Search results for: strategic culture

Authors: A. O. Ogunlela, T. O. Ayodele

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A fish pond recirculating system was designed and constructed. The system consists of three plastic culture tanks (1000 litres each, filled up to 850 litres). It also consists of a sedimentation tank where the water filtration was carried out and a pump tank where the treated water partially settled before being pumped to the culture tanks. A pump of ½ hp capacity was selected to pump water round the system to enhance water recirculation. Following the design of the solar array that was done, a grid support of tilt angle 36.640 was constructed to offer the system an optimum, all-year-round, intense solar energy reception, which is specific to the location of the project.

Keywords: solar energy, fish pond, recirculation system, pump tank

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Authors: Raluca-Ioana Antonescu

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The field research of the paper stands at the intersection between Linguistics and Sociology, while the problem of the research is the importance of language in the modernization process and in a globalized society. The research objective is to prove that language is a stimulant for modernity, while it defines the tradition and the culture of a specific society. In order to examine the linguistic change of the Korean language due to the modernity and globalization, the paper tries to answer one main question, What are the changes the Korean language underwent from a traditional version of Korean, towards one influenced by modernity?, and two secondary questions, How are explored in specialized literature the relations between globalization (and modernity) and culture (focusing on language)? and What influences the Korean language? For the purpose of answering the research questions, the paper has the main premise that due to modernity and globalization, the Korean language changed its discourse construction, and two secondary hypothesis, first is that in literature there are not much explored the relations between culture and modernity focusing on the language discourse construction, but more about identity issue and commodification problems, and the second hypothesis is that the Korean language is influenced by traditional values (like Confucianism) while receiving influence also of globalization process (especially from English language). In terms of methodology, the paper will analyze the two main influences upon the Korean language, referring to traditionalism (being defined as the influence of Confucianism) and modernism (as the influence of other countries’ language and culture), and how the Korean language it was constructed and modified due to these two elements. The paper will analyze at what level (grammatical, lexical, etc.) the traditionalism help at the construction of the Korean language, and what are the changes at each level that modernism brought along. As for the results of this research, the influence of modernism changed both lexically and grammatically the Korean language. In 60 years the increase of English influence is astonishing, and this paper shows the main changes the Korean language underwent, like the loanwords (Konglish), but also the reduction of the speech levels and the ease of the register variation use. Therefore the grammatical influence of modernity and globalization could be seen at the reduction of the speech level and register variation, while the lexical change comes with the influence of English language especially, where about 10% of the Korean vocabulary is considered to be loanwords. Also the paper presents the interrelation between traditionalism and modernity, with the example of Konglish, but not only (we can consider also the Korean greetings which are translated by Koreans when they speak in other languages, bringing their cultural characteristics in English discourse construction), which makes the Koreans global, since they speak in an international language, but still local since they cannot get rid completely of their culture.

Keywords: Confucianism, globalization, language and linguistic change, modernism, traditionalism

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Authors: Fariyal Mir

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The largest minority group over Pakistan lives in the farthest region of KPK, Chitral, which enclosed all its people in one closet despite their diversity. Chitral is considered a tourist hub and piece of paradise on earth. The major attraction of Chitral is the Kalash valley, which is also known as the homeland of kafir or 'weavers of the black robes'. Kalash people are counted as the primitive pagan tribe who practice culture, beliefs, and a lifestyle which dated beyond and distinct from the rest of the region. Their religious belief is known to be as 'animism', which means that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. They also believe that nature plays a highly significant and spiritual role in their daily life. As they have their different festivals like (a) Chilam Josh: celebrated in May to welcome spring, (b) Uchaw: which is observed in late August to ensure good crops of wheat, (c) Chanmos: which is being observed in December for more than two weeks, grand festival and is celebrated to welcome New Year. Their concept of purity and impurity is also very traditional and part of their religious belief as well. They used to call the man as pure 'Oshniru' (pure, holy) and woman as impure 'Chetu' (dirty, polluted, or contaminated). This study is based on ethnomethodology, which focuses on the way people make sense of their daily life. Their unique belief system connects them with the descendants of the armies of Alexander the Great, who called the Hindu Kush 'Parapamisus', meaning mountains over which eagles can fly. With time, their cultural system was molded into many ways, and the same is going on with the true beauty of Chitral in the form of conversion to Islam and adaptation of modern lifestyle. Ethnomethodology also supports this, that people are always good in their original form so they can be called the true representatives of their origin and cultural identity. It also argues that human society is based on the method of achieving and displaying not on the imposition of others' order and laws. So, everybody is obliged to respect and not to harm the beliefs and culture of all other human fellows. Some historians believe that these Kalash people are from Afghanistan and their origin is Saim which is known as Thailand, but those Kalash tribe from Afghanistan were forced to embrace Islam and only Pakistan keeps these people who own unique cultural values, ornaments and entire culture. Kalasha culture has been listed by UNESCO for consideration as World Heritage. It is necessary to save these people from the cultural invasion caused by modernity, forced religious conversion to maintain the pluralistic diversity of our country.

