Search results for: financial firms

Authors: Naziema Begum Jappie

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Leadership and entrepreneurship in higher education have become critical components in navigating the evolving landscape of academia in the 21st century. This abstract explores the multifaceted relationship between leadership and entrepreneurship within the realm of higher education, emphasizing their roles in fostering innovation and sustainability. Higher education institutions, often characterized as slow-moving and resistant to change, are facing unprecedented challenges. Globalization, rapid technological advancements, changing student demographics, and financial constraints necessitate a reimagining of traditional models. Leadership in higher education must embrace entrepreneurial thinking to effectively address these challenges. Entrepreneurship in higher education involves cultivating a culture of innovation, risk-taking, and adaptability. Visionary leaders who promote entrepreneurship within their institutions empower faculty and staff to think creatively, seek new opportunities, and engage with external partners. These entrepreneurial efforts lead to the development of novel programs, research initiatives, and sustainable revenue streams. Innovation in curriculum and pedagogy is a central aspect of leadership and entrepreneurship in higher education. Forward-thinking leaders encourage faculty to experiment with teaching methods and technology, fostering a dynamic learning environment that prepares students for an ever-changing job market. Entrepreneurial leadership also facilitates the creation of interdisciplinary programs that address emerging fields and societal challenges. Collaboration is key to entrepreneurship in higher education. Leaders must establish partnerships with industry, government, and non-profit organizations to enhance research opportunities, secure funding, and provide real-world experiences for students. Entrepreneurial leaders leverage their institutions' resources to build networks that extend beyond campus boundaries, strengthening their positions in the global knowledge economy. Financial sustainability is a pressing concern for higher education institutions. Entrepreneurial leadership involves diversifying revenue streams through innovative fundraising campaigns, partnerships, and alternative educational models. Leaders who embrace entrepreneurship are better equipped to navigate budget constraints and ensure the long-term viability of their institutions. In conclusion, leadership and entrepreneurship are intertwined elements essential to the continued relevance and success of higher education institutions. Visionary leaders who champion entrepreneurship foster innovation, enhance the student experience, and secure the financial future of their institutions. As academia continues to evolve, leadership and entrepreneurship will remain indispensable tools in shaping the future of higher education. This abstract underscores the importance of these concepts and their potential to drive positive change within the higher education landscape.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, higher education, innovation, leadership

Procedia PDF Downloads 68

Authors: Mehrnoosh Askarizadeh

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Agile manufacturing concept was first coined by Iacocca institute in 1991 as a new manufacturing paradigm in order to provide and ensure competitiveness in the emerging global manufacturing order. Afterward, a considerable number of studies have been conducted in this area. Reviewing these studies reveals that they mostly focus on agile manufacturing drivers, definition and characteristics but few of them propose practical solutions to achieve it. Agile manufacturing is recommended as a successful paradigm after lean for the 21st manufacturing firms. This competitive concept has been developed in response to the continuously changes and uncertainties in today’s business environment. In order to become an agile competitor, a manufacturing firm should focus on enriching its agility capabilities. These agility capabilities can be categorized into seven groups: proactiveness, customer focus, responsiveness, quickness, flexibility, basic competence and partnership. A manufacturing firm which is aiming at achieving agility should first develop its own appropriate agility strategy. This strategy prioritizes required agility capabilities.

Keywords: agile manufacturing, product architecture, customer focus, responsiveness, quickness, flexibility, basic competence

Procedia PDF Downloads 515

Authors: Joyly Jill Apud

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Corruption is an all-encompassing issue worldwide. Many attempts have been done to address such cases especially by the government through increasing transparency. The Philippine government increased the mechanism of transparency by opening to public its financial transactions through Full Disclosure Policy – mandating all local governments to post in their websites all financial transactions (Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project, 2011). For transparency to be fully realized, the challenge lies in creating a mechanism where the constituents are encouraged to engage as social auditors. In line of the said challenge, the study focused in Davao City, Philippines measuring the respondent’s awareness, access and utilization of Full Disclosure Policy (FDP). Particularly, this study determined the significant difference on the awareness, access and utilization of respondents when grouped according to sector and the significant relationship between respondents’ awareness and in the access and utilization of FDP reports. The study used descriptive-correlation, Mean, Anova and Pearson R as statistical treatment. The 120 respondents are from the different sectors of Davao City. These are the Academe, Youth, LGUs, NGOs, Business, and Church groups. The awareness of the respondents was measured in three main categories: Existence of the Policy, Content of the Policy and the Manner of Publication. Access and Utilization of the FDP reports is divided into three: Budget Reports, Procurement Reports and Special Purpose Fund Reports. Results showed that the respondents are moderately aware of the Policy. Though it manifested that the respondents are aware of the disclosure, they are unaware of the Full Disclosure Policy and Full Disclosure Policy Portal. Moreover, the respondents seldom access and utilize all the FDP reports. Further results revealed that there is a significant difference in the awareness and the access and utilization of FDP when grouped according to sector. Moreover, significant relationship in the awareness and the access and utilization of the FDP is evident. It showed that the higher the awareness on FDP, the higher the level of access and utilization on the FDP reports.

