Search results for: social business

Authors: Ana Pego

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Environmental technologies were developed for decades. Clean technologies emerged a few years ago. In these perspectives, the use of cleantech technologies has become very important due the fact of new era of environmental feats. As such, the market itself has become more competitive, more collaborative towards a better use of clean technologies. This paper shows the importance of clean technologies in offshore energy sector in Portuguese market, its localization and its impact on economy. Clean technologies are directly related with renewable cluster and concomitant with economic and social resource optimization criteria, geographic aspects, climate change and soil features. Cleantech is related with regional development, socio-technical transitions in organisations. There are an economical and social combinations which allow specialisation of regions in activities, higher employment, reduce of energy costs, local knowledge spillover and, business collaboration and competitiveness. The methodology used will be quantitative (IO matrix for Portugal 2013) and qualitative (questionnaires to stakeholders). The mix of both methodologies will confirm whether the use of technologies will allow a positive impact on economic and social variables used on this model. It is expected a positive impact on Portuguese economy both in investment and employment taking in account the localization of offshore renewable activities. This means that the importance of offshore renewable investment in Portugal has a few points which should be pointed out: the increase of specialised employment, localization of specific activities in territory, and increase of value added in certain regions. The conclusion will allow researchers and organisation to compare the Portuguese model to other European regions in order to a better use of natural and human resources.

Keywords: cleantech, economic impact, localisation, territory dynamics

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Authors: Shrikant Chavan, Vikas Minchekar

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The present study examined the self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and social maturity of High school boys and girls. Furthermore, study aimed at to foster the self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and social maturity of high school students. The study was conducted on 100 high school students, out of which 50 boys and 50 girls were selected through simple random sampling method from the Sangli city of Maharashtra state, India. The age range of the sample is 14 to 16 years. Self-efficacy scale developed by Jesusalem Schwarzer, Emotional intelligence scale developed by Hyde, Pethe and Dhar and social maturity scale developed by Rao were administered to the sample. Data was analyzed using mean, SD and ‘t’ test further Karl Pearson’s product moment, correlation of coefficient was used to know the correlation between emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and social maturity. Results revealed that boys and girls did not differ significantly in their self-efficacy and social maturity. Further, the analysis revealed that girls are having high emotional intelligence compared to boys, which is significant at 0.01 level. It is also found that there is a significant and positive correlation between self-efficacy and emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and social maturity and emotional intelligence and social maturity. Some developmental strategies to strengthen the self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and social maturity of high school students are suggested in the study.

Keywords: self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, social maturity, developmental model and high school students

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Authors: Michael C. Nwaohia

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Whereas anecdotal evidence supports the notion that increase in information technology (IT) know-how may enhance output of professionals in the accounting sector, this has not been systematically explored in the Nigerian context. Against this background, this paper examines the correlation between knowledgeability of IT and level of performance at everyday auditing and accounting tasks. It utilizes primary and secondary data from selected business organizations in Lagos, Nigeria. Accounting staff were administered structured questionnaires which, amongst other things, sought to examine knowledge and exposure to information technology prior to joining the firms and current level of performance based on self-reporting and supervisor comments. In addition, exposure to on-the-job IT training and current level of performance was examined. The statistical analysis of the data was done using the SPSS package. The results strongly suggest that prior exposure to IT skills enabled accounting professionals to better flexibly fit into the dynamic environment in which contemporary business takes place. Ultimately, the paper attempts to explicate some of the implications of these findings for individuals and business firms.

Keywords: accounting, firms, information technology, professional behavior

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Authors: Mary Goitom, Maria Liegghio

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In this paper, we critically explore the ethics of Schools of Social Work from the global North developing courses for programs within the Global South. In it, we discuss our experiences of partnering with the University of Guyana to develop and teach graduate courses in a newly formed Masters of Social Work program. Under the umbrella of our university’s goal for 'internationalization', that is, developing and establishing global and local collaborations for teaching, research and scholarship, we bring into question whether a new form of academic imperialism is occurring under the guise of global citizenship and social justice.

