Search results for: conservative firms

Authors: Mohammad Mehdizadeh, Sara Miri

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Due to the recent events surrounding the global health crisis and the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the activities of many businesses and start-up companies have been disrupted. It solves many economic problems and can reduce unemployment in countries because governments can take advantage of their potential without direct investment. However, with the help of their innovative ideas and new technologies, these companies can develop and grow the economy. But it is essential to consider that there will be no guarantee of their success in the event of unforeseen events, as the coronavirus outbreak in the last two years has seriously damaged these companies and, like other businesses, challenges and stagnation have started. The startup companies' challenge in the face of coronavirus begins with its impact on customers. Changing customer behavior can affect their products and distribution channels. On the other hand, to prevent countless losses in this crisis, startup companies require creative solutions to address challenges in various areas of human capital, supply chain management, sales and marketing, and so on. Therefore, all business leaders must consider and plan for the current crisis and the future; after overcoming these conditions and returning to regular business routines, it will no longer be an option, and new situations will prevail in a competitive environment. The essential strategies for developing and growing startups during the Coronavirus outbreak can be connecting with the global startup ecosystem, hosting webinars, providing podcasts and free question and answer sessions, mentoring services to growing teams, and consulting pointed out this to firms for digitalization.

Keywords: business, COVID-19, digitalization, startups

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Chau Nguyen Pham Minh

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The aim of this study is to answer the following research question: What do we know about virtual customer integration in innovation development based on existing empirical research? The paper is based on a systematic review of 136 articles which were published in the past 16 years. The analysis focuses on three areas: what forms of virtual customer integration (e.g. netnography, online co-creation, virtual experience) have been applied in innovation development; how have virtual customer integration methods effectively been utilized by firms; and what are the influences of virtual customer integration on innovation development activities? Through the detailed analysis, the study provides researchers with broad understanding about virtual customer integration in innovation development. The study shows that practitioners and researchers increasingly pay attention on using virtual customer integration methods in developing innovation since those methods have dominant advantages in interact with customers in order to generate the best ideas for innovation development. Additionally, the findings indicate that netnography has been the most common method in integrating with customers for idea generation; while virtual product experience has been mainly used in product testing. Moreover, the analysis also reveals the positive and negative influences of virtual customer integration in innovation development from both process and strategic perspectives. Most of the review studies examined the phenomenon from company’s perspectives to understand the process of applying virtual customer integration methods and their impacts; however, the customers’ perspective on participating in the virtual interaction has been inadequately studied; therefore, it creates many potential interesting research paths for future studies.

Keywords: innovation, virtual customer integration, co-creation, netnography, new product development

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Authors: John P. Ulhøi

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Firms are faced with pressure to stay innovative and entrepreneurial while at the same time leaving lighter ecological footprints. Traditionally inspiration for new product development (NPD) has come from the creative in-house staff and from the marketplace. Often NPD offered by this approach has proven to be (far from) optimal for its purpose or highly (resource and energy) efficient. More recently, a bio-inspired NPD approach has surfaced under the banner of biomimetics. Biomimetics refers to inspiration from and translations of designs, systems, processes, and or specific properties that exist in nature. The principles and structures working in nature have evolved over a long period of time enable them to be optimized for the purpose and resource and energy-efficient. These characteristics reflect the raison d'être behind the field of biomimetics. While biological expertise is required to understand and explain such natural and biological principles and structures, engineers are needed to translate biological design and processes into synthetic applications. It can, therefore, hardly be surprising, biomimetics long has gained a solid foothold in both biology and engineering. The commercial adoption of biomimetic applications in new production development (NDP) in industry, however, does not quite reflect a similar growth. Differently put, this situation suggests that something is missing in the biomimetic-NPD-equation, thus acting as a brake towards the wider commercial application of biomimetics and thus the use of eco-materials and design in the industry. This paper closes some of that gap. Before concluding, avenues for future research and implications for practice will be briefly sketched out.

Keywords: biomimetics, eco-materials, NPD, commercialization

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Authors: Zulkifli Mohamed Udin, Lee Khai-Loon, Mohamad Ghozali Hassan

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In today’s dynamic business environment, the competition is no longer between firms, but between supply chains to gain competitive advantages. The global manufacturing sector, especially the textile and apparel industry are essentially known for its supply chain dependency. The delicate nature of its business leads to emphasis on the smooth movement of upstream and downstream supply chain. The nature of this industry, however, result in huge dynamic flow of physical, information, and financial. The dynamic management of these flows requires adoption of supply chain technologies. Even though technology is widely implemented and studied in many industries by researchers, adoption of supply chain technologies in Malaysian textile and apparel industry is limited. There is relatively a handful academic study conducted on recent developments in Malaysian textile and apparel industry and supply chain technology adoption indicate a major gap in supply chain performance studies. Considering the importance given to Third Industrial Master Plan by the government Malaysia, it is necessary to understand the power of supply chain technology adoptions. This study aims to investigate supply chain technology adoption by textile and apparel companies in Malaysia. The result highlighted the benefits perceived by textile and apparel companies from supply chain technologies. The indifference of small and medium enterprises to operation management acts as a major inhibitor to the adoption of supply chain technologies, since they have resource limitations. This study could be used as a precursor for further detailed studies on this issue.

