2 films has been analyzed. The FDTD modeling revealed that b-Si layers with HfO₂ films effectively suppress reflection in the wavelength range 400–1000 nm and across a wide range of incidence angles. The light-trapping performance primarily depends on geometry of the needles and film thickness. With the decrease of periodicity and increase of height of the needles, the reflectance decrease significantly, and the absorption increases significantly. Increase in thickness results in an even greater decrease in the calculated reflection coefficient of model structures and, consequently, to an improvement in the antireflection characteristics in the visible range. The excellent surface passivation and low reflectance results prove the potential of using the combination of the b-Si surface and the HfO₂ film for solar cells applications.

Keywords: antireflection, black silicon, HfO₂, passivation, simulation, solar cell

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Authors: Monique de Ritter, Annemieke Roobeek

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This study takes a holistic multi-layered systems approach on entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability. Concretely we looked how mission driven entrepreneurs (level 1) employ new business models and launch innovative products and/or ideas in their enterprises, which are (level 2) operating in entrepreneurial ecosystems (level 3), and how these in turn may generate higher level sustainable change (level 4). We employed a qualitative grounded research approach in which our aim is to contribute to theory. Fourteen in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with mission driven entrepreneurs in the Netherlands in which their individual drives, business models, and ecosystems were discussed. Interview transcripts were systematically coded and analysed and the ecosystems were visually mapped. Most important patterns include 1) entrepreneurs have a clear sustainable mission and regard this mission as de raison d’être of their enterprise; 2) entrepreneurs employ new business models with a focus on collaboration for innovation; the business model supports or enhances the sustainable mission of the enterprise, 3) entrepreneurs collaborate in ecosystems in which a) they also regard suppliers as partners for innovation and clients as ambassadors for the sustainable mission, b) would like to improve their relationships with financial institutions as they are in the entrepreneurs’ perspective often lagging behind with their innovative ideas and models, c) they collaborate for knowledge and innovation with several parties, d) personal informal connections are very important, and e) in which the higher sustainable mission is not a point of competition but of collaboration.

Keywords: sustainability, entrepreneurship, innovation, ecosystem, business models

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Authors: Linda Frazer

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A pluralistic methodology focuses on promoting an understanding that an alternative juridical framework for the regulation of transnational business negotiations (TBN) between private business parties is fundamentally required. This paper deals with the evolving assessment of the doctoral research of the author which demonstrated that due to insufficient juridical tools, negotiations are commonly misunderstood within the complexity of pluralistic and conflicting legal regimes. This inadequacy causes uncertainty in the enforcement of legal remedies, leaving business parties surprised. Consequently, parties cannot sufficiently anticipate when and how legal rights and obligations are created, often counting on oral or incomplete agreements which may lead to the misinterpretation of the extent of their legal rights and obligations. This uncertainty causes threats to business parties for fear of creating unintended legal obligations or, conversely, that law will not enforce intended agreements for failure to pass the tests of contractual validity. A need to find a manner to set default standards of communications and standards of conduct to monitor our evolving global trade would aid law to provide the security, predictability and foreseeability during alternative dispute resolution required by TBN parties. The conclusion of this study includes a proposal of new trade mechanisms, termed 'Bills of Negotiations' (BON) to enhance party autonomy and promote the ability for TBN parties to self-regulate within the boundaries of law. BON will be guided by a secure juridical institutionalized setting that caters to guiding communications during TBN and resolving disputes that arise along the negotiation processes on a fast track basis.

Keywords: alternative resolution disputes, ADR, good faith, good faith, juridical security, legal regulation, trade mechanisms, transnational business negotiations

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Authors: Alina Parincu, Giuseppe Empoli, Alexandru Capatina

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The purpose of this paper is to identify the most influential predictors of emotional intelligence skills, in the case of 20 business innovation coaches, on the co-creation of knowledge through coaching services delivered to innovative start-ups from Europe, funded through Horizon 2020 – SME Instrument. We considered the emotional intelligence skills (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills) as antecedent conditions of the outcome: the quality of coaching services, perceived by the entrepreneurs who received funding within SME instrument, using fuzzy-sets qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach. The findings reveal that emotional intelligence skills, trained with neuro-management techniques, were associated with increased goal-focused business coaching skills.

Keywords: neuro-management, innovative start-ups, business coaching, fsQCA

Procedia PDF Downloads 174