Keywords: corruption, e-governance, budget transparency, participation

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: Stephen Wheat

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Institutional mobile application governance and distribution processes are essential to mobile app innovation. The absence of effective processes poses a significant barrier to the development and adoption of mobile apps for use within a research enterprise and also impedes the translational science of applying research apps in clinical and engineering settings. To accelerate mobile app innovation and adoption, Emory University and Emory Healthcare implemented a three-pronged strategy including. I) Mobile app review and distribution policies and processes. II) Mobile app management infrastructure and mobile app foundation components. III) A strategic sourcing strategy based on preferred mobile app development firms. The results have been an increase from five to 56 mobile apps in the pipeline over three years; increased engagement from technology transfer, legal counsel, compliance, and information security; articulation of a coordinated mobile app strategy; and allocation of more institutional resources toward specific mobile technology and mobile application goals.

Keywords: mobile app management, governance, distribution, information security

Procedia PDF Downloads 299

Authors: E. Kissi, V. K. Acheamfour, J. J. Gyimah, T. Adjei-Kumi

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Factoring accounts receivable is widely accepted as an alternative financing source and utilized in almost every industry that sells business-to-business or business-to-government. However, its patronage in the construction industry is very limited as some barriers hinder its application in the construction industry. This study aims at assessing the barriers to the use of factoring accounts receivables in the Ghanaian construction industry. The study adopted the sequential exploratory research method where structured and unstructured questionnaires were conveniently distributed to D1K1 and D2K2 construction firms in Ghana. Using the one-sample t-test and Kendall’s Coefficient of concordance data was analyzed. The most severe challenge concluded is the high cost of factoring patronage. Other critical challenges identified were low knowledge on factoring processes, inadequate access to information on factoring, and high risks involved in factoring. Hence, it is recommended that contractors should be made aware of the prospects of factoring of accounts receivables in the construction industry. This study serves as basis for further rigorous research into factoring of accounts receivables in the industry.

Keywords: barriers, contractors, factoring accounts receivables, Ghanaian, perception

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Ibrahim Halil Korkmaz, Eren Özceylan, Cihan Çetinkaya

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Logistics function has great potential for increasing sustainable competitive advantage, profitability, productivity, customer satisfaction and decreasing costs in all sectors. The performance of logistics sector, which has such great influence on the overall performance of the economy, attracts more attention of both researchers and sector representatives day by day. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of research and development expenditures which spent by enterprises operating in the transportation and storage sectors on Turkey’s logistic performance index (LPI). To do so, research and development investment expenditure among the years 2009-2015 of Turkish transportation and storage firms data from the Turkish Statistical Institute and Turkeys country points in the World Bank logistics performance index in the same years data were examined. As the result of the parametric evaluation, it is seen that the research and development expenditures made have a positive effect on the logistic performance of Turkey.

Keywords: logistics performance index, R&D investments, transportation, storage, Turkey

Procedia PDF Downloads 322

Authors: Alexandru-Ion Marinescu

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There exist a plethora of methods in the scientific literature which tackle the well-established task of credit score evaluation. In its most abstract form, a credit scoring algorithm takes as input several credit applicant properties, such as age, marital status, employment status, loan duration, etc. and must output a binary response variable (i.e. “GOOD” or “BAD”) stating whether the client is susceptible to payment return delays. Data imbalance is a common occurrence among financial institution databases, with the majority being classified as “GOOD” clients (clients that respect the loan return calendar) alongside a small percentage of “BAD” clients. But it is the “BAD” clients we are interested in since accurately predicting their behavior is crucial in preventing unwanted loss for loan providers. We add to this whole context the constraint that the algorithm must yield an actual, tractable mathematical formula, which is friendlier towards financial analysts. To this end, we have turned to genetic algorithms and genetic programming, aiming to evolve actual mathematical expressions using specially tailored mutation and crossover operators. As far as data representation is concerned, we employ a very flexible mechanism – LINQ expression trees, readily available in the C# programming language, enabling us to construct executable pieces of code at runtime. As the title implies, they model trees, with intermediate nodes being operators (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or mathematical functions (sin, cos, abs, round, etc.) and leaf nodes storing either constants or variables. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the client properties and the formula variables. The mutation and crossover operators work on a flattened version of the tree, obtained via a pre-order traversal. A consequence of our chosen technique is that we can identify and discard client properties which do not take part in the final score evaluation, effectively acting as a dimensionality reduction scheme. We compare ourselves with state of the art approaches, such as support vector machines, Bayesian networks, and extreme learning machines, to name a few. The data sets we benchmark against amount to a total of 8, of which we mention the well-known Australian credit and German credit data sets, and the performance indicators are the following: percentage correctly classified, area under curve, partial Gini index, H-measure, Brier score and Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, respectively. Finally, we obtain encouraging results, which, although placing us in the lower half of the hierarchy, drive us to further refine the algorithm.