Keywords: supply chain technology adoption, supply chain performance, textile, apparel industry

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Authors: Tuğçe Kök, Gözen Güner Aktaş, Nur Ayalp

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In a global world, Social and cultural sustainability are subjects which have gained significant importance in recent years. The concept of sustainability was included in the document of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) by World Charter for Nature, adopted in 1982 for the first time. However, merged with urban sustainability a new phenomenon has emerged. Sustainability is an essential fact, This fact is discussed via the socio-cultural field of sustainability. Together with central government and local authorities, conservation activities have been intensified on the protection of values on an area scale. Today, local authorities play an important role in the urban historic site rehabilitation and re-construction of traditional houses projects in Ankara, Turkey. Many conservative acts have occurred after 1980’s. To give a remarkable example about the conservation implementations of traditional Turkish houses is ‘Hamamönü, Ankara Re-Construction Project which is one of the historical parts that has suffered from deterioration and unplanned urban development. In this region, preexisting but unused historic fibre of the site has been revised and according to result of this case-study, the relationship between users and re-construction were discussed. Most of the houses were re-constructed in order to build a new tourist attraction area. This study discusses the socio-cultural relations between the new built environment and the visitors, from the point of cultural sustainability. This study questions the transmission of cultural stimulations. A case study was conducted to discuss the perception of cultural aspects of the visitors in the site. The relationship between the real cultural identities and existent ones after the re-constructed project, Which has been transmitted through the visitors and the users of those spaces will be discussed. The aim of the study is to analyze the relation between the cultural identities, which have been tried to be protected with the re-construction project and the users. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the implementations of Altındağ Municipality in Hamamönü and examine the socio-cultural sustainability with the user responses. After the assessment of implementation under socio-cultural sustainability, some proposals for the future of Hamamönü were introduced.

Keywords: social sustainability, cultural sustainability, Hamamönü, Turkey, re-construction

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Authors: Khalid Yousuf Ahmed

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At the beginning of growth period, East Asian countries achieved impressive economic growth for the decades. They transformed from agricultural economy toward industrialization and contributed to dynamic structural transformation. The achievements were driven by government-led development policies that implemented effective innovation policy to boost technological capability of local firms. Recently, most Sub-Saharan African have been showing sustainable growth. Exceptionally, Ethiopia has been recording double-digit growth for a decade. Hence, Ethiopia has claimed to follow the footstep of East Asia development model. The study is going to examine whether Ethiopia can replicate innovation and economic growth model of East Asia by using Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China as a case to illustrate their model of growth. This research will be based on empirical data gathering and extended theory of national innovation system and economic growth theory. Moreover, the methodology is based on Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM) and also employing cross-countries regression analysis. The results explained that there is a significant relationship between innovation indicators and economic growth in East Asian countries while the relationship is non-existing for Ethiopia except implementing similar policies and achieving similar growth trend. Therefore, Ethiopia needs to introduce inclusive policies that give priority to improving human capital and invest on the knowledge-based economy to replicate East Asian Model.

Keywords: economic growth, FDI, endogenous growth theory, East Asia model

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Authors: Sadia Idrees, Gianpaolo Vignali, Simeon Gill

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The study aims to establish the virtual size and fit technology features to enhance fashion online retailing platforms, utilising digital human measurements to provide customised style and function to consumers. A few firms in the UK have launched advanced interactive fashion shopping domains for personalised shopping globally, aided by the latest internet technology. Virtual size and fit interfaces have a great potential to provide a personalised better-fitted garment to promote mass customisation globally. Made-to-measure clothing, consuming unstitched fabric is a common practice offered by fashion brands in Pakistan. This product is regarded as economical and sustainable to be utilised by consumers in Pakistan. Although the manual sizing system is practiced to sell garments online, virtual size and fit visualisation and recommendation technologies are uncommon in Pakistani fashion interfaces. A comparative assessment of Pakistani fashion brand websites and UK technology-driven fashion interfaces was conducted to highlight the vast potential of the virtual size and fit technology. The results indicated that web 2.0 technology adopted by Pakistani apparel brands has limited features, whereas companies practicing web 3.0 technology provide interactive online real-store shopping experience leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and globalisation of brands.

Keywords: e-commerce, mass customization, virtual size and fit, web 3.0 technology

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Authors: Yongsheng Guo, Shuchao Li

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This study explores Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe and the cross-cultural cooperation between Chinese and European managers. The aim of this research is to shed light on the phenomenon of investments in developed countries from an emerging market and to gain insights into the cooperation process. A grounded theory approach is adopted, and 46 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 case companies in Germany and 13 case companies in the UK. Grounded theory models are developed from primary data and interview quotes are used to support the themes. The interviewees perceived differences between the two parties in cultural traits, management concepts, knowledge structure and resource endowment between the two parties. Chinese and European partners can take advantage of different resources and cooperate in innovative ways to improve corporate performance. Moreover, both parties appreciate different ethical and cultural characteristics and complement each other to develop a combined organizational culture. This study proposes an ethical and cultural diversity theory in international management arguing that a team with diversified values and behaviors may be more excited and motivated. This study suggests that “resource complement” and “cross-cultural cooperation” might be an advantage for international investment. Firms are encouraged to open their minds and cooperate with partners with different resources and cultures. The authorities may review the FDI policies to reduce social and political barriers.