Keywords: Chitral, cultural identity, ethnomethodology, Kalasha culture

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Authors: Uftah Ali M. Shushni, Viola Stuppec, Ulrike Lindequist

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Because of the evolving resistance of microorganisms to existing antibiotics, there is an increasing need for new antibiotics not only in human but also in veterinary medicine. As part of our ongoing work on the secondary metabolites produced by marine fungi, the organic extract of the culture filtrate of an Ascomycetous fungus, which was found on driftwood collected from the coast of the Greifswalder Bodden, Baltic Sea, Germany displayed antimicrobial activity against some fish and human pathogenic bacteria. Bioactivity-guided column chromatographic separation led to the isolation of 6-Deoxybostrycoidin. The structure was determined from the interpretation of spectroscopic data (UV, MS, and NMR). 6-Deoxybostrycoidin exhibited in vitro activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Flexibacter maritimus with minimal inhibitory concentrations of 25, 12.5 and 12.5 μg/ml respectively.

Keywords: marine fungi, fish pathogenic bacteria, microorganism, medicine

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Authors: Goodness Thandi Ntuli

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Some cultural aspects in the African context have a tendency of uplifting women while some thrust them into the worst denigration scenarios; hence African Women Theologians refer to culture as a ‘double edged sword. Through socialization and internalization of social norms, some women become custodians of life, denying aspects of the culture that are against them and hand them down to the next generation. This indirectly contributes to the perpetuation of patriarchal tendencies wherein women themselves uphold and endorse such tendencies to their own detriment. One of the findings of the empirical research study conducted among the Zulu young women in the South African context was that, on the one hand, lobola (the bride-price) is one of the cultural practices that contribute a great deal in the vilification of women. On the other hand, a woman whose lobola has been paid is highly esteemed in the cultural context not only by society at large but also by the implicated woman who takes pride in it. Consequently, lobola becomes an ambiguous cultural practice. Thus from the postcolonial feminist perspective, this paper examines and critiques lobola practice while also disclosing and exposing its deep seated cultural reinforcement that is life denying to women. The paper elucidates the original lobola as a cultural practice before colonization and how it became commercialized during colonial times. With commercialization in the modern world, lobola has completely lost its preliminary meaning and ceased to be a life-giving cultural practice, particularly for women. It turned out to be the worst cultural practice that demeans women to the extent that it becomes suicidal to women dignity because, in marriage, they become objects or property to the men who purchased them. Women objectification in marriage does not only leave them culturally trapped in what was perceived to be a good practice, but it also leads to women abuse and gender based or domestic violence. The research has indicated that this kind of violence is escalating and has become so pervasive in the South African context that the country is rated as one of the capital cities of violence against women in the world. Therefore, this paper demonstrates how cultural practices at times indirectly contribute to this national scourge that needs to be condemned, disparaged and rejected. Women in the African context where such cultural activities are still viewed as a norm are in desperate need for true liberation from such ambiguous cultural practices that leave them in the margins in spite of the earned social status they might have achieved.

Keywords: african, ambiguity, critique, culture, feminist, lobola, postcolonial, society

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Authors: Nathalie Quinto, Danielle Solancho

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In 1986, after Marcos’ Martial Law of 1972, the Philippines revised its constitution for the fifth time, under the Aquino Administration. Extrajudicial violence was expected to be lessened, if not completely eradicated after this was passed. However, state-sponsored executions continued to persist even in the present time. There are currently identified policy gaps when it comes to extrajudicial cases, as there is no generally accepted definition of the term in the Philippines. In this paper, a triangulation method of historically published papers, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions of academics, scholars, and people who are involved in various cases found, was utilized for the methodology. This paper explores the establishment of a normalized system of state-sponsored executions in the country and why the state resorts to this kind of action. It found that due to a weak political, and social institution, a culture of extrajudicial executions was established.

Keywords: extrajudicial execution, human rights, justice, security

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Authors: Mariya Salihu Ingawa, Sani Suleiman Isah

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The assessment of Integrated Information System (IIS) in organisation is an important initiative to enable the Information System (IS) managers, as well as top management to understand the success status of their investment in IS integration efforts. However, without a proper assessment, an organisation will not know its IIS status, which may affect their judgment on what action should be taken onwards. Current research on IIS assessment is lacking and those related literature on IIS assessment focus more on assessing the technical aspect of IIS. It is argued that assessing technical aspect alone is inadequate since organisational and strategic aspects in IIS should also be considered. Current methods, techniques and tools used by vendors for IIS assessment also are lack of comprehensive measures to fully assess the Integrated Information System in term of technical, organisational and strategic domains. The purpose of this study is to establish critical success factors for measuring success of an Integrated Information System. These factors are used as the basis for constructing an approach to comprehensively assess IIS in an organisation. A comprehensive list of success factors for IIS assessment, established from literature, was initially presented. An expert surveys using both manual and online methods were conducted to verify the factors. Based on the factors, an instrument for IIS assessment was constructed. The results from a case study indicate that through comprehensive assessment approach, not only the level of success been known, but also reveals the contributing factors. This research contributes to the field of Information Systems specifically in the area of Integrated Information System assessment.