Keywords: expression trees, financial credit scoring, genetic algorithm, genetic programming, symbolic evolution

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Authors: Svetlana Bialkova, Marnix van Gisbergen

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Advanced Virtual Reality (VR) technologies offer compelling multisensory and interactive experiences applicable in various fields from education to entertainment. However, serious VR applications within the financial sector are scarce, and managing ‘real’ business services with(in) VR is a challenge inviting further investigation. The current research addresses this challenge, by exploring the key parameters influencing the VR business power and the development of appropriate VR applications in real financial business. We conducted profound investigation of both B2B and B2C needs, and how these could be met. In three studies, we have approached experts from leading international banks (finance to computer specialists), and their (potential) customers. Study 1 included focus group discussions with experts. First, participants could experience different VR devices such as Samsung Gear VR, then a structured discussion was held. The outcomes are analyzed and summarized in a portfolio. Study 2 further used the portfolio analyzer to profile the management of real business services with(in) VR. Again experts participated, where first being introduced with Samsung Gear, then experiencing it and being interviewed. Based on the outcomes, a survey was developed to interview (potential) customers and test ideas created (Study 3). The results suggest that developing proper system architectures to connect people and to connect devices is crucial for building up powerful business with(in) VR. From one side, connecting devices, e.g., pairing mobile Head Mounted Displays for VR with smart-phones and/or wearable technologies would be appropriate way “to have” customers anywhere, anytime with a brand and/or business. Developing VR Apps, providing detailed real time visualization of performance and infrastructure types could enable 3D VR navigation, 3D contents viewing, but also being opportunity for connecting people in collaborative platforms. The outcomes of the current research are summarized in a model which could be applied to unlock the real business power of VR.

Keywords: business power, B2B, B2C, VR applications

Procedia PDF Downloads 289

Authors: Farheen Akram

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Research and Development (R&D) is the most crucial element of the firm’s survival in a competitive business environment. R&D is a long-term investment; therefore, executives having the power to make the investment decisions may be pessimistic when their compensation is closely linked with short-term firm performance. Thus, the current study investigates the impact of board composition and executives’ compensation (cash or short-term benefits and LTIs) on R&D spending using a sample of 85 S&P/100 firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in 2017. SmartPLS (v.3.2.7) was used to evaluate the proposed model of current research. The empirical findings of this study indicate that board composition has a significant and positive effect on R&D spending. While, as expected, executive cash compensation has negative and Long-Term-Incentives (LTIs) has a positive impact on R&D spending. Based on current findings, the study suggested that myopic behavior of CEOs and top management towards long-term value creation investment like R&D can be controlled by using long-term compensation rewards.

Keywords: cash compensation, LTIs, board composition, R&D spending

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Authors: Maryam Goodarzi, Mahdieh Sheikhi, Mehdi Goodarzi

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This study intends to offer an appropriate strategy development framework for a telecommunication firm (as a case study) which works on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects, development of telecommunication networks, and maintenance of local networks, according to its dominant condition. In this approach, first, the objectives were set and the mission was defined. Then, the capability was assessed by SWOT matrix. Using SPACE matrix, the strategy of the company was determined. The strategic direction is set and an appropriate and superior strategy was developed and offered employing QSPM matrix. The theoretical framework or conceptual model of the present study first involves 4 stages of framework development and then from stage 3 (assessing capability) onward, a strategic management model by Fred R. David. In this respect, the tools and methods offered in the framework are appropriate for all kinds of organizations, particularly small firms, and help strategists identify, evaluate, and select strategies.

Keywords: strategy formulation, firm mission, strategic direction, space diagram, quantitative strategic planning matrix, SWOT matrix

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Authors: Amber Dhoot, Tarush Gupta, Andrea Gurr, William Jenkins, Sandro Pietrunti, Alexis Tang

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has driven pharmacovigilance towards a new paradigm. Nowadays, more people than ever before are recognising and reporting adverse reactions from medications, treatments, and vaccines. In the modern era, with over 3.8 billion users, social media has become the most accessible medium for people to voice their opinions and so provides an opportunity to engage with more patient-centric and accessible pharmacovigilance. However, the pharmaceutical industry has been slow to incorporate social media into its modern pharmacovigilance strategy. This project aims to make social media a more effective tool in pharmacovigilance, and so reduce drug costs, improve drug safety and improve patient outcomes. This will be achieved by firstly uncovering and categorising the barriers facing the widespread adoption of social media in pharmacovigilance. Following this, the potential opportunities of social media will be explored. We will then propose realistic, practical recommendations to make social media a more effective tool for pharmacovigilance. Methodology: A comprehensive systematic literature review was conducted to produce a categorised summary of these barriers. This was followed by conducting 11 semi-structured interviews with pharmacovigilance experts to confirm the literature review findings whilst also exploring the unpublished and real-life challenges faced by those in the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, a survey of the general public (n = 112) ascertained public knowledge, perception, and opinion regarding the use of their social media data for pharmacovigilance purposes. This project stands out by offering perspectives from the public and pharmaceutical industry that fill the research gaps identified in the literature review. Results: Our results gave rise to several key analysis points. Firstly, inadequacies of current Natural Language Processing algorithms hinder effective pharmacovigilance data extraction from social media, and where data extraction is possible, there are significant questions over its quality. Social media also contains a variety of biases towards common drugs, mild adverse drug reactions, and the younger generation. Additionally, outdated regulations for social media pharmacovigilance do not align with new, modern General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), creating ethical ambiguity about data privacy and level of access. This leads to an underlying mindset of avoidance within the pharmaceutical industry, as firms are disincentivised by the legal, financial, and reputational risks associated with breaking ambiguous regulations. Conclusion: Our project uncovered several barriers that prevent effective pharmacovigilance on social media. As such, social media should be used to complement traditional sources of pharmacovigilance rather than as a sole source of pharmacovigilance data. However, this project adds further value by proposing five practical recommendations that improve the effectiveness of social media pharmacovigilance. These include: prioritising health-orientated social media; improving technical capabilities through investment and strategic partnerships; setting clear regulatory guidelines using multi-stakeholder processes; creating an adverse drug reaction reporting interface inbuilt into social media platforms; and, finally, developing educational campaigns to raise awareness of the use of social media in pharmacovigilance. Implementation of these recommendations would speed up the efficient, ethical, and systematic adoption of social media in pharmacovigilance.