Keywords: academic imperialism, global north and south, internationalization, social work education

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Authors: P. S. Jagadeesh Kumar, S. Meenakshi Sundaram

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With the increase of prevailing non-traditional rivalry, mobile banking experiences an ever changing commercial backdrop. Substantial customer demands have established to be more intricate as customers request more expediency and superintend over their banking services. To enterprise advance and modernization in mobile banking applications, it is gradually obligatory to deeply leapfrog the scuffle using business model transformation. The dramaturgical vicissitudes taking place in mobile banking entail advanced traditions to exploit security. By reforming and transforming older back office into integrated mobile banking applications, banks can engender a supple and nimble banking environment that can rapidly respond to new business requirements over cloud computing. Cloud computing is transfiguring ecosystems in numerous industries, and mobile banking is no exemption providing services innovation, greater flexibility to respond to improved security and enhanced business intelligence with less cost. Cloud technology offer secure deployment possibilities that can provision banks in developing new customer experiences, empower operative relationship and advance speed to efficient banking transaction. Cloud adoption is escalating quickly since it can be made secured for commercial mobile banking transaction through backend as a service in scrutinizing the security strategies of the cloud service provider along with the antiquity of transaction details and their security related practices.

Keywords: cloud adoption, backend as a service, business intelligence, secured mobile banking

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Authors: Rimma Kiseleva

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The hotel business has a long history. The basis of the service of hospitality industry enterprises is the service, attitude, and consciousness of employees as hospitable “hosts of the house”. It is generally accepted that the founder and main expert of quality service is Caesar Ritz, “the king of hoteliers and the hotelier of kings.” However when deeply immersed in the history of the universe, it turns out that the very first book about hospitality, standardization of guest reception processes and the basics of better service is nothing more than the Bible. A unique study on the topic of considering the Church as a hotel, as well as the hotel business itself as the most gracious work of Jesus Christ Himself, which is confirmed by verses from the Gospel, includes the following approaches: analytical, comparative, empirical. The study shows that it was Jesus Christ who became the founder of the rules of the most sacrificial service, real service to people, filled with brotherly love, humility, love for strangers, those qualities that are the foundation, the “three pillars” of the hospitality industry. And also that the hotel is the most charitable cause, which is still relevant today.

Keywords: Augustine Aurelius, Bible, Gospel, guest house, hospitality, hotel, humility, inn, Jesus Christ, Joseph Fletcher, New Testament, Paul Tillich, service, strangeness

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Authors: Theodosios Paralikas, Evangelia Kotrotsiou, Mairy Gouva, Manolis Mentis, Stiliani Stavrotheodorou, Stiliani Kotrotsiou, Maria Malliarou

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There is a big discussion in the international literature on empathy, job satisfaction and job occupational among various of disciplines, including social workers. Νevertheless these parameters have not been specifically studied in the Greek territory. This paper aims to study empathy of social workers, to produce results related to whether empathy is influenced by demographic factors such as gender, age, marital status, level of education and study their perceived stress levels and also the satisfaction they derive from their work. For the first time, an attempt is made to link the empathy of these professionals to their job satisfaction and their anxiety. The sample of this survey consists of 165 social workers working on providers of public and private social services. The results showed that social workers have high levels of empathy contrary to the perceived stress levels which were low to moderate. Regarding the field of the job satisfaction, the survey showed that social workers are very satisfied with their workpiece and workplace. The survey shows no significant relationship between empathy and demographic factors, but there is a significant relationship between empathy and the workpiece/job satisfaction and the feeling of success.

Keywords: empathy, stress, job satisfaction, social workers

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Authors: Yang Jiayue, Liang Junwen

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Case interviews with 12 mothers of hearing-impaired children in Beijing found that families with hard-of-hearing children make all-out efforts for rescue and rehabilitation until they exhaust family resources, they travel to work places, homes, and rehabilitation institutions every day, and social relations gradually shrink inward. In the stigmatized social environment, children with hearing impairment find it difficult to integrate into regular communication and gradually return to a silent world; their parents also suffer from social discrimination and affiliate stigma, and they gradually reduce contact with others. Finally, families with hearing-impaired children become invisible people in society; the "deafness" of children leads families to "loss of voice."

Keywords: family with hearing-impaired children, social retreat, social exclusion, stigma

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Authors: Cristina Azocar, Ivana Markova

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A survey of 565 male undergraduates examined the effects of exposure to social networking sites and entertainment media on young men’s body image. Exposure to social and to entertainment media was found to have negative effects on men’s body satisfaction, social comparison, and thin ideal internalization. Findings indicated significant differences in those men who were more exposed to social and to entertainment media than those who were not as exposed. Consistent with past studies, gay men were found to be more dissatisfied with their bodies than straight men. Gay men compared themselves to other better-looking individuals and internalized ideal body types seen in media significantly more than their straight counterparts. Surprisingly, straight men seem to care as much about their physical attractiveness/appearance as gay men do, but only in public settings such as at the beach, at athletic events (including gyms) and social events. Although on average ethnic groups were more similar than different, small but significant differences occurred with Asian men indicating significantly higher body dissatisfaction than White/European men and Middle Eastern/Arab men their counterparts. The study increases our knowledge about SNS and entertainment use and its associated body image, and body satisfaction affects among low-income ethnic minority men.