Keywords: integrated information system, expert surveys, organisation, assessment

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Authors: Zair Firdaous, Fourka Mohamed, Elfelsoufi Zoubir

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The arrival of e-commerce has changed the supply chain management on the operational level as well as on the organization and strategic and even tactical decisions of the companies. The optimization of resources is an issue that is needed on the tactical and operational strategic plan. This work considers the allocation of resources in the case of pure players that have launched online sales. The aim is to improve the level of customer satisfaction and maintaining the benefits of e-retailer and of its cooperators and reducing costs and risks. We first modeled the B2C chain with all operations that integrates and possible scenarios since online retailers offer a wide selection of personalized service. The personalized services that online shopping companies offer to the clients can be embodied in many aspects, such as the customizations of payment, the distribution methods, and after-sales service choices. Every aspect of customized service has several modes. At that time, we analyzed the optimization problems of supply chain resource in customized online shopping service mode. Then, we realized an optimization model and algorithm for the development based on the analysis of the of the B2C supply chain resources. It is a multi-objective optimization that considers the collaboration of resources in operations, time and costs but also the risks and the quality of services as well as dynamic and uncertain characters related to the request.

Keywords: supply chain resource, e-commerce, pure-players, optimization

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Authors: Chantal Maille

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This paper is about gender-based analysis plus (GBA+), an intersectional gender policy used in Canada to assess the impact of policies and programs for men and women from different origins. It looks at Canada’s political culture to explain the nature of its gender policies. GBA+ is defined as an analysis method that makes it possible to assess the eventual effects of policies, programs, services, and other initiatives on women and men of different backgrounds because it takes account of gender and other identity factors. The ‘plus’ in the name serves to emphasize that GBA+ goes beyond gender to include an examination of a wide range of other related identity factors, such as age, education, language, geography, culture, and income. The point of departure for GBA+ is that women and men are not homogeneous populations and gender is never the only factor in defining a person’s identity; rather, it interacts with factors such as ethnic origin, age, disabilities, where the person lives, and other aspects of individual and social identity. GBA+ takes account of these factors and thus challenges notions of similarity or homogeneity within populations of women and men. Comparative analysis based on sex and gender may serve as a gateway to studying a given question, but women, men, girls, and boys do not form homogeneous populations. In the 1990s, intersectionality emerged as a new feminist framework. The popularity of the notion of intersectionality corresponds to a time when, in hindsight, the damage done to minoritized groups by state disengagement policies in concert with global intensification of neoliberalism, and vice versa, can be measured. Although GBA+ constitutes a form of intersectionalization of GBA, it must be understood that the two frameworks do not spring from a similar logic. Intersectionality first emerged as a dynamic analysis of differences between women that was oriented toward change and social justice, whereas GBA is a technique developed by state feminists in a context of analyzing governmental policies and aiming to promote equality between men and women. It can nevertheless be assumed that there might be interest in such a policy and program analysis grid that is decentred from gender and offers enough flexibility to take account of a group of inequalities. In terms of methodology, the research is supported by a qualitative analysis of governmental documents about GBA+ in Canada. Research findings identify links between Canadian gender policies and its political culture. In Canada, diversity has been taken into account as an element at the basis of gendered analysis of public policies since 1995. The GBA+ adopted by the government of Canada conveys an opening to intersectionality and a sensitivity to multiculturalism. The Canadian Multiculturalism Act, adopted 1988, proposes to recognize the fact that multiculturalism is a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian identity and heritage and constitutes an invaluable resource for the future of the country. In conclusion, Canada’s distinct political culture can be associated with the specific nature of its gender policies.

Keywords: Canada, gender-based analysis, gender policies, political culture

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Authors: Sendy Ghirardi, Pau Rausell Köster

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The European Commission increasingly pushes cultural policies towards social outcomes and local and regional authorities also call for culture-driven strategies for local development and prosperity and therefore, the measurement of cultural participation becomes increasingly more significant for evidence-based policy-making processes. Cultural participation involves various kinds of social and economic spillovers that combine social and economic objectives of value creation, including social sustainability and respect for human values. Traditionally, from the economic perspective, cultural consumption is measured by the value of financial transactions in purchasing, subscribing to, or renting cultural equipment and content, addressing the market value of cultural products and services. The main sources of data are the household spending survey and merchandise trade survey, among others. However, what characterizes the cultural consumption is that it is linked with the hedonistic and affective dimension rather than the utilitarian one. In fact, nowadays, more and more attention is being paid to the social and psychological dimensions of culture. The aim of this work is to present a comprehensive approach to measure the impacts of cultural participation and cultural users’ behaviour, combining both socio-psychological and economic approaches. The model combines contingent evaluation techniques with the individual characteristic and perception analysis of the cultural experiences to evaluate the cognitive, aesthetic, emotive and social impacts of cultural participation. To investigate the comprehensive approach to measure the impact of the cultural events on individuals, the research has been designed on the basis of prior theoretical development. A deep literature methodology has been done to develop the theoretical model applied to the web platform to measure the impacts of cultural experience on individuals. The developed framework aims to become a democratic tool for evaluating the services that cultural or policy institutions can adopt through the use of an interacting platform that produces big data benefiting academia, cultural management and policies. The Au Culture is a prototype based on an application that can be used on mobile phones or any other digital platform. The development of the AU Culture Platform has been funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency (Government of the Region of Valencia) and it is part of the Horizon 2020 project MESOC.