Keywords: adverse drug reaction, drug safety, pharmacovigilance, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Tengqin Han

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Delinquency has been a crucial factor in economics throughout the years. Commonly seen in credit card and mortgage, it played one of the crucial roles in causing the most recent financial crisis in 2008. In each case, a delinquency is a sign of the loaner being unable to pay off the debt, and thus may cause a lost of property in the end. Individually, one case of delinquency seems unimportant compared to the entire credit system. China, as an emerging economic entity, the national strength and economic strength has grown rapidly, and the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate has remained as high as 8% in the past decades. However, potential risks exist behind the appearance of prosperity. Among the risks, the credit system is the most significant one. Due to long term and a large amount of balance of the mortgage, it is critical to monitor the risk during the performance period. In this project, about 300,000 mortgage account data are analyzed in order to develop a predictive model to predict the probability of delinquency. Through univariate analysis, the data is cleaned up, and through bivariate analysis, the variables with strong predictive power are detected. The project is divided into two parts. In the first part, the analysis data of 2005 are split into 2 parts, 60% for model development, and 40% for in-time model validation. The KS of model development is 31, and the KS for in-time validation is 31, indicating the model is stable. In addition, the model is further validation by out-of-time validation, which uses 40% of 2006 data, and KS is 33. This indicates the model is still stable and robust. In the second part, the model is improved by the addition of macroeconomic economic indexes, including GDP, consumer price index, unemployment rate, inflation rate, etc. The data of 2005 to 2010 is used for model development and validation. Compared with the base model (without microeconomic variables), KS is increased from 41 to 44, indicating that the macroeconomic variables can be used to improve the separation power of the model, and make the prediction more accurate.

Keywords: delinquency, mortgage, model development, model validation

Procedia PDF Downloads 228

Authors: Abrar Al-Hasan

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Web 2.0 has significantly increased the amount of information available to users not only about firms and their offerings, but also about the activities of other individuals in their networks and markets. It is widely acknowledged that this increased availability of ‘social’ information, particularly about other individuals, is likely to influence a user’s behavior and choices. However, there are very few systematic studies of how such increased information transparency on the behavior of other users in a focal users’ network influences a focal users’ behavior in the emerging marketplace of online language learning. This study seeks to examine the value and impact of ‘social activities’ – wherein, a user sees and interacts with the learning activities of her peers – on her language learning efficiency. An online experiment in a peer-to-peer language marketplace was conducted to compare the learning efficiency of users with ‘social’ information versus users with no ‘social’ information. The results of this study highlight the impact and importance of ‘social’ information within the language learning context. The study concludes by exploring how these insights may inspire new developments in online education.

Keywords: e-Learning, language learning marketplace, peer-to-peer, social network

Procedia PDF Downloads 385

Authors: Sam Solaimani, Jack A. A. van der Veen, Mehdi Latifi

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Considering the increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) business market, innovation is the name of the game in contemporary business. Innovation is not solely created within the organization itself; its 'network environment' appears to be equally important for innovation. There are, at least, two streams of literature that emphasize the idea of using the extended organization to foster innovation capability, namely, Supply Chain Collaboration (SCC) (also rooted in the Lean philosophy) and Open Innovation (OI). Remarkably, these two concepts are still considered as being totally different in the sense that these appear in different streams of literature and applying different concepts in pursuing the same purposes. This paper explores the commonalities between the two concepts in order to conceptually further our understanding of how OI can effectively be applied in Supply Chain networks. Drawing on available literature in OI, SCC and Lean, the paper concludes with five principles that help firms to contextualize the implementation of OI to the peculiar setting of SC. Theoretically, the present paper aims at contributing to the relatively under-researched theme of Supply Chain Innovation. More in practical terms, the paper provides OI and SCC communities with a workable know-how to seize on and sustain OI initiatives.

Keywords: lean philosophy, open innovation, supply chain collaboration, supply chain management

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Authors: Adeolu O. Dairo

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Getting the consumer marketing strategy right is a crucial and complex task for firms with a large customer base such as mobile operators in a competitive mobile market. While empirical studies have made efforts to identify key constructs, no geospatial model has been developed to comprehensively assess the viability and interdependency of ground realities regarding the customer, competition, channel and the network quality of mobile operators. With this research, a geo-analytic framework is proposed for strategy formulation and allocation for mobile operators. Firstly, a fuzzy analytic network using a self-organizing feature map clustering technique based on inputs from managers and literature, which depicts the interrelationships amongst ground realities is developed. The model is tested with a mobile operator in the Nigeria mobile market. As a result, a customer-centric geospatial and visualization solution is developed. This provides a consolidated and integrated insight that serves as a transparent, logical and practical guide for strategic, tactical and operational decision making.