Keywords: body dissatisfaction, body image, entertainment media, gay men, race and ethnicity, social economic status, social comparison, social media

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Authors: Tsegyu Santas

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The aim of this study was to examine the utilization of social media for political communication during the 2011 presidential election in Nigeria. The research design adopted for the study was survey; 294 copies of questionnaire were distributed to students of mass communication in three selected universities in North Central Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the study. The results of the descriptive statistics show that majority of the respondents choice of presidential candidates during the 2011 presidential election was influenced by the use of social media as indicated by high value of mean (1.5805). Similarly, a large number of respondents were of the opinion that the two selected presidential candidates were popular because they used social media in their political campaign (mean value of 1.5575). In addition, the respondents affirmed that their voting pattern during the 2011 presidential elections was influenced by social media usage. This was validated by a high mean value of (1.6667). Similarly, the result of the test of hypothesis indicated that voters’ choice of political candidates was influenced by political communication on social media. In view of the findings of this study, the study, therefore, concludes that social media have redefined the landscape of political communication in Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that social media should be fully integrated in Nigeria political communication system.

Keywords: communication, election, politics, social media

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Authors: Iin Mayasari

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This study aims at exploring the influence of aspects of entrepreneurial marketing on a firm’s performance. Entrepreneurs are not only supported by resources control to obtain sustainable competitive advantage, but it should also be supported by intangible resources. Entrepreneurial marketing provides the opportunity for entrepreneurs to proactively find better ways to create value for desired customers, to create innovation, and to build customer equity. Entrepreneurial marketing has the medium between entrepreneurship and marketing, and serves as an umbrella for many of the emergent perspectives on marketing. It has eight underlying dimensions. They are proactiveness, calculated risk-taking, innovativeness, an opportunity focus, entrepreneurial orientation, resource leveraging, customer intensity, and value creating. The research method of the study was a qualitative study by having an interview with 8 small companies in Kudus Region, the Central Java, Indonesia. The interviewees were the owner and the manager of the company that had the scope work of small business enterprise in wood crafting industry. The interview was related to the implementation of the elements of the entrepreneurial marketing. The result showed that the small business enterprises had implemented the elements of entrepreneurial marketing in supporting their daily activities. The understanding based on the theoretical implementation was well executed by the owner and managers. The problems in managing small business enterprises were related to the full support by the government and the branding management. Furthermore, the innovation process should be improved especially the use of internet to promote the product, to expand the market and to increase the firm’s performance.

Keywords: entrepreneurial marketing, innovativeness, risk taking, opportunity focus

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Authors: Thevaranchany Sivaskaran

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Women entrepreneurs are the key players in the society and their contributions is highly highlighted to enhance economic stability in the country. In Sri Lanka, especially in North and East provinces people badly affected by war. Most of them are widows and women headed families. Due to this changing environment, Educational opportunities, and the support of NGO’s Most of the women have started their business and become entrepreneurs. Even though existing family setup and social setup entrepreneurial women are overburdened and difficult to balance their business and family roles. The research has been conducted on the experiences of women entrepreneurs with the family role support and work-life balance within the small and micro- enterprise sector in Jaffna, Srilanka. This study aims to identify that what extent the role of family support will be the tool to balancing work and life effectively and, secondly, the main challenges they face in achieving work-life balance. This is done by drawing on literatures including those on work-life balance, small-and micro enterprises, and entrepreneurship theories. To find out this objective, the data were collected from 50 entrepreneurs among the members of Jaffna women chamber in each GS division basis (cluster random sampling). A qualitative methodological technique and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data for the case study on these entrepreneurs. The results indicate that the majority of entrepreneurs do not enjoy a sense of work-life balance because most of them are women headed family and they need to work hard to generate financial profit for the benefit of family. The motivation for them to work in this way is to provide basic needs. Results confirmed for others that support of husbands is very important. Mostly, emotional support (belief and empowerment) is exposed; however, getting financial contribution seems to be highly appreciated. More responsibilities which spouses were ready to take over regarding the home responsibilities (that is, childcare) should also not be neglected in the system of support to their entrepreneurial wives. Although, more important for all, women with children appreciated other members and spouses help and assistance to a higher extent. Results showed that majority of women who started their own business feel that in the first year of ope-ration the emotional support of family members was more important.