Keywords: comprehensive approach, cultural participation, economic dimension, socio-psychological dimension

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Authors: H. M. Avanesyan

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Economists have been discussing the importance of intangible assets for the success of organization for many years. The term intellectual capital was popularized in the 1990s by Thomas Stewart. “Intellectual capital is the knowledge, applied experience, enterprise processes and technology customer relationship and professional skills which are valuable assets to an organization.” Human capital – includes employee brainpower, competence, skills, experience and knowledge. Customer capital – includes relations and networks with partners, suppliers, distributors, and customers. The objective of the article is to assess one of the key components of organizational culture – organizational values. The focus of the survey was on assessing how intellectual capital presented in these values of the organization. In the conclusion section the article refers to underestimation of intellectual capital by the organization management and the various possible negative effects of the latter.

Keywords: human capital, intellectual capital, organizational culture, management, social identity, organization

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Authors: Hussen Nasir, Mohd Fitri Mansor, Noor Hidayah Abu

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Liberation of the SME market led to a dynamic competitive business environment. SMEs are considered as an engine for economic growth of most nations. SMEs must be willing to adopt the latest technology and incorporate innovation as part of their business strategies. The aim of this study is to examine the innovation practices (innovation strategy and innovation culture) towards sustaining SME’s performance and the moderating effect of intellectual capital on the relationship of innovation practices on SME’s performance. The study will identify the strongest variables that influence the SMEs performance and proposed several hypothesis toward innovation and intellectual capital. Finally, the study will propose a theoretical framework. The current study will contribute to the knowledge of important on the element of intellectual capital as well as innovation practices in the SMEs performance.

Keywords: intellectual capital, innovation practices, SMEs, performance, innovation strategy, innovation culture

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Authors: Rosa Buxeda, Lorenzo Saliceti-Piazza, Rodolfo J. Romañach, Luis Ríos, Sandra L. Maldonado-Ramírez

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Biopharmaceuticals manufacturing is one of the major economic activities worldwide. Ninety-three percent of the workforce in a biomanufacturing environment concentrates in production-related areas. As a result, strategic collaborations between industry and academia are crucial to ensure the availability of knowledgeable workforce needed in an economic region to become competitive in biomanufacturing. In the past decade, our institution has been a key strategic partner with multinational biotechnology companies in supplying science and engineering graduates in the field of industrial biotechnology. Initiatives addressing all levels of the educational pipeline, from K-12 to college to continued education for company employees have been established along a ten-year span. The Amgen BioTalents Program was designed to provide undergraduate science and engineering students with training in biomanufacturing. The areas targeted by this educational program enhance their academic development, since these topics are not part of their traditional science and engineering curricula. The educational curriculum involved the process of producing a biomolecule from the genetic engineering of cells to the production of an especially targeted polypeptide, protein expression and purification, to quality control, and validation. This paper will report and describe the implementation details and outcomes of the first sessions of the program.

Keywords: biomanufacturing curriculum, interdisciplinary learning, workforce development, industry-academia partnering

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Authors: Hanadi Mubarak AL-Mubaraki, Michael Busler

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Innovation is the process of making changes, differences, and novelties in the products and services, adding values and business practices to create economic and social benefit. The purpose of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of innovation programs in developed and developing countries. We used a mixed-methods approach, quantitative as survey and qualitative as a multi-case study to examine innovation best practices in developed and developing countries. In addition, four case studies of innovation organisations based on the best practices and successful implementation in the developed and developing countries are selected for examination. The research findings provide guidance, suggestions, and recommendations for future implementation in developed and developing countries for practitioners such as policy makers, governments, funded organizations, and strategic institutions. In conclusion, innovation programs are vital tools for economic growth, knowledge, and technology transfer based on the several indicators such as creativity, entrepreneurship, role of government, role of university, strategic focus, new products, survival rate, job creation, start-up companies, and number of patents. The authors aim to conduct future research which will include a comparative study of innovation case studies between developed and developing countries for policy implications worldwide. The originality of this study makes a contribution to the current literature about the innovation best practice in developed and developing countries.

Keywords: economic development, entrepreneurship, innovation program, developed countries

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Authors: Marina Laškarin, Vlado Galičić

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Quick adoption of e-business and emerging influence of “Electronic Word of Mouth e-WOM” communication on guests made leading hotel brands successful examples of electronic guest relationship management. Main reasons behind such success are well established procedures in collection, analysis and usage of highly valuable data available on the Internet, generated through some form of e-GRM programme. E-GRM is more than just a technology solution. It’s a system which balance respective guest demands, hotel technological capabilities and organizational culture of employees, discharging the universal approach in guest relations “same for all”. The purpose of this research derives from the necessity of determining the importance of monitoring and applying e-WOM communication as one of the methods used in managing guest relations. This paper analyses and compares different hotelier’s opinions on e-WOM communication.