Keywords: geospatial, geo-analytics, self-organizing map, customer-centric

Procedia PDF Downloads 183

Authors: Mark Lokanan

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The paper analyzes the processing of complaints against investment brokers and dealer members through the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) from 2008 to 2017. IIROC is the self-regulatory organization (SRO) that is responsible for policing investment dealers and brokerage firms that trade in Canada’s securities market. Data from the study came from IIROC's enforcement annual reports for the years examined. The case processing is evaluated base on the misconduct funnel that was originally designed for street crime and applies to the enforcement of investment fraud. The misconduct funnel is used as a framework to examine IIROC’s claim that it brought in more complaints (funnel in) than government regulators and shows how these complaints are funneled out and funneled away as they are processed through IIROC’s enforcement system. The results indicate that IIROC is ineffective in disciplining its members and is unable to handle the more serious quasi-criminal and improper sales practices offenses. It is hard not to see the results of the paper being used by the legislator in Ottawa to show the importance of a federal securities regulatory agency such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States.

Keywords: investment fraud, securities regulation, compliance, enforcement

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Ashkan Zakaryazad, Ekrem Duman

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A typical classification technique ranks the instances in a data set according to the likelihood of belonging to one (positive) class. A credit card (CC) fraud detection model ranks the transactions in terms of probability of being fraud. In fact, this approach is often criticized, because firms do not care about fraud probability but about the profitability or costliness of detecting a fraudulent transaction. The key contribution in this study is to focus on the profit maximization in the model building step. The artificial neural network proposed in this study works based on profit maximization instead of minimizing the error of prediction. Moreover, some studies have shown that the back propagation algorithm, similar to other gradient–based algorithms, usually gets trapped in local optima and swarm-based algorithms are more successful in this respect. In this study, we train our profit maximization ANN using the Migrating Birds optimization (MBO) which is introduced to literature recently.

Keywords: neural network, profit-based neural network, sum of squared errors (SSE), MBO, gradient descent

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Authors: D. Naranchimeg, G. Ulziisaikhan

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Student dropout problem has not been recently investigated within the Mongolian higher education. A student dropping out is a personal decision, but it may cause unemployment and other social problems including low quality of life because students who are not completed a degree cannot find better-paid jobs. The research aims to determine percentage of at-risk students, and understand reasons for dropouts and to find a way to predict. The study based on the students of the Mongolian National University of Education including its Arkhangai branch school, National University of Mongolia, Mongolian University of Life Sciences, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Mongolian National University of Medical Science, Ikh Zasag International University, and Dornod University. We conducted the paper survey by method of random sampling and have surveyed about 100 students per university. The margin of error - 4 %, confidence level -90%, and sample size was 846, but we excluded 56 students from this study. Causes for exclusion were missing data on the questionnaire. The survey has totally 17 questions, 4 of which was demographic questions. The survey shows that 1.4% of the students always thought to dropout whereas 61.8% of them thought sometimes. Also, results of the research suggest that students’ dropouts from university do not have relationships with their sex, marital and social status, and peer and faculty climate, whereas it slightly depends on their chosen specialization. Finally, the paper presents the reasons for dropping out provided by the students. The main two reasons for dropouts are personal reasons related with choosing wrong study program, not liking the course they had chosen (50.38%), and financial difficulties (42.66%). These findings reveal the importance of early prevention of dropout where possible, combined with increased attention to high school students in choosing right for them study program, and targeted financial support for those who are at risk.

Keywords: at risk students, dropout, faculty climate, Mongolian universities, peer climate

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Authors: Jirarat Teeravaraprug, Tarathorn Podcharathitikull

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Nowadays, Ministry of Industry has given an attention to develop Eco-industrial towns in Thailand. Eco-industrial towns are a way of demonstrating the application of industrial ecology and are subjects of increased interest as government, business and society. This concept of Eco-industrial town is quite new in Thailand. It is used as a way of achieving more sustainable industrial development. However, many firms or organizations have misunderstood the concept and treated with suspicion. The planning and development of Eco-industrial towns is a significant challenge for the developers and public agencies. This research then gives an attempt to determine current problems of being Eco-Industrial towns and determine success factors for developing Eco-Industrial towns in Thailand. The research starts with giving knowledge about Eco-industrial towns to stakeholders and conducting public hearing in order to acquire the problems of being Eco-industrial towns. Then, factors effecting the development of Eco-Industrial town are collected. The obtained factors are analyzed by using the concept of IOC. Then, the remained factors are categorized and structured based on the concept of AHP. A questionnaire is constructed and distributed to the experts who are involved in the Eco-industrial town project. The result shows that the most significant success criterion is management teams of industrial parks or groups and the second most significant goes to governmental policies.