Keywords: family support, work life balance, women entrepreneurs, Jaffna District, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Danielle Morin, Jennifer D. E. Thomas, Raafat G. Saade, Daniela Petrachi

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Over the past few decades, more and more students choose to enroll in online classes instead of attending in-class lectures. While past studies consider students’ attitudes towards online education and how their grades differed from in-class lectures, the profile of the online student remains a blur. To shed light on this, an online survey was administered to about 1,500 students enrolled in an undergraduate Fundamental Business Technology course at a Canadian University. The survey was comprised of questions on students’ demographics, their reasons for choosing online courses, their expectations towards the course, the communication channels they use for the course with fellow students and with the instructor. This paper focused on the research question: Do the perspectives of online students concerning the online experience, in general, and in the course in particular, differ according to age profile? After several statistical analyses, it was found that age does have an impact on the reasons why students select online classes instead of in-class. For example, it was found that the perception that an online course might be easier than in-class delivery was a more important reason for younger students than for older ones. Similarly, the influence of friends is much more important for younger students, than for older students. Similar results were found when analyzing students’ expectation about the online course and their use of communication tools. Overall, the age profile of online users had an impact on reasons, expectations and means of communication in an undergraduate Fundamental Business Technology course. It is left to be seen if this holds true across other courses, graduate and undergraduate.

Keywords: communication channels, fundamentals of business technology, online classes, pedagogy, user age profile, user perspectives

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Authors: Ramin Tafazzoli, Rahime Zamanfashami, Amir Mohagheghzadeh

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Entrepreneurship is the driving engine of countries’ economic development and has a determinant role in the economic, social and cultural improvement of the societies. Entrepreneurship and its impact on countries’ destiny, result in the planner and policy makers’ attempts to explore and extend it in various aspects. These days, all countries follow their social capital development and human resource quality improvement to achieve the strategic national objectives, economic growth, value creation, cultural dynamism, civil excellence and social solidarity, pursuing the sustainable development based on innovation, entrepreneurial technology , knowledge management and knowledge-focused in various levels and areas. Because of the rapid economic and cultural changes in recent decades and also the emerged need for reinforcing the knowledge-based structures and wealth generation via knowledge, a convenient infrastructure is strongly required for generating science and technology. Devoting attention to entrepreneurship and training and fostering the students who have the essential abilities and skills for creating a suitable business unit, is one of the duties of each university. New expectations necessitate that universities in the development trend by way of entrepreneurship, play a prominent role. Since, higher education has an important role in training and fostering the specialist human resource in the society, attention to the academic entrepreneurship help to develop this issue better. The higher education, relying on its core mission (training and researching) be expected to help the path where exploit and apply the created capabilities and also to cause the development in the society. In this term, the higher education play an essential role to expanse and extent the entrepreneurial concepts by establishing the entrepreneurship universities. Therefore, it is necessary to constitute and establish the entrepreneurship university to solve the problems and improve the development trend. The entrepreneurial courses follow the objectives such as: informing, creating culture, entrepreneurial morality, technical knowledge, entrepreneurial skills transferring, preparing the audiences or researching, job creation, business establishing and its preservation. According to the vision 1404 of Islamic republic of Iran in which the society has to include the advanced knowledge in the field of technology and science generation and also economic growth. In this essay, we investigate the entrepreneurship concepts, entrepreneurship university characteristics, entrepreneurship organizations values, entrepreneurship education process, meanwhile paying attention to that fact which the university can play an essential role in entrepreneurs training by education, culture and science. At the end, we present some suggestion and some solution for obstacles, emphasizing on the vision.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneur university, higher education, university

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Authors: Hugh Taylor

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Industry analysts project that edge computing will be generating tens of billions in revenue in coming years. It’s not clear, however, if this will actually happen, and who, if anyone, will make it happen. Edge computing is seen as a critical success factor in industries ranging from telecom, enterprise IT and co-location. However, will any of these industries actually step up to make edge computing into a viable technology business? This paper looks at why the edge seems to be in a chasm, on the edge of realization, so to speak, but failing to coalesce into a coherent technology category like the cloud—and how the segment’s divergent industry players can come together to build a viable business at the edge.