Keywords: cross-culture, FDI, cooperation, innovation, China, Europe

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Authors: Annette Joseph

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Background: The construction industry is dynamic in nature owing to the increasing uncertainties in technology, budgets, and development processes making projects more complex. Thus, predicting project performance and chances of its likely success has become difficult. The goal of all parties involved in construction projects is to successfully complete it on schedule, within planned budget and with the highest quality and in the safest manner. However, the concept of project success has remained ambiguously defined in the mind of the construction professionals. Purpose: This paper aims to study the analysis of a project in terms of its performance and measure the success. Methodology: The parameters for evaluating project success and the indices to measure success/performance of a project are identified through literature study. Through questionnaire surveys aimed at the stakeholders in the projects, data is collected from two live case studies (an ongoing and completed project) on the overall performance in terms of its success/failure. Finally, with the help of SPSS tool, the data collected from the surveys are analyzed and applied on the selected performance indices. Findings: The score calculated by using the indices and models helps in assessing the overall performance of the project and interpreting it to find out whether the project will be a success or failure. This study acts as a reference for firms to carry out performance evaluation and success measurement on a regular basis helping projects to identify the areas which are performing well and those that require improvement. Originality & Value: The study signifies that by measuring project performance; a project’s deviation towards success/failure can be assessed thus helping in suggesting early remedial measures to bring it on track ensuring that a project will be completed successfully.

Keywords: project, performance, indices, success

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Authors: Prajwal Eachempati, Laurent Muzellec, Ashish Kumar Jha

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We use Facebook as a case study to investigate the complex relationship between the firm’s public discourse (and actions) surrounding data privacy and the performance of a business model based on monetizing user’s data. We do so by looking at the evolution of public discourse over time (2004–2021) and relate topics to revenue and stock market evolution Drawing from archival sources like Zuckerberg We use LDA topic modelling algorithm to reveal 19 topics regrouped in 6 major themes. We first show how, by using persuasive and convincing language that promises better protection of consumer data usage, but also emphasizes greater user control over their own data, the privacy issue is being reframed as one of greater user control and responsibility. Second, we aim to understand and put a value on the extent to which privacy disclosures have a potential impact on the financial performance of social media firms. There we found significant relationship between the topics pertaining to privacy and social media/technology, sentiment score and stock market prices. Revenue is found to be impacted by topics pertaining to politics and new product and service innovations while number of active users is not impacted by the topics unless moderated by external control variables like Return on Assets and Brand Equity.

Keywords: public discourses, data protection, social media, privacy, topic modeling, business models, financial performance

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Authors: Mohit Taneja, Ravi Kiran, S. C. Bose

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Entrepreneurs’ role in achieving Sustainable development goals is crucial as the growth potential of any region depends upon the number and the success rate of entrepreneurial firms. This paper is an effort to examine the relationship between Sustainable growth (SG) with Entrepreneurial attitude (EA) and Entrepreneurial intention (EI) in the context of the Indian economy. The mediation effect of EI between EA and SG has been considered. Partial least square (PLS) –Structural Equation Model (SEM) software was used to design the framework. Students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses of higher educational institutes (HEI) of Punjab, Haryana, and the National Capital Region NCR were contacted for data collection. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) framework was used in selecting HEIs and data collected from 589 students was considered for analysis. McGee’s multi-dimensional scale for measuring ESE and the scale of Linan & Chen for measuring EI & ES (SG) was used. Results highlight that EA has a strong impact on EI (p≤ 0.001) and EI has a positive and strong relationship with SG (ES) as β value for the same is 0.683 (p≤ 0.001). The current study also reflects the mediating effect of EI among EA and ES, as the results show that the combined β value of both EA and EI (i.e.0.684*0.683= 0.467) is more than the direct influence of EA on ES (β=0.265). EA, with the mediating effect of EI can enhance the opportunity for achieving SG, which suggests that in order to increase the venture success rate and to attain SG, emphasis should be given to EI along with EA. The study has been investigated in three regions of India. Future studies can be extended to other South Asian countries for generalization.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, sustainable growth, entrepreneurship intention, entrepreneurship attitude

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Authors: Gregory D. Saxton

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Networks are everywhere: lunch ties among co-workers, golfing partnerships among employees, interlocking board-of-director connections, Facebook friendship ties, etc. Each network varies in terms of its structure -its size, how inter-connected network members are, and the prevalence of sub-groups and cliques. At the same time, within any given network, some network members will have a more important, more central position on account of their greater number of connections or their capacity as “bridges” connecting members of different network cliques. The logic of network structure and position is at the heart of what is known as social network analysis, and this paper applies this logic to the study of the stock market. Using an array of data analytics and machine learning tools, this study will examine 17 million Twitter messages discussing the stocks of the firms in the S&P 1,500 index in 2018. Each of these 1,500 stocks has a distinct Twitter discussion network that varies in terms of core network characteristics such as size, density, influence, norms and values, level of activity, and embedded resources. The study’s core proposition is that the ultimate effect of any market-relevant information is contingent on the characteristics of the network through which it flows. To test this proposition, this study operationalizes each of the core network characteristics and examines their influence on market reactions to 2018 quarterly earnings announcement events.