Keywords: AHP, Eco-Industrial town, success factors, Thailand

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Authors: Seyedmohammad Mousavian, Hanlu Fan, Quingliang Tang

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Climate change is emerging as a severe threat to our society, so businesses are expected to take actions to mitigate carbon emissions. However, the actions to be taken depend on managers’ perceptions of climate change risks. Yet, there is scant research on this issue, and understanding of the determinants of corporate perceptions of climate change is extremely limited. The purpose of this study is to close this gap by examining the relationship between perceptions of climate risk and firm-level and country-level factors. In this study, climate change risk captures physical, regulatory, and other risks, and we use data from European companies that participated in CDP from 2010 to 2017. This study reveals those perceptions of climate change risk are significantly positively associated with the environmental, social, and governance score, firm size, and membership in a carbon-intensive sector. In addition, we find that managers in firms operating in a geographic area that is sensitive to the consequences of global warming are more likely to perceive and formally recognize carbon-related risks in their CDP reports.

Keywords: carbon actions, CDP, climate change risk, risk perception

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Authors: Muhammad Naveed

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In this paper, flood issues in Gujranwala and Rawalpindi divisions are discussed as a primary importance as these zones are affected continuously from flooding in recent years, provincial variability of the issue, introduce status of the continuous administration measures, their adequacy and future needs in flood administration are secured. Flood issues in these zones are exhibited by Chenab River Basin, Jhelum Rivers Basin. Some unique problems, related to floods in these divisions is lack of major dams on Chenab and Jhelum rivers and also mismanagement of rivers and canal water like dam break stream, and water signing in Tal zones, are additionally mentioned. There are major Nalaas in these regions like Nalaa Lai of Rawalpindi and Nalaa Daik, Nalaa Palkhu, Nalaa Aik of Gujranwala are major cause of floods in these regions other than rivers. Proper management of these Nalaas and moving of nearby population well in time could reduce impacts from flood in these regions. Progress of different flood administration measures, both auxiliary and non-basic, are discussed. Likewise, future needs to accomplish proficient and fruitful flood management measures in Pakistan are additionally brought up. In this paper, we describe different hard and soft engineering techniques to overcome flood situations in these zones as these zones are more vulnerable due to lack of management in canal and river water. Effective management and use of hard and soft techniques are need of time in coming future for controlling greater flooding in flood risk zones to overcome or minimize people’s death as well as agricultural and financial resources as flood and other natural disasters are a major drawback in the economic prosperity of the country.

Keywords: flood management, rivers, major dams, agricultural and financial loss, future management and control

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Authors: Zineb Jibraili, Said Ouhadi, Jorge Arana

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Introduction: Organizational performance is recognized by some theorists as one-dimensional concept, and by others as multidimensional. This concept, which is already difficult to apply in traditional companies, is even harder to identify, to measure and to manage when voluntary organizations are concerned, essentially because of the complexity of that form of organizations such as sport clubs who are characterized by the multiple goals and multiple constituencies. Indeed, the new culture of professionalization and modernization around organizational performance emerges new pressures from the state, sponsors, members and other stakeholders which have required these sport organizations to become more performance oriented, or to build their capacity in order to better manage their organizational performance. The evaluation of performance can be made by evaluating the input (e.g. available resources), throughput (e.g. processing of the input) and output (e.g. goals achieved) of the organization. In non-profit organizations (NPOs), questions of performance have become increasingly important in the world of practice. To our knowledge, most of studies used the same methods to evaluate the performance in NPSOs, but no recent study has proposed a club-specific model. Based on a review of the studies that specifically addressed the organizational performance (and effectiveness) of NPSOs at operational level, the present paper aims to provide a multidimensional framework in order to understand, analyse and measure organizational performance of sport clubs. This paper combines all dimensions founded in literature and chooses the most suited of them to our model that we will develop in Moroccan sport clubs case. Method: We propose to implicate our unified model of evaluating organizational performance that takes into account all the limitations found in the literature. On a sample of Moroccan sport clubs ‘Football, Basketball, Handball and Volleyball’, for this purpose we use a qualitative study. The sample of our study comprises data from sport clubs (football, basketball, handball, volleyball) participating on the first division of the professional football league over the period from 2011 to 2016. Each football club had to meet some specific criteria in order to be included in the sample: 1. Each club must have full financial data published in their annual financial statements, audited by an independent chartered accountant. 2. Each club must have sufficient data. Regarding their sport and financial performance. 3. Each club must have participated at least once in the 1st division of the professional football league. Result: The study showed that the dimensions that constitute the model exist in the field with some small modifications. The correlations between the different dimensions are positive. Discussion: The aim of this study is to test the unified model emerged from earlier and narrower approaches for Moroccan case. Using the input-throughput-output model for the sketch of efficiency, it was possible to identify and define five dimensions of organizational effectiveness applied to this field of study.

Keywords: organisational performance, model multidimensional, evaluation organizational performance, sport clubs

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Authors: Timothy Whitehill

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This paper presents an innovative chat-based focus group method for collecting qualitative data to construct a cause-and-effect analysis in business research. This method was developed in response to the research and data collection challenges faced by the Covid-19 outbreak in the United Kingdom during 2020-21. This paper discusses the methodological approaches and builds a contemporary argument for its effectiveness in exploring cause-and-effect relationships in the context of focus group research, systems thinking and problem structuring methods. The pilot for this method was conducted between October 2020 and March 2021 and collected more than 7,000 words of chat-based data which was used to construct a consensus drawn cause-and-effect analysis. This method was developed in support of an ongoing Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) thesis, which is using Design Science Research methodology to operationalize organisational resilience in UK construction sector firms.