Keywords: edge computing, multi-edge strategies, edge data centers, edge cloud

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Authors: Márcia Aparecida Teixeira

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Sports, in particular football, boosts considerably the financial market of a certain locality, be it city or even a country. The financial transactions involving this medium stand out from other existing businesses, such as small industries. Strategically, social networks are inserted in this sporting environment, in order to promote and attract new fans of this modality. The present study analyzes the use of social networks in Sports Marketing with a focus on football. For the object of this study, it was chosen a specific club, the Club Atlético Mineiro, a Brazilian club of great national notoriety. The social networks on focus will be: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It will be analyzed the content and frequency of the posts, reception of the target public in relation to the content made available and its feedback.

Keywords: social network, sport, strategy, marketing

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Authors: Omari W. Keeles

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Attention to social class and race processes could illuminate within- group differences in Black students' experiences that help explain variation in adjustment. Of interest is how social class relates to development of intragroup connections with other Black students on campus in ways that promote or inhibit well-being. The present study’s findings suggest that students from lower class backgrounds may be more restrictive or limited in opportunities around their intragroup friendship networks than more affluent students. Furthermore, Black social relationship networks were related to positive mental health adjustment important to healthy psychological functioning and development.

Keywords: black students, social class, homophily, psychological adjustment

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Authors: Christine L. Cole

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Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often experience social-communication difficulties that negatively impact their social interactions with typical peers. However, unlike other age and disability groups, there is little intervention research to inform best practice for these students. One evidence-based strategy for younger students with ASD is peer-mediated intervention (PMI). PMI may be particularly promising for use with adolescents, as peers are readily available and natural experts for encouraging authentic high school conversations. This paper provides a review of previous research that evaluated the use of PMI to improve the social-communication skills of students with ASD. Specific intervention features associated with positive student outcomes are identified and recommendations for future research are provided. Adolescents with ASD are targeted due to the critical importance of social conversation at the high school level.

Keywords: autism, peer-mediation, social communication, adolescents

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Authors: Thi Thu Van Nguyen

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In South Korea, Confucianism has not only played a crucial position in Korean traditional culture but also deeply rooted in people’s mind. Confucianism bears a special emphasis on the traditional family pattern characterized by paternalism. Therefore, non-paternity families are barely recognized and unwed mothers are faced with numerous prejudices in their life. Prejudice to unwed mothers in Korea is believed to stem from social discourses against lone motherhood which is the way how people look and talk about unwed mothers and from the early time these social discourses have big impacts on their daily lives. However, after the 1990s, along with the rapid transformation of family pattern and support from social welfare organizations, unwed mothers have gradually got to escape from the social prejudice then established themselves as a new family form. This study is aimed at researching social discourses on lone motherhood in Korea and the process of resistance, adaptation and negotiation of unwed mothers in three different stages: the antenatal, postnatal stages and social inclusion. The anthropological method is employed. Twenty single young mothers of the Korean Unwed Mothers Families' Association were engaged in the author’s detailed interviews. The study’s frame analysis is based on the theoretical framework on social discourses on lone motherhood by Simon Duncan and Rosalind Edwards (1999). This study is an effort to comprehend and investigate the difficulties experienced by unwed mothers living in negative social discourses and the way they overcome the difficulties.

Keywords: unwed mothers, gender, social discourses, social prejudice, Confucianism

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Authors: Simon J. Wilde, David M. Herold, Michael J. Bryant