Keywords: brand loyalty, e-WOM communication, GRM programmes, organizational culture

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Authors: Jaroslav Kusnir

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In her short story collection, Sabrina & Corina, Kali Fajardo-Anstine depicts mostly Latina characters of indigenous background living and travelling in the American West and the Southwest. In all the stories, place and the environment plays an important role in the construction of cultural identity of these characters that is influenced by their indigenous background, a specificity of the American West, its culture and environment, as well as a contemporary (modern) American culture, position of women and gender roles in a Latino community in the USA. This paper will analyze Fajardo-Anstine´s depiction of a specificity of place, especially of the American West and its role in a construction of Latino/a cultural identity in a modern American society as manifested especially in Fajardo-Anstine´s stories Any Further West and Sabrina & Corina. At the same time, the paper will point out Fajardo-Anstine´s construction of cultural identity of female characters and their gender roles in both Latino and a contemporary American societies. The research results show that the formation of Latina cultural identity is closely connected with both place, that is the American West and the Soutwest as well as with Latina and contemporary American cultures.

Keywords: American culture, american west, cultural identity, female identity, latina identity, place

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Authors: Nguyen Duc An

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To the movement towards learning community, creating friendly, positive and appropriate learning environments which best suit the local features is the most salient and decisive factor of the development and success of that learning society. With the aim at building such an English language learning community for the inhabitants in Moc Chau - the national tourist zone, Tay Bac University has successfully designed and deployed the program ‘English in Tourism’ in the project ‘English for Community’. With the strong attachment to the local reality and close knit to the certain communicative situations, this program which was carefully designed and compiled with interesting and practical activities, has greatly helped the locals confidently introduce and popularize the natural beauty, unique culture and specific characteristics of Moc Chau to the foreign tourists; in addition, reinforce awareness of the native culture of the local people as well as improve the professional development in tourism and service.

Keywords: English for community, learning society, learning community, English in tourism

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Authors: Shilpa Vasavada

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One of the 17 SustainableDevelopmentGoals focuses on gender equality. The paper is based on the learning derived from working with two Corporate Social Responsibility cases in India: one, CSR of an International Corporate and the other, CSR of a multi state national level corporate -on their efforts to integrate gender perspective in their agriculture and livestock based rural livelihood programs. The author tries to dissect how ‘gender equality’ is seen by these two CSRs, where the goals are different. The implications of a CSR’sunderstandingon ‘gender equality’ as a goal; versus CSR’s understanding of working 'with women for enhancing quantity or quality of production’ gets reflected in their orientation to staff, resource allocation, strategic level and in processes followed at the rural grassroots level. The paper comes up with examples of changes made at programmatic front when CSR understands and works with the focus on gender equality as a goal. On the other hand, the paper also explores the differential, at times, the negative impact on women and the programmes;- when the goals differ. The paper concludes with recommendations for CSRs to take up at their resource allocation and strategic level if gender equality is the goal- which has direct implication at their grassroots programmatic work. The author argues that if gender equality has to be implemented actually in spirit by a CSR, it requires change in mindset and thus an openness to changes in strategies and resource allocation pattern of the CSR and not simply adding on women in the way intervention has been going on.

Keywords: gender equality, approaches, differential impact, resource allocation

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Authors: Saeid Rabiei Majd, Motahareh Alvandi, Bahareh Asefi

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Extraction of maximum natural resources is one of the common policies of governments, especially petroleum resources that have high economic and strategic value. The incentive to access and maintain profitable oil markets for governments or international oil companies, causing neglects them to pay attention to environmental principles and sustainable development, which in turn drives up environmental and climate change. Significant damage to the environment can cause severe damage to citizens and indigenous people, such as the compulsory evacuation of their zone due to contamination of water and air resources, destruction of animals and plants. Hawizeh Marshes is a common aquatic and environmental ecosystem along the Iran-Iraq border that also has oil resources. This marsh has been very rich in animal, vegetative, and oil resources. Since 1990, the political motives, the strategic importance of oil extraction, and the disregard for the environmental rights of the Iraqi and Iranian governments in the region have caused 90% of the marshes and forced migration of indigenous people. In this paper, we examine the environmental degradation factors resulting from the adoption of policies and practices of governments in this region based on the principles of environmental rights and sustainable development. Revision of the implementation of the government’s policies and natural resource utilization systems can prevent the spread of climate change, which is a serious international challenge today.