Keywords: cause-and-effect analysis, focus group research, problem structuring methods, qualitative research, systems thinking

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Authors: Yassir Mahmood, Nadia Ehsan

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In current research stream, empirical work regarding knowledge and motivation management along their dimensions is sparse. This study partially filled this void by investigating the influence of knowledge management (tacit and explicit) and motivation management (intrinsic and extrinsic) on firm performance with the mediating effects of innovative performance. Based on the quantitative research method, data were collected through questionnaire from 284 employees working in 18 different firms across the citrus industry located in Sargodha region (Pakistan). The proposed relationships were tested through regression analysis while mediation relations were analyzed through Barron and Kenny (1986) technique. The results suggested that knowledge management (KM) and motivation management (MM) have significant positive impacts on innovative performance (IP). In addition, the role of IP as full mediator between KM and firm performance (FP) is confirmed. Also, IP proved to be a partial mediator between MM and FP. From the managerial perspective, the findings of the study are vital as some of the important constituents of FP have been highlighted. The study produced important underpinnings for managers. In last, implications for policymakers along with future research directions are discussed.

Keywords: innovative performance, firm performance, knowledge management, motivation management, Sargodha

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Authors: Sarah Mueller-Saegebrecht, André Brendler

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Business model innovation (BMI) as an intentional change of an existing business model (BM) or the design of a new BM is essential to a firm's development in dynamic markets. The relevance of BMI is also evident in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in which start-ups, in particular, are affected by limited access to resources. However, first studies also show that they react faster to the pandemic than established firms. A strategy to successfully handle such threatening dynamic changes represents BMI. Entrepreneurship literature shows how and when firms should utilize BMI in times of crisis and which barriers one can expect during the BMI process. Nevertheless, research merging BMI barriers and crises is still underexplored. Specifically, further knowledge about antecedents and the effect of moderators on the BMI process is necessary for advancing BMI research. The addressed research gap of this study is two-folded: First, foundations to the subject on how different crises impact BM change intention exist, yet their analysis lacks the inclusion of barriers. Especially, entrepreneurship literature lacks knowledge about the individual perception of BMI barriers, which is essential to predict managerial reactions. Moreover, internal BMI barriers have been the focal point of current research, while external BMI barriers remain virtually understudied. Second, to date, BMI research is based on qualitative methodologies. Thus, a lack of quantitative work can specify and confirm these qualitative findings. By focusing on the crisis context, this study contributes to BMI literature by offering a first quantitative attempt to embed BMI barriers into a structural equation model. It measures managers' perception of BMI development and implementation barriers in the BMI process, asking the following research question: How does a manager's perception of BMI barriers influence BMI development and implementation in times of crisis? Two distinct research streams in economic literature explain how individuals react when perceiving a threat. "Prospect Theory" claims that managers demonstrate risk-seeking tendencies when facing a potential loss, and opposing "Threat-Rigidity Theory" suggests that managers demonstrate risk-averse behavior when facing a potential loss. This study quantitively tests which theory can best predict managers' BM reaction to a perceived crisis. Out of three in-depth interviews in the German chemical industry, 60 past BMIs were identified. The participating start-up managers gave insights into their start-up's strategic and operational functioning. After, each interviewee described crises that had already affected their BM. The participants explained how they conducted BMI to overcome these crises, which development and implementation barriers they faced, and how severe they perceived them, assessed on a 5-point Likert scale. In contrast to current research, results reveal that a higher perceived threat level of a crisis harms BM experimentation. Managers seem to conduct less BMI in times of crisis, whereby BMI development barriers dampen this relation. The structural equation model unveils a mediating role of BMI implementation barriers on the link between the intention to change a BM and the concrete BMI implementation. In conclusion, this study confirms the threat-rigidity theory.

Keywords: barrier perception, business model innovation, business model innovation barriers, crises, prospect theory, start-ups, structural equation model, threat-rigidity theory

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Authors: Pradeep Kulshrestha, Maulana Ayoub Ali

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The concept of financial inclusion has been tabled in the whole world where practitioners, academicians, policy makers and economists are working hard to look for the best possible opportunities in order to enable the whole society to be in the banking cycle. The Islamic banking system is considered to be one of the said opportunities. Countries like the United Kingdom, United States of America, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the whole of the United Arab Emirates and many African countries have accommodated the aspect of Islamic banking in the conventional banking system as one of the financial inclusion strategies. This paper tries to analyse the current state of affairs of the Islamic Banking system in Tanzania in order to understand the improvement of the provision of Islamic banking products and services in the said country. The paper discusses the historical background of the banking system in Tanzania, the level of penetration of banking products and services and the coming of the Islamic banking system in the country. Furthermore, the paper discusses banking regulatory bodies, legal instruments governing banking operations as well as number of legal challenges facing Islamic banking operations in the country. Following a critical literature review, the paper discovered that there is no legal instrument which talks about the introduction and provision of Islamic banking system in Tanzania. Furthermore, the Islamic banking system was considered as a banking product which is absolutely incorrect because Islamic banking is considered to be as a banking system of its own. In addition to that, it has been discovered that lack of a proper regulatory system and legal instruments to harmonize the conventional and Islamic banking systems has resulted in the closure of one Islamic window in the country, which in the end affects the credibility of the newly introduced banking system. In its conclusive remarks, the paper suggests that Tanzania should work on all legal challenges affecting the smooth operations of the Islamic banking system. This can be in a way of adopting various Islamic banking legal models which are used in countries like Malaysia and others, or a borrowing legal harmonization process which has been adopted by the UK, Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya.