Keywords: data analytics, investor-to-investor communication, social network analysis, Twitter

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Authors: Mahfoudh Hussein Mgammal

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating and mediating effect of corporate governance mechanisms proxy on the relationship of tax planning measured by effective tax rate components and tax disclosure. This paper tested the hypotheses by a 3-step hierarchical regression with 2010 to 2012 Malaysian-listed nonfinancial firms. We found companies positively value tax-planning activities. This indicates that tax planning is seen as a source of companies' wealth creation as the results show that there is an association between the tax disclosure and the extent of tax planning, and this relationship is highly significant. Examination of the implications of corporate governance mechanisms on the tax disclosure-tax planning association showed the lack of a significant coefficient related to any of the interactive variables. This makes it hard to understand the nature of the association. Finally, we further study the sensitivity of the results, the outcomes were also examined for the robustness and strength of the model specification utilizing OLS-effect estimators and the absence of tax planning related factors (GRTH, LEVE, and CAPNT). The findings of these tests display there is no effect on the tax planning-tax disclosure association. The outcomes of the annual regressions test show that the panel regressions results differ over time because there is a time difference impact on the associations, and the different models are not completely proportionate as a whole. Moreover, our paper lends some support to recent theory on the importance of taxes to corporate governance by demonstrating how the agency costs of tax planning allow certain shareholders to benefit from firm activities at the expense of others.

Keywords: tax disclosure, tax planning, corporate governance, effective tax rate

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Authors: O. B. Urhibo, D. Imhonopi, T. George

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The global rate of decline in entrepreneurial activities, and the prevalence in Africa, especially Nigeria, is more worrisome. In recent times, these problems, such as the lack of accessibility and utilization of financial incentives needed to promote entrepreneurial activities, have led to a decrease in entrepreneurial activities. The causes of the decline have been evaluated from a different perspective and have further confirmed the relevance and need for the sustainability of the Fashion industry. With the increasing rate of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria and the literature gap in the social context, this study investigated the patterns of sustainable financial incentives utilisation among fashion design entrepreneurs in Nigeria through a qualitative approach. The Eastern part of Nigeria was considered in this study because of the high rate of market activity for textile and clothing firms. Specifically, Delta state was considered in this study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select key informants consisting of twelve (12) executives of the associations (i.e., Fashion Designer & Exhibitors Association, Delta Fashion Designers, and Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria for the interview sessions. Four themes emanate from the thematic analysis -lack of sufficient collateral, difficulties and duration of loan application processes, unacceptable business proposal/plan, and the absence of audited financial accounts were found to be the patterns of sustainable financial incentives utilisation among fashion design entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The promotion of sustainable patterns and supports has been suggested to reduce the challenges of sustainable financial incentives utilisation among fashion design entrepreneurs.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, fashion design, financial incentives, patterns, sustainability, utilisation

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Authors: Imtiaz Ali, Imam Mansoor

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Investigations as a part of the academic study were undertaken to identify and evaluate the significant risks associated with the construction of K-span buildings in the region of UAE. Primary field data was collected through questionnaires obtaining specific open and close-ended questions from carefully selected construction firms, civil engineers and, construction manager regarding risks associated to K-span building construction. Historical data available for other regions of the same construction technique was available which was compared for identifying various non-critical and critical risk parameters by comparative evaluation techniques to come up with important risks and potential sources for their control and minimization in K-Span buildings that is increasing in the region. The associated risks have been determined with their Relative Importance Index (RII) values of which Risk involved in Change of Design required by Owners carries the highest value (RII=0.79) whereas, Delayed Payment by Owner to Contractor is one of the least (RII=0.42) value. The overall findings suggest that most relative risks as quantified originate or associated with the contractors. It may be concluded that project proponents undertaking K-span projects in planning and budgeting the cost and delays should take into account of risks on high account if changes in design are also required any delays in the material by the supplier would then be a major risk in K-span project delay. Since projects are, less costly, so owners have limited budgets, then they hire small contractors, which are not highly competent contractors. So study suggests that owner should be aware of these types of risks associated with the construction of K-span buildings in order to make it cost effective.