Keywords: climate change, indigenous rights, petroleum operation, sustainable development principles, sovereignty on resources

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Authors: Ilona Bala

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The subject of this abstract is related to the notion of 'popular music', a notion that should be treated with extreme care, particularly when applied to Frederic Chopin, one of the greatest composers of Romanticism. By ‘popular music’, we mean a category of everyday music, set against the more intellectual kind, referred to as ‘classical’. We only need to look back to the culture of the nineteenth century to realize that this ‘popular music’ refers to the ‘music of the low’. It can be studied from a sociological viewpoint, or as sociological aesthetics. However, we cannot ignore the fact that, very quickly, this music spread to the wealthiest strata of the European society of the nineteenth century, while likewise the lowest classes often listen to the intellectual classical music, so pleasant to listen to. Further, we can observe that a sort of ‘sacralisation of kitsch’ occurs at the intersection between the classical and popular music. This process is the topic of this contribution. We will start by investigating the notion of kitsch through the study of Chopin’s popular compositions. However, before considering the popularisation of this music in today’s culture, we will have to focus on the use of the word kitsch in Chopin’s times, through his own musical aesthetics. Finally, the objective here will be to negate the theory that art is simply the intellectual definition of aesthetics. A kitsch can, obviously, only work on the emotivity of the masses, as it represents one of the features of culture-language (the words which the masses identify with). All art is transformed, becoming something outdated or even outmoded. Here, we are truly within a process of mythologization of art, through the study of the aesthetic reception of the musical work.

Keywords: F. Chopin, kitsch, musical work, mythologization of art, popular music, romantic music

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Authors: Ngo the Bach

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Information technology and communications are growing strongly and penetrated almost the entire Vietnamese economy and society. The article presents an overview of information technology and application communications in the management the Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long (Hanoi, Vietnam) - A World Heritage Site. The author also points out the opportunities and challenges of the information technology and communications in the sectors of culture and heritage; the use of information technology as an effective tool to develop mass and interactive communications. The article emphasizes on the advantage of information technology and communications in supporting effectively the management reform with respect to the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long in particular and the management of world heritage sites in Vietnam in general.

Keywords: information technology, communications, management, culture, heritage

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Authors: Nela Milosevic, Sladjana Barjaktarovic Rakocevic, Sladjana Benkovic, Nemanja Milanovic

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Nowadays, performance measurement systems play a key role in evaluating the strategic performances of an organization. On the other hand, there has been a shift towards the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), which has been recognized as a valuable managerial approach. The main goal of this paper is to analyze the main performances of Serbian banks measured at the branches level, through the usage of the Balanced Scorecard framework. Although an extensive number of practitioners have an interest in the Balanced Scorecard approach, little empirical research has been conducted on the implementation of its concept in the service sector like banks, especially within developing countries. From the beginning of August till the end of September 2015, authors have been conducting in-depth interviews among a number of experts from the most successful banks in Serbia. The results show that the non-financial measures, especially, customer oriented indicators and product/ service oriented indicators, seem to be very important factors for improving not only the financial situation within the bank, but also overall business performances. Additionally, the findings prove that there is the cause-effect relationship between non-financial and financial dimensions of the Balanced Scorecard. Having in mind that the banks are still using outdated performance evaluation systems, such as annual, quarterly and monthly reports, we hope that this paper will contribute to the knowledge of how banks in Serbia may apply the Balanced Scorecard approach to evaluate their performance on the most efficient and effective way.

Keywords: balanced scorecard approach, bank management, performance measurement systems, strategic performances

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Authors: Natascha Reich

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In colonial Peru, the Spanish crown relied on religious orders, most notably Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits, for accelerating processes of colonization. The dissemination of Christian art, architecture, and music, and most of all, the agency of indigenous people in their production played a key role in facilitating the acceptance of the new religious and political system. Current research on Peruvian colonial music culture and its role as a vehicle for colonization focus on practices in urban centers. The lack of (written) primary sources seems to turn rural areas into a less attractive research territory for musicologists. This paper advocates for a more inclusive approach. By investigating seventeenth-century pipe organs as material remains of Franciscan missionary music culture, it shows how reactions to colonial forces and Christianization in rural Andean locations could follow tendencies different from those in urban areas. Indigenous musicians in cities tried to 'fit' into the European system in order to be accepted by the ruling Spanish elite. By contrast, the indigenous-built pipe organs in the rural Peruvian Colca-Valley show distinctly native-Andean influences. This paper argues that this syncretism can be interpreted as hybridity in Homi K. Bhabha’s sense, as a means of the colonized to undermine the power of the colonizer and to advance reactionary politics. Not only will it show the necessity of considering rural Peruvian music history in modern scholarship for arriving at a more complete picture of colonial culture, but it will also evidence the advantages of a mixed-methodology approach. Historical organology, combined with concepts from ethnomusicology and post-colonial studies, proves as a useful tool in the absence or scarcity of written primary sources.