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Social media networks have become the hotbed for advertising activities, due mainly to their increasing consumer/user base, and secondly, owing to the ability of marketers to accurately measure ad exposure and consumer-based insights on such networks. More than half of the world’s population (4.8 billion) now uses social media (60%), with 150 million new users having come online within the last 12 months (to June 2022). As the use of social media networks by users grows, key business strategies used for interacting with these potential customers have matured, especially social media advertising. Unlike other traditional media outlets, social media advertising is highly interactive and digital channel-specific. Social media advertisements are clearly targetable, providing marketers with an extremely powerful marketing tool. Yet despite the measurable benefits afforded to businesses engaged in social media advertising, recent controversies (such as the relationship between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica in 2018) have only heightened the role trust and privacy play within these social media networks. The purpose of this exploratory paper is to investigate the extent to which social media users trust social media advertising. Understanding this relationship will fundamentally assist marketers in better understanding social media interactions and their implications for society. Using a web-based quantitative survey instrument, survey participants were recruited via a reputable online panel survey site. Respondents to the survey represented social media users from all states and territories within Australia. Completed responses were received from a total of 258 social media users. Survey respondents represented all core age demographic groupings, including Gen Z/Millennials (18-45 years = 60.5% of respondents) and Gen X/Boomers (46-66+ years = 39.5% of respondents). An adapted ADTRUST scale, using a 20 item 7-point Likert scale, measured trust in social media advertising. The ADTRUST scale has been shown to be a valid measure of trust in advertising within traditional different media, such as broadcast media and print media, and more recently, the Internet (as a broader platform). The adapted scale was validated through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), resulting in a three-factor solution. These three factors were named reliability, usefulness and affect, and the willingness to rely on. Factor scores (weighted measures) were then calculated for these factors. Factor scores are estimates of the scores survey participants would have received on each of the factors had they been measured directly, with the following results recorded (Reliability = 4.68/7; Usefulness and Affect = 4.53/7; and Willingness to Rely On = 3.94/7). Further statistical analysis (independent samples t-test) determined the difference in factor scores between the factors when age (Gen Z/Millennials vs. Gen X/Boomers) was utilised as the independent, categorical variable. The results showed the difference in mean scores across all three factors to be statistically significant (p<0.05) for these two core age groupings: Gen Z/Millennials Reliability = 4.90/7 vs Gen X/Boomers Reliability = 4.34/7; Gen Z/Millennials Usefulness and Affect = 4.85/7 vs Gen X/Boomers Usefulness and Affect = 4.05/7; and Gen Z/Millennials Willingness to Rely On = 4.53/7 vs Gen X/Boomers Willingness to Rely On = 3.03/7. The results clearly indicate that older social media users lack trust in the quality of information conveyed in social media ads, when compared to younger, more social media-savvy consumers. This is especially evident with respect to Factor 3 (Willingness to Rely On), whose underlying variables reflect one’s behavioural intent to act based on the information conveyed in advertising. These findings can be useful to marketers, advertisers, and brand managers in that the results highlight a critical need to design ‘authentic’ advertisements on social media sites to better connect with these older users, in an attempt to foster positive behavioural responses from within this large demographic group – whose engagement with social media sites continues to increase year on year.

Keywords: social media advertising, trust, older consumers, online

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Authors: Bhawat Chiamjinnawat

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The agri-food market transformation has implied market growth for the fruit industry in Thailand. This article focuses on analysis of farmer competence and farm resources which affect market strategies used by fruit farmers in Chanthaburi province of Thailand. The survey data were collected through the use of face-to-face interviews with structured questionnaires. This study identified 14 drivers related to farmer competence and farm resources of which some had significant effect on the decision to use either high-value markets or traditional markets. The results suggest that farmers who used high-value markets were better educated and they had longer experience and larger sized business. Identifying the important factors that match with the market transformation provides policy with opportunities to support the fruit farmers to increase their market power. Policies that promote business expansion of agricultural cooperatives and knowledge sharing among farmers are recommended to reduce limitations due to limited knowledge, low experience, and small business sizes.

Keywords: farmer competence, farm resources, fruit industry, high-value markets, Thailand

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Authors: Armijos-Orellana Ana, González-Calle María, Maldonado-Matute Juan, Guerrero-Maxi Pedro

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Nowadays, the digital economy represents a fundamental element to guarantee economic and social development, whose importance increased significantly with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite the benefits it offers, it can also be detrimental to those developing countries characterized by a wide digital divide. It is for this reason that the objective of this research was to identify and describe the main characteristics, benefits, and obstacles of the digital economy for Latin American countries. Through a bibliographic review, using the analytical-synthetic method in the period 1995-2021, it was determined that the digital economy could give way to structural changes, reduce inequality, and promote processes of social inclusion, as well as promote the construction and participatory development of organizational structures and institutional capacities in Latin American countries. However, the results showed that the digital economy is still incipient in the region and at least three factors are needed to establish it: joint work between academia, the business sector and the State, greater emphasis on learning and application of digital transformation and the creation of policies that encourage the creation of digital organizations.