Keywords: k-span buildings, k-span construction, risk management, relative improvement index (RII)

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Authors: Jeyarajan Sivapathasundram

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Knowledge management has been recognised as an emerging factor for being competitive among institutions and performances in firms. As such, being recognised as knowledge rich institution, higher education institutes have to be recognised knowledge management based resources for achieving competitive advantages. Present research picked result out of postgraduate research conducted in knowledge management at non-state higher educational institutes of Sri Lanka. Besides, the present research aimed to discover knowledge management for competition and firm performances of higher educational institutes out of the result produced by the postgraduate study. Besides, the results are found in a pair that developed out of knowledge management practices and the reason behind the existence of the practices. As such, the present research has developed a filter to pick the pairs that satisfy its condition of competition and performance of the firm. As such, the pair, such as benchmarking is practised to be ethically competing through conducting courses. As the postgraduate research tested results of foreign researches in a qualitative paradigm, the finding of the present research are generalise fact for knowledge management for competitiveness and performances in higher educational institutes. Further, the presented research method used attributes which explain competition and performance in its filter to discover the pairs relevant to competition and performances. As such, the fact in regards to knowledge management for competition and performances in higher educational institutes are presented in the publication that the presentation is out of the generalised result. Therefore, knowledge management for competition and performance in higher educational institutes are generalised.

Keywords: competition in and among higher educational institutes, performances of higher educational institutes, noun based filtering, production out of generalisation of a research

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Authors: Chiao-Chen Chang, Yang-Chieh Chin

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The mobile phone has no longer confined to communication, from the aspect of smartphones, consumers are only willing to pay for the product which the added value has corresponded with their appetites, such as multiple application, upgrade of the camera, and the appearance of the phone and so on. Moreover, as the maturity stage of smartphone industry today, the strategy which manufactures used to gain competitive advantages through hardware as well as software differentiation, is no longer valid. Thus, this research aims to initiate from brand image, to examine exactly whether consumers’ buying intention focus on smartphone brand or operating system, at the same time, perceived value and customer satisfaction will be added between brand image and continuous usage intention to investigate the impact of these two facets toward continuous usage intention. This study verifies the correlation, fitness, and relationship between the variables that lies within the conceptual framework. The result of using structural equation modeling shows that brand image has a positive impact on continuous usage intention. Firms can affect consumer perceived value and customer satisfaction through the creation of the brand image. It also shows that the brand image of smartphone and brand image of the operating system have a positive impact on customer perceived value and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, perceived value also has a positive impact on satisfaction, and so is the relation within satisfaction and perceived value to the continuous usage intention. Last but not least, the brand image of the smartphone has a more remarkable impact on customers than the brand image of the operating system. In addition, this study extends the results to management practice and suggests manufactures to provide fine product design and hardware.

Keywords: smartphone, brand image, perceived value, continuous usage intention

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Authors: Sazzad Hossain Talukder

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Survival in the competitive international market with unforeseen environmental contingencies has always been a concern of the firms that led to adopting different strategies to deal with different situations. Language strategy is considered to enhance the international performance of a firm by organizing language diversity and fostering communications within and outside the firm. Yet there is a lack of theoretical attention or model development on the role of language strategy on firm international survival. From resource dependence perspective, the adoption of language strategy and its relationship with firm survival are determined by the firm´s capability to prevent dependency concentration and/or increase relative power on the external environment. However, the impact of language strategy on firm survival is complex and multifaceted as the strategy influence firm performance indirectly through communication, coordination, learning and value creation. The evidence of various types of language strategies and different forms of firm survival also bring in complexities to understand the effects of a language strategy on the international survival of a firm. Based on language literatures and resource dependence logic, certain propositions are developed to conceptualize the relationship between language strategy and firm international survival in this conceptual paper. For the purpose of this paper, a conceptual model is proposed to examine how different kinds of language strategy foster reduction of resource dependency that lead to firm international survival in respond to local responsiveness and global integration. In this proposed model, it is theorized that language strategy has a positive relationship with the international survival of the firm, as the strategy is likely to reduce external resource dependency and increase the ability to continue independent operations both in short and long term.

Keywords: language strategy, language diversity, firm international survival, resource dependence logic

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Authors: Aloysius Colman Chukwuemeka Ezeabasili, Chibuike Patrick Ezeabasili

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Medium Sized Construction Companies in Nigeria are those employing 50-250 workers that are mostly involved in roads, Commercial and domestic building Construction, among others. These companies are in the majority and contribute immensely to infrastructural development in Nigeria. Despite the last eight years of economic downturn and the past years of COVID-19 pandemic, signs of these Companies recovering from the economic recession and pandemic seem bright. Nigeria has recorded 213,000 confirmed cases 3968 deaths from COVID-19 as at now. These medium sized companies are currently trying to explore various opportunities to grow their businesses to achieve competitive advantages over others by studying and improving on their bidding efficiency, Strategies for selecting businesses, bidding markup Strategies, and cash flow. These strategies were studied through the recruitment of construction experts and professionals. Many of them have acquired new technologies that have impacted positively on their strategies. The impact of these technologies like the BIM, e-tendering, conditions of contract, and claim management strategies are advantages to them and has given them good advantages over their peers. Monte Carlo solution, Swot analysis, and average bid methods have also clearly added advantages to bidding practices. New and existing strategies are Scrutinized, and training of young Nigerians in advanced countries to acquire knowledge in best practices have elevated some of these companies. The Covid-19 has not been very harsh to Nigeria, and the country is surely not as devastated as the advanced countries. Nigeria has therefore been able to cope with the combination of the downturn and the pandemic.