Keywords: cultural hybridity, music as reactionary politics, Latin American pipe organs, Peruvian colonial music

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Authors: Idowu J. Diyaolu, Ebenezer O. Obayomi, Taiwo A. Bamidele

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been observed to have influence on the lifestyle of youths in general. Dressing styles, fashion consciousness and choice of role model are some of the areas of influence. The study was carried out to examine the perception and influence of ICT on the clothing culture of selected Senior Secondary School Students in Ife-East Local government area of Osun State, Nigeria. Two hundred Senior Secondary School Students from public and private schools were randomly selected. Data was collected using structured questionnaire. The result showed that 79.0% were computer literate, 64.5% have facebook account and 93.5% browse with phones. Based on their perception on the influence of ICT, 74.5% of the respondents agreed that frequent use of ICT has increased their level of fashion consciousness while 60.5% were motivated by the images and dressing pattern in magazines, on TV and the internet. Also, large proportions (60.5%) were influenced by the dressing styles of their friends on social media. Male students were significantly more engaged in ICT related activities than females (t = 1.29, P < 0.05), whereas there is no significant difference in the involvement in ICT activities between private and public school students (t = 0.325, P > 0.05). Since ICT has influence on dressing, appropriate dressing pattern should be encouraged on mass media.

Keywords: dress culture, information and communication technology, fashion trend, role model

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Authors: Ivy Angelique Malit, Marion Nicole Dela Vega, Marjorie Mae Mendoza

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Death practices and rituals of the Philippines is rich with facts about our history mostly on our beliefs of the afterlife before the arrival of the western culture which is still being practiced by the indigenous people of the Philippines. The death practices and rituals are acts of showing the inner thoughts, and feelings towards the person who died. The meanings behind those practices and rituals become the reason why the indigenous people still treasure these death practices and rituals as a part of their culture. This study seeks to know the experiences of the death practices and rituals of one of the Indigenous groups in Apayao, the Isnegs and the meaning of those experiences. The researchers aimed to look at it on a psychological lens. In which the researchers aim (1) to know their experiences of their death practices from the perspective of their thoughts, feelings and actions, and (2) to seek the meaning behind their death rituals. The design used in the research is a qualitative design and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The participants were gathered by using purposive sampling. The researchers gathered the data from a form of a semi-structured interview with guide questions. The researchers used Thematic Analysis to analyze the verbatim transcriptions from the interview. The experiences of death practices and rituals of the Isneg people have been presented in the aspects of their thoughts, feelings and behavior. The experiences were presented with 7 superordinate themes namely, (1) Refusal of Reality (2) Feelings of mixed emotions (3) Oblivious Acts of the participants (4) Conflict with self and culture (5) Negative thinking of the participants (6) Process of Acceptance (8) Act of Love. The make meaning behind the death practices and rituals of the Isneg people have been presented with 2 superordinate themes, (1) Act of Respect and (2) Act of Loyalty. The results of the research show that the experiences and meaning behind their death practices and burials were being based more by their own beliefs. In their culture, which has been passed through by their ancestors and becomes the foundation of their beliefs and their newly found religion which was introduced by the travelling missionaries. Doing those death practices and rituals is their way to show their affections, like respect and loyalty towards the person who died.

Keywords: death practices, interpretative phenomenological analysis, isneg people, rituals, theory of grieving

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Authors: Marc Gärtner, Monika Huesmann, Katharina Schiederig

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While workplace flexibility provides opportunities to better balance work and family care, careers in management are still predominantly based on physical presence, blurred boundaries and a culture of availability at the workplace. Thus, carers (mostly women) still experience disadvantages and stalled careers. In a multi-case study, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, success factors and barriers of flexible work arrangements in five big organizations, including three of the largest German companies, have been identified. Using qualitative interview methods, the working models of 10 female and male users of flexible work arrangements like part time, home office and job sharing have been studied. The study group applied a 360-degree approach with focus groups, covering the users’ themselves, their superiors, colleagues and staff as well as in-house human resource managers. The group interviews reveal that success of flexible models is mainly built on three factors: (a) the inclusiveness of the organizational culture, (b) the commitment of leaders and especially the supervisors, and (c) the fitting of the model and the user(s). Flexibilization of time and space can indeed contribute to a better work-life balance. This is, however, not a necessary outcome, as the interviews suggest, but depends on the right implementation of the right model in the particular work environment. Beyond the actual study results, the presentation will also assess the methodological approach.

Keywords: flexible work, leadership, organizational culture, work-life balance

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Authors: Alaa Tag-Eldin Mohamed

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The environmental, cultural, social, and technological changes have led higher education institutes to question their traditional roles. Many declarations and frameworks highlight the importance of fulfilling social responsibility of higher education institutes. The study aims at developing a framework of university social responsibility and sustainability (USR&S) with focus on South Valley University (SVU) as a case study of Egyptian Universities. The study used meetings with 12 vice deans of community services and environmental affairs on social responsibility and environmental issues. The proposed framework integrates social responsibility with strategic management through the establishment and maintenance of the vision, mission, values, goals and management systems; elaboration of policies; provision of actions; evaluation of services and development of social collaboration with stakeholders to meet current and future needs of the community and environment. The framework links between different stakeholders internally and externally using communication and reporting tools. The results show that SVU integrates social responsibility and sustainability in its strategic plans. It has policies and actions however fragmented and lack of appropriate structure and budgeting. The proposed framework could be valuable for researchers and decision makers of the Egyptian Universities. The study proposed recommendations and highlighted building on the results and conducting future research.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), south valley university, sustainable university, university social responsibility and sustainability (USR&S)