Keywords: Islamic banking, Islamic windows, regulations, banks

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Authors: Sophia Anastasiou, Cosmas Nathanailides, Fotini Kakali, Panagiotis Logothetis, Gregorios Kanlis

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The method and rearing conditions of aquaculture may very between different regions and aquaculture sites. Globally, the Aquaculture industry faces a challenge to develop aquaculture methods which safeguard the economic viability of the company, the welfare of farmed fish and final product quality and sustainable development of aquaculture. Marine fish farms in Greece operate in different locations and farmed fish are exposed to a variety of rearing conditions. This paper investigates the variability of product quality and the financial performance of different marine fish farms operating in West Greece. Production parameters of gilthead sea bream fish farm such as feeding regimes, mortalities, fish densities were used to calculate the economic efficiency of six different aquaculture sites from West Greece. Samples of farmed sea bream were collected and lipid content, microbial load and filleting yield of the samples were used as quality criteria. The results indicate that Lipid content, filleting yield and microbial load of fish originating from different fish farms varied significantly with improved quality exhibited in fish farms which exhibited improved Feed conversion rates and lower mortalities. Changes in feeding management practices such as feed quality and feeding regimes have a significant impact on the financial performance of sea bass farms. Fish farms which exhibited improved feeding conversion rates also exhibited increased profitability. Improvements in the FCR explained about 13.4 % of the difference in profitability of the different aquaculture sites. Lower mortality and higher growth rates were also exhibited by the fish farms which exhibited improved FCR. It is concluded that best feeding management practices resulted in improved product quality and profitability.

Keywords: fish quality, aquaculture management, feeding management, profitability

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Authors: Mustapha Yakubu, Ahmed Usman, Hashim Ambursa

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This paper presents the findings of a research which sought to investigate techniques used to improve cost and time control of construction projects management practice in Nigeria. However, there is limited research on issues surrounding the practical usage of these techniques. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to construction experts through a survey conducted on the 100 construction organisations and 50 construction consultancy firms in the Nigeria aimed at identifying common project cost and time control practices and factors inhibiting effective project control in practice. The study reveals that despite the vast application of control techniques a high proportion of respondents still experienced cost and time overruns on a significant proportion of their projects. Analysis of the survey results concluded that more effort should be geared at the management of the identified top project control inhibiting factors. This paper has outlined some measures for mitigating these inhibiting factors so that the outcome of project time and cost control can be improved in practice.

Keywords: construction project, cost control, Nigeria, time control

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Authors: Lobna Hafez, Eman Elakkad

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Sustainability is no longer a choice for firms. To achieve sustainable supply chain, all three dimensions of sustainability should be considered. Unlike the economic and environmental aspects, social sustainability has been rarely given attention. The problem surrounding social sustainability and employees’ welfare in Egypt is complex and remains unsolved. The aim of this study is to qualitatively assess the current level of application of social sustainability in the retailing sector in Egypt through using the social sustainability indicators identified in the literature. The purpose of this investigation is to gain knowledge about the complexity of the system involved. A case study is conducted on one of the largest retailers in Egypt. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with managers and employees to determine the level of application and identify the major obstacles affecting the social sustainability in the retailing context. The work developed gives insights about the details and complexities of the application of social sustainability in developing countries, from the retailing perspective. The outcomes of this study will help managers to understand the enablers of social sustainability and will direct them to methods of sound implementation.

Keywords: developing countries, Egyptian retailing sector, sustainability, social sustainability

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Authors: Potjana Chunthanom

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The Thai labor market experiences increasing challenges due to disruptive technologies and demographic shifts, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, there is a widening gap between the skills that firms seek and the skills that employees possess. This study aims to examine the incidence of vertical and horizontal mismatches and their impact on wages in Thailand before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using data from the third quarter of 2018 to 2021 from Thailand's National Labor Force Survey. This paper applies three methods: ordinary least squares (OLS), pooled ordinary least squares (Pooled OLS), and counterfactual decomposition. The findings suggest that the incidence of overeducation and field-of-study mismatch continues to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to the two previous years. In contrast, there is a notable decline in the percentage of undereducated workers during the same period. Additionally, overeducated workers earn wage premiums, whereas undereducated and horizontally mismatched workers face wage penalties. The result also indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has significant negative (positive) effects on overeducated (undereducated) workers.

Keywords: COVID-19, horizontal mismatch, overeducation, undereducation

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