Keywords: medium sized construction companies, competitive advantage, new bidding technologies, Nigeria

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Authors: Omar Boutkhoum, Mohamed Hanine, Abdessadek Bendarag

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Sustainable economic growth is nowadays driving firms to extend toward the adoption of many green supply chain management (GSCM) solutions. However, the evaluation and selection of these solutions is a matter of concern that needs very serious decisions, involving complexity owing to the presence of various associated factors. To resolve this problem, a comparative analysis approach based on multi-criteria decision-making methods is proposed for adequate evaluation of sustainable supply chain management solutions. In the present paper, we propose an integrated decision-making model based on FAHP (Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process), TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organisation METHod for Enrichment Evaluations) to contribute to a better understanding and development of new sustainable strategies for industrial organizations. Due to the varied importance of the selected criteria, FAHP is used to identify the evaluation criteria and assign the importance weights for each criterion, while TOPSIS and PROMETHEE methods employ these weighted criteria as inputs to evaluate and rank the alternatives. The main objective is to provide a comparative analysis based on TOPSIS and PROMETHEE processes to help make sound and reasoned decisions related to the selection problem of GSCM solution.

Keywords: GSCM solutions, multi-criteria analysis, decision support system, TOPSIS, FAHP, PROMETHEE

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Authors: Niklas Bondesson

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Purpose: This paper attempts to examine how different facets of attitudinal brand loyalty are determined by different brand image elements in business markets. Design/Methodology/Approach: Statistical analysis is employed to data from a web survey, covering 226 professional packaging buyers in eight countries. Findings: The results reveal that different brand loyalty facets have different antecedents. Affective brand loyalties (or loyalty 'feelings') are mainly driven by customer associations to service relationships, whereas customers’ loyalty intentions (to purchase and recommend a brand) are triggered by associations to the general reputation of the company. The findings also indicate that willingness to pay a price premium is a distinct form of loyalty, with unique determinants. Research implications: Theoretically, the paper suggests that corporate B2B brand loyalty needs to be conceptualised with more refinement than has been done in extant B2B branding work. Methodologically, the paper highlights that single-item approaches can be fruitful when measuring B2B brand loyalty, and that multi-item scales can conceal important nuances in terms of understanding why customers are loyal. Practical implications: The idea of a loyalty 'silver metric' is an attractive idea, but this study indicates that firms who rely too much on one single type of brand loyalty risk to miss important building blocks. Originality/Value/Contribution: The major contribution is a more multi-faceted conceptualisation, and measurement, of corporate B2B brand loyalty and its brand image determinants than extant work has provided.

Keywords: brand equity, business-to-business branding, industrial marketing, buying behaviour

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Authors: Kiyohiro Yamazaki

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This paper considers a forming process of a single competitive factor in the digital camera industry from the viewpoint of product platform. To make product development easier for companies and to increase product introduction ratios, development efforts concentrate on improving and strengthening certain product attributes, and it is born in the process that the product platform is formed continuously. It is pointed out that the formation of this product platform raises product development efficiency of individual companies, but on the other hand, it has a trade-off relationship of causing unification of competitive factors in the whole industry. This research tries to analyze product specification data which were collected from the web page of digital camera companies. Specifically, this research collected all product specification data released in Japan from 1995 to 2003 and analyzed the composition of image sensor and optical lens; and it identified product platforms shared by multiple products and discussed their application. As a result, this research found that the product platformation was born in the development of the standard product for major market segmentation. Every major company has made product platforms of image sensors and optical lenses, and as a result, this research found that the competitive factors were unified in the entire industry throughout product platformation. In other words, this product platformation brought product development efficiency of individual firms; however, it also caused industrial competition factors to be unified in the industry.

Keywords: digital camera industry, product evolution trajectory, product platform, unification of competitive factors

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Authors: Alina Hamid Bari

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Intellectual Property (IP) policies of a country have a huge impact on the pharmaceutical industry as this industry is all about patents. Developed countries have used IP protection to boost their economy; developing countries are concerned about access to medicine for poor people. U.S. company, Pfizer had a monopoly for 14 years for Lipitor and it all came to end when Pfizer decided to operate in India. This research will focus at the effects of Indian IP policies on USA by comparing Pfizer & Ranbaxy with regards to Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. For this research inductive approach has been used. Main source of material is Annual reports, theory based on academic books and articles along with rulings of court, policy statements and decisions, websites and newspaper articles. SWOT analysis is done for both Pfizer & Ranbaxy. The main comparison was done by doing ratio analysis and analyses of annual reports for the year 2011-2012 for Pfizer and Ranbaxy to see the impact on their profitability. This research concludes that Indian intellectual laws do affect the profitability of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry which can in turn have an impact on the US economy. These days India is only granting patents on products which it feels are deserving of it. So the U.S. companies operating in India have to defend their invention to get a patent. Thus, to operate in India and maintain monopoly in market, US firms have to come up with different strategies.

Keywords: atorvastatin, India, intellectual property, lipitor, Pfizer, pharmaceutical industry, Ranbaxy, TRIPs, U.S.