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Authors: Nurvadi Albekov

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Communicative situation is a basis, which designates potential models of ‘constructed forms’, a motivated basis of a text, for a text can be assumed as a product of the communicative situation. It is within the field of emergence the models of text, that can be potentially prognosticated in a certain communicative situation, are designated. Every text can be assumed as conceptual system structured on the base of certain communicative situation. However in the process of ‘structuring’ of a certain model of ‘conceptual system’ consciousness of a recipient is able act only within the border of the field of emergence for going out of this border indicates misunderstanding of the communicative situation. On the base of communicative situation we can witness the increment of meaning where the synergizing of the informative model of communication, formed by using of the invariant units of a language system, is a result of verbalization of the communicative situation. The potential of the models of a text, prognosticated within the field of emergence, also depends on the communicative situation. The conception ‘the field of emergence’ is interpreted as a unit of the language system, having poly-directed universal structure, implying the presence of the core, the center and the periphery, including different levels of means of a functioning system of language, both in terms of linguistic resources, and in terms of extra linguistic factors interaction of which results increment of a text. The conception ‘field of emergence’ is considered as the most promising in the analysis of texts: oral, written, printed and electronic. As a unit of the language system field of emergence has several properties that predict its use during the study of a text in different levels. This work is an attempt analysis of entropy in a text in the aspect of lingua-cultural code, prognosticated within the model of the field of emergence. The article describes the problem of entropy in the field of emergence, caused by influence of the extra-linguistic factors. The increasing of entropy is caused not only by the fact of intrusion of the language resources but by influence of the alien culture in a whole, and by appearance of non-typical for this very culture symbols in the field of emergence. The borrowing of alien lingua-cultural symbols into the lingua-culture of the author is a reason of increasing the entropy when constructing a text both in meaning and in structuring level. It is nothing but artificial formatting of lexical units that violate stylistic unity of a phrase. It is marked that one of the important characteristics descending the entropy in the field of emergence is a typical similarity of lexical and semantic resources of the different lingua-cultures in aspects of extra linguistic factors.

Keywords: communicative situation, field of emergence, lingua-culture, entropy

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Authors: Jia Xue, Frederica G. Lamar, Siyu Lin, Jennifer G. Lamori, Samendra Sherchan

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Brackish water samples from Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana were assessed for the presence of pathogenic amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). In our study, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) methods were used to determine N. fowleri, E. coli, and Enterococcus in water collected from Lake Pontchartrain. A total of 158 water samples were analyzed over the 10-month sampling period. Statistically significant positive correlation between water temperature and N. fowleri concentration was observed. N. fowleri target sequence was detected at 35.4% (56/158) of the water samples from ten sites around the Lake ranged from 11.6 GC/100 ml water to 457.8 GC/100 ml water. A single factor (ANOVA) analysis shows the average concentration of N. fowleri in summer (119.8 GC/100 ml) was significantly higher than in winter (58.6 GC/100 ml) (p < 0.01). Statistically significant positive correlations were found between N. fowleri and qPCR E. coli results and N. fowleri and colilert E. coli (culture method), respectively. A weak positive correlation between E. coli and Enterococcus was observed from both qPCR (r = 0.27, p < 0.05) and culture based method (r = 0.52, p < 0.05). Meanwhile, significant positive correlation between qPCR and culture based methods for E. coli (r = 0.30, p < 0.05) and Enterococcus concentration was observed (r = 0.26, p < 0.05), respectively. Future research is needed to determine whether sediment is a source of N. fowleri found in the water column.

Keywords: brackish water, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, Naegleria fowleri, primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), qPCR

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Authors: Thu Thuy Pham, Thi Chau Loan Tran, Van Duy Nguyen

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Marine fungi play an important role in the marine ecosystems. Marine fungi also supply biomass and metabolic products of industrial value. Currently, the biodiversity of marine fungi along the coastal areas of Vietnam has not yet been studied fully. The objective of this study is to assess the spatial and temporal diversity of planktonic fungi from the coastal waters of Nha Trang Bay and Van Phong Bay in Central Vietnam using culture-dependent and independent approach. Using culture-dependent approach, filamentous fungi and yeasts were isolated on selective media and then classified by phenotype and genotype based on the sequencing of ITS (internal transcribed spacers) regions of rDNA with two primer pairs (ITS1F_KYO2 and ITS4; NS1 and NS8). Using culture-independent approach, environmental DNA samples were isolated and amplified using fungal-specific ITS primer pairs. A total of over 160 strains were isolated from 10 seawater sampling stations at 50 cm depth. They were classified into diverse genera and species of both yeast and mold. At least 5 strains could be potentially novel species. Our results also revealed that planktonic fungi were molecularly diverse with hundreds of phylotypes recovered across these two bays. The results of the study provide data about the distribution and taxonomy of mycoplankton in this area, thereby allowing assessment of their positive role in the biogeochemical cycle of coastal ecosystems and the development of new bioactive compounds for industrial applications.

Keywords: biodiversity, ITS, marine fungi, Nha Trang Bay, Van Phong Bay

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