Keywords: developing countries, digital divide, digital economy, digital literacy, digital transformation

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Authors: Jeremiah Madzimure

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In order to stay competitive in business and improve performance, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) need to make use of business networking and logistics integration. Strategic networking and logistics integration in business companies have become critical as they allow supplier partnering, exchange of vital information/ access to valuable resources allowing innovation, gaining access to additional resources, sharing risks and costs which is required for enhancing company performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of strategic networks and logistics integration on company performance: the case of small and medium enterprises in South Africa. A quantitative research design was adopted in this study, and 137 SMEs owners and managers completed and returned the survey questionnaire. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted using the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS), version 24.0 to assess psychometric properties of the measurement scales. Path modelling techniques were used to test the proposed hypothesis. Three research hypotheses were postulated. The results indicate that strategic networks had a positive and significant influence on logistics integration and company performance. As well logistics integration had a strong positive and significant influence on company performance. This study provides a useful model for analysing the relationship between strategic networks and logistics integration on company performance. Moreover, the findings of the study provide useful insights into how SMEs should benefit from business networking and logistics integration so as to improve their performance. The implications of the study are discussed, and finally, limitations and recommendations are indicated.

Keywords: strategic networking, logistics integration, company performance, SMEs

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Authors: Asmaa Sokrat, Aykut Karaman

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Public and private spaces are major components of the morphology of the city. This research aims to study the interactions between public and private domains in terms of urban space in Casablanca. The research focuses on a general vision of a socio-spatial issue. It plans to identify the public, private, and transition (semi-public, semi-private) spaces as the constituent of the urban space. Moreover, the study investigates the link between public and private spaces with the social dimensions. Additionally, the research argues that the public space is a place of social interaction; as a reflection, this interaction is the intersection between urban space and social connectedness. Besides, social interaction can be the key to distinguishing between the public and private spheres. The methodological approach of the research is based on the literature review and field study. The article is targeting a case study on the old Medina of Casablanca, from daily use of the public and private spaces, the urban tissue, and the urban space types. In conclusion, the research exhibits that a public space could influence the privacy of the residents of a local urban area; thus, this privacy is inverted on the social interaction. This social interaction is the link between the urban space and social connectedness. Hence, this equation affects the typology of the private space.

Keywords: public sphere, private sphere, social connectedness, old Medina of Casablanca

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Authors: Anahita Farhang Ghahfarokhi, Alessandro Berti, Wil M.P. van der Aalst

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Process mining provides ways to analyze business processes. Common process mining techniques consider the process as a whole. However, in real-life business processes, different behaviors exist that make the overall process too complex to interpret. Process comparison is a branch of process mining that isolates different behaviors of the process from each other by using process cubes. Process cubes organize event data using different dimensions. Each cell contains a set of events that can be used as an input to apply process mining techniques. Existing work on process cubes assume single case notions. However, in real processes, several case notions (e.g., order, item, package, etc.) are intertwined. Object-centric process mining is a new branch of process mining addressing multiple case notions in a process. To make a bridge between object-centric process mining and process comparison, we propose a process cube framework, which supports process cube operations such as slice and dice on object-centric event logs. To facilitate the comparison, the framework is integrated with several object-centric process discovery approaches.

Keywords: multidimensional process mining, mMulti-perspective business processes, OLAP, process cubes, process discovery, process mining

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Authors: Richa Grover, Rahul Grover, V. Balaji Rao, Kavish Kejriwal

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Selection of suppliers is a crucial problem in the supply chain management. On top of that, sustainable supplier selection is the biggest challenge for the organizations. Environment protection and social problems have been of concern to society in recent years, and the traditional supplier selection does not consider about this factor; therefore, this research work focuses on introducing sustainable criteria into the structure of supplier selection criteria. Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) is the management and administration of material, information, and money flows, as well as coordination among business along the supply chain. All three dimensions - economic, environmental, and social - of sustainable development needs to be taken care of. Purpose of this research is to maximize supply chain profitability, maximize social wellbeing of supply chain and minimize environmental impacts. Problem statement is selection of suppliers in a sustainable supply chain network by ranking the suppliers against sustainable criteria identified. The aim of this research is twofold: To find out what are the sustainable parameters that can be applied to the supply chain, and to determine how these parameters can effectively be used in supplier selection. Multicriteria decision making tools will be used to rank both criteria and suppliers. AHP Analysis will be used to find out ratings for the criteria identified. It is a technique used for efficient decision making. TOPSIS will be used to find out rating for suppliers and then ranking them. TOPSIS is a MCDM problem solving method which is based on the principle that the chosen option should have the maximum distance from the negative ideal solution (NIS) and the minimum distance from the ideal solution.