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Authors: Chen Zhang; Qiang Wang

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With the rapid development of the new generation of digital technology, various industries have created more and more value by using digital technology, accelerating the digital transformation of various industries. The economic form of human society has evolved with the progress of technology, and in this context, the power conversion, transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry in terms of quality, efficiency and energy change has become a top priority. Based on the digitalization background, this paper analyzes the transformation and upgrading efficiency of the manufacturing industry and evaluates the impact of the driving factors, which have very important theoretical and practical significance. This paper utilizes qualitative research methods, entropy methods, data envelopment analysis methods and econometric models to explore the transformation and upgrading efficiency of manufacturing enterprises and driving factors. The study shows that the transformation and upgrading efficiency of the manufacturing industry shows a steady increase, and regions rich in natural resources and social resources provide certain resources for transformation and upgrading. The ability of scientific and technological innovation has been improved, but there is still much room for progress in the transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements. Most manufacturing industries pay more attention to green manufacturing and sustainable development. In addition, based on the existing problems, this paper puts forward suggestions for improving infrastructure construction, developing the technological innovation capacity of enterprises, green production and sustainable development.

Keywords: digitization, manufacturing firms, transformation and upgrading, efficiency, driving factors

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Authors: Khaldoon G. Albitar, Hassan Y. Kikhia, Jin P. Zhang

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Since 2007, all companies listed on both Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange are required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This study investigates the impact of adopting IFRS on accounting quality for a sample of listed on Chinese companies during the period 2003-2013 with sample of 10846 observations over a four-year period before and a five-year period after the adoption of IFRS. This study tests whether the level of earnings management is significantly lower after the adoption of IFRS, and reported earnings is more value relevant during the IFRS period by using the Ohlson model and Jones model, as modified by Dechow. The empirical results show that accounting quality improved with lower earnings management and higher value relevant after the adoption of IFRS in China. The current study contributes to the literature on IFRS adoption and earning quality in two ways. First, As most of the existing studies on earnings quality and IFRS have been conducted on data from the U.S and European countries, this study fills a gap in the existing literature by studying the effect of adoption of IFRS on earnings quality in an emerging market. Second, the findings of our study have important implications for policymakers, auditors, multinational firms, and users of financial reports. As the rapid growth of China's economy gains global recognition, the Chinese stock market is capturing the attention of international investor.

Keywords: international financial reporting standards (ifrs), accounting quality, earnings management, value relevance, china

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Authors: N. Kashif, M. K. Naseer

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This is an undeniable fact that parents are the very first role model for their children and children are the silent observers and followers of their parents. The environment they would be provided will leave either positive or negative lasting impact on their physical and mental behavior and abilities to grow, progress and conquer. This paper focuses on the observation particularly in South Asian countries where females have been facing problems in accessing education and getting financially independent or stable. This paper emphasizes on a survey conducted in rural areas of Punjab State in Pakistan. It explains how the parents’ educational background, financial status, conservative and interdependent accommodation style influence a prominent inequality of giving their female child right to study and get empowered. The forces behind this gender discrimination are not limited to parents’ life style impact but also include some major social problems like distant schools, gender-based harassment, and threat, insecurities, employment opportunities, so on. As a grass root level solution, it is proposed to develop an institution which collects data regarding child birth in their region and can contact the parent when their child is ready to start school. Building up trust based relationship with parents is the most crucial and significant factor. Secondly, celebrities and public figures can play an extraordinary role in running a campaign to advocate and encourage people living in rural areas, villages and small towns. All possible solutions can never be implemented without the support of the state government. Therefore, this paper invites more thoughtful actions, properly planned strategies, initiators to take the lead and make a platform for those who are underprivileged and deprived of their basic rights. Any country, where female constitute 49% of its entire population can never progress without promoting female empowerment and their right to compulsory education, and it is never late or impossible to admit the facts and practically start a flexible solution- oriented approach.

Keywords: employment opportunities, female empowerment, gender based harassment, gender discrimination, inequality, parents' life style impact

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Authors: Daniele Losanno, Giorgio Serino

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This paper focuses on parametric analysis of reinforced concrete structures equipped with supplemental damping braces. Practitioners still luck sufficient data for current design of damper added structures and often reduce the real model to a pure damper braced structure even if this assumption is neither realistic nor conservative. In the present study, the damping brace is modelled as made by a linear supporting brace connected in series with the viscous/hysteretic damper. Deformation capacity of existing structures is usually not adequate to undergo the design earthquake. In spite of this, additional dampers could be introduced strongly limiting structural damage to acceptable values, or in some cases, reducing frame response to elastic behavior. This work is aimed at providing useful considerations for retrofit of existing buildings by means of supplemental damping braces. The study explicitly takes into consideration variability of (a) relative frame to supporting brace stiffness, (b) dampers’ coefficient (viscous coefficient or yielding force) and (c) non-linear frame behavior. Non-linear time history analysis has been run to account for both dampers’ behavior and non-linear plastic hinges modelled by Pivot hysteretic type. Parametric analysis based on previous studies on SDOF or MDOF linear frames provide reference values for nearly optimal damping systems design. With respect to bare frame configuration, seismic response of the damper-added frame is strongly improved, limiting deformations to acceptable values far below ultimate capacity. Results of the analysis also demonstrated the beneficial effect of stiffer supporting braces, thus highlighting inadequacy of simplified pure damper models. At the same time, the effect of variable damping coefficient and yielding force has to be treated as an optimization problem.

Keywords: brace stiffness, dissipative braces, non-linear analysis, plastic hinges, reinforced concrete frames

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Authors: Dilang Thouk Tharjiath

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This study seeks to examine determinants of access to finance: the case of micro and small enterprises in bonga town. It identifies the sector as the key to unlocking the economic potentials of the country. For the achievement of the objective of the study simple random and stratified sampling has been used to select 179 respondents, primary and secondary data were used, primary data were collected through face to face interview and preparing questionnaire and secondary data were collected through reviewing firms record and reports, quantitative research approach were used and the data obtained were analyzed using descriptive research design. Access to finance is one of the key obstacles of MSE’s not only when starting the business project but also when operating. Identifying the major determinants of access to finance is therefore quite crucial. Based on descriptive result the financiers specially formal financiers tend to grant credit easily for enterprises which are located near to town, having operators with higher educational level, experienced and with a positive attitudes towards or fulfill their lending procedures, and a firm having collateralized asset, prepare business plan, maintain accounting practice ,large and old enough. Finally the study recommended that As Educational level of entrepreneurs has significant effect on access to credit from bank and the managers or owners education level is low in Bonga town the concerned bodies of both the government and non-governmental institutions in collaboration with Bonga town MSE development office are recommended to create awareness and facilitate the provision of additional training for those with lower educational level.

Keywords: credit, entrepreneur, enterprise, manager

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Authors: Wanlapha Phraibueng, Patrick Sentis, Geraldine Riviere-Giordano

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives have been widely discussed especially in investor-oriented firms. In contrast, cooperatives pay less attention to CSR because their activities have integrated the responsibility and the solidity of social, economic and environment. On the other hand, by adopting ownership theory and agency theory – cooperatives ignore CSR investment due to unclarified decision control in the governance and the limitation to acquire the capital financed. The unique governance and financial structures in cooperatives lead to the conflict among the stakeholders and long-term investment which have an impact on firm financial performance. As an illustration of cooperatives dilemmas, we address the question of Whether or not cooperatives in term of governance and financial structures are the constraints on implementing CSR policies. We find that the governance and financial structures in large cooperatives are the influence factors which predispose cooperatives to invest on CSR. In contrast, in the startup or small cooperatives, its governance and financial structures are the constraints on implementing CSR policies. We propose the alternative financial structure based on the trade-off between debt and equity which aims to relax the restrictions in cooperatives’ governance and allow cooperatives to acquire the capital financed either from its members or non-members. We suggest that engaging equity as a financial structure induces cooperatives to invest on CSR policies. Alternative financial structure eliminates not only cooperative ownership control problem but also the constraints in capital acquisition. By implementing CSR activities consistent with the alternative financial choice, cooperatives can increase firm’s value and reduce the conflict among their stakeholders.

Keywords: cooperatives, corporate social responsibility, financial, governance

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Authors: Luedech Girdwichai, Withaya Mekhum

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This research intended to develop the model of community management for sustainable utilization by investigating on 2 groups of population, the family heads and the community management team. The population of the former group consisted of family heads from 511 families in 12 areas to complete the questionnaires which were returned at 479 sets. The latter group consisted of the community management team of 12 areas with 1 representative from each area to give the interview. The questionnaires for the family heads consisted of 2 main parts; general information such as occupations, etc. in the form of checklist. The second part dealt with the data on self reliance community development based on 4P Framework, i.e., People (human resource) development, Place (area) development, Product (economic and income source) development, and Plan (community plan) development in the form of rating scales. Data in the 1st part were calculated to find frequency and percentage while those in the 2nd part were analyzed to find arithmetic mean and SD. Data from the 2nd group of population or the community management team were derived from focus group to find factors influencing successful management together with the in depth interview which were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results showed that 479 family heads reported that the aspect on the implementation of community plan to self reliance community activities based on Sufficient Economy Philosophy and the 4P was at the average of 3.28 or moderate level. When considering in details, it was found that the 1st aspect was on the area development with the mean of 3.71 or high level followed by human resource development with the mean of 3.44 or moderate level, then, economic and source of income development with the mean of 3.09 or moderate level. The last aspect was community plan development with the mean of 2.89. The results from the small group discussion revealed some factors and guidelines for successful community management as follows: 1) on the People (human resource) development aspect, there was a project to support and develop community leaders. 2) On the aspect of Place (area) development, there was a development on conservative tourism areas. 3) On the aspect of Product (economic and source of income) development, the community leaders promoted the setting of occupational group, saving group, and product processing group. 4) On the aspect of Plan (community plan) development, there was a prioritization through public hearing.

Keywords: model of community management, sustainable utilization, family heads, community management team

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