Keywords: sustainable supply chain management, sustainable criteria, MCDM tools, AHP analysis, TOPSIS method

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Lorryn Williams

Abstract:

This study will explore how the introduction of the for-profit social enterprise model affects the real lives of the individuals and communities that this model aims to help in South Africa. The congruence between organisational need construction and the real needs of beneficiaries, and whether the adoption of a profit driven model, such as social entrepreneurship, supports or discards these needs is key to answering the former question. By making use of qualitative methods, the study aims to collect empirical evidence that either supports the social entrepreneurship approach when compared to other programs such as vocational training programs or rejects it as less beneficial. It is the objective of this research to provide an answer to the question of whether the social enterprise model of conducting charity leaves the beneficiaries of non-profit organisations in a generally better or worse off position. The study will specifically explore the underlying assumptions the social entrepreneurship model makes, since the assumptions made concerning the uplifting effects it has on its beneficiaries may produce either real or assumed change for beneficiaries. The meaning of social cohesion and social capital for these organisations, the construction of beneficiary dependence and independence, the consideration of formal and informal economies beneficiaries engage in, and the extent to which sustainability is used as a brand, will be investigated. Through engaging the relevant literature, experts in the field of non-profit donorship and need implementation, organisations who have both adopted social enterprise programs and not, and most importantly, the beneficiaries themselves, it will be possible to provide answers to questions this study aims to answer.

Keywords: social enterprise, beneficiaries, profit driven model, non-profit organizations

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Dimitrios J. Dimitriou, Maria F. Sartzetaki, Simoni K. Lintzerakou

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Air transport links markets and individuals, promoting social and economic development. The review of management direction towards social responsibility and especially for the enhancement of passengers with autism is the key objective of this paper. According to a top-down approach, the key dimensions that affect the basic principles and directions of airport enterprises management towards social responsibility for the case of passengers with autism are presented. Conventional wisdom is to present actions undertaken in improving accessibility for special population groups and highlight the social dimension in the management of transport hubs. The target is to focus on transport hubs serving special groups of passengers such as passengers with autism and highlight good practices and motivate transport infrastructure management authorities and decision makers to promote the social footprint of transport. The highlights and key findings are essential for managers and decision makers to support actions and plans towards management of airport enterprises towards social responsibility, focusing on the case of passengers traveling with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Keywords: social responsibility, special groups, airport enterprises, AUTISM

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Panagiotis I. Mallios, Vassilis S. Moustakis

Abstract:

The research reported herein presents a conceptual model that explores the relationship between social media factors and entrepreneurial intention, with a focus on the Greek startup ecosystem. The significance of the study is that social media have gained importance in explaining the entrepreneurial process, and through them, nascent and potential entrepreneurs seem to get inspired and motivated to initiate their businesses. The research methodology employed in this study included a qualitative research approach, utilizing in-depth interviews with a sample of 15 startup entrepreneurs providing valuable retrospective information. The data collected were analyzed using the content analysis method. The major findings of the study are that social media factors such as usefulness, influence, and credibility have a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention. We also found that social media can be a powerful tool for entrepreneurs to access resources, knowledge and networks that can help them in their venture creation. Overall, this research contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by uncovering the relationship between social media factors and entrepreneurial intention and has implications for entrepreneurial education, policymakers, and official partners, highlighting the potential of social media to enhance the startup ecosystem.

Keywords: entrepreneurial intention, social media, start up ecosystem, entrepreneurship

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: Ferdi Sönmez, Başak Buluz

Abstract:

Agility in Knowledge Management (AKM) tries to capture agility requirements and their respective answers within the framework of knowledge and learning for organizations. Since it is rather a new construct, it is difficult to claim that it has been sufficiently discussed and analyzed in practical and theoretical realms. Like the term ‘agile learning’, it is also commonly addressed in the software development and information technology fields and across the related areas where those technologies can be applied. The organizational perspective towards AKM, seems to need some more time to become scholarly mature. Nevertheless, in the literature one can come across some implicit usages of this term occasionally. This research is aimed to explore the conceptual background of agility in KM, re-conceptualize it and extend it to business applications with a special focus on e-business.

Keywords: knowledge management, agility requirements, agility, knowledge

Procedia PDF Downloads 264