Search results for: handsome financial profit

Authors: B. Orser, A. Riding, Y. Li

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To inform government about how gender gaps in SME ( small and medium-sized enterprise) contracting might be redressed, the research question was: What are the key obstacles to, and response strategies for, increasing the engagement of women business owners among SME suppliers to the government of Canada? Thirty-five interviews with senior policymakers, supplier diversity organization executives, and expert witnesses to the Canadian House of Commons, Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Qualitative data were conducted and analysed using N’Vivo 11 software. High order response categories included: (a) SME risk mitigation strategies, (b) SME procurement program design, and (c) performance measures. Primary obstacles cited were government red tape and long and complicated requests for proposals (RFPs). The majority of 'common' complaints occur when SMEs have questions about the federal procurement process. Witness responses included use of outcome-based rather than prescriptive procurement practices, more agile procurement, simplified RFPs, making payment within 30 days a procurement priority. Risk mitigation strategies included provision of procurement officers to assess risks and opportunities for businesses and development of more agile procurement procedures and processes. Recommendations to enhance program design included: improved definitional consistency of qualifiers and selection criteria, better co-ordination across agencies; clarification about how SME suppliers benefit from federal contracting; goal setting; specification of categories that are most suitable for women-owned businesses; and, increasing primary contractor awareness about the importance of subcontract relationships. Recommendations also included third-party certification of eligible firms and the need to enhance SMEs’ financial literacy to reduce financial errors. Finally, there remains the need for clear and consistent pre-program statistics to establish baselines (by sector, issuing department) performance measures, targets based on percentage of contracts granted, value of contract, percentage of target employee (women, indigenous), and community benefits including hiring local employees. The study advances strategies to enhance federal procurement programs to facilitate socio-economic policy objectives.

Keywords: procurement, small business, policy, women

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Authors: Suprehatin Suprehatin

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Improving the participation of smallholder farmers in horticultural value chains to benefit from the rapidly growing demand for high-value agricultural products is one strategy for raising farm income. However, smallholder farmer participation in Indonesian horticultural value chains is under-researched. To address this knowledge gap, this study aims to describe the current status of horticultural crop adoption in Indonesia and analyze the motivations and dynamics of smallholder farmer participation in horticultural value chains: why some small farmers join these new and potentially profitable chains and continue their participation. This study also examines the characteristics of farmers who adopted and those who did not adopt a new horticultural crop with respect to the household (farmer), farm and institutional characteristics. The analysis was conducted using unique data from a 2013 survey of 960 Indonesian farmers on Java Island that produce a variety of agricultural products. Basic statistical analysis showed relatively low adoption rates (10%) of new horticultural crops amongst 960 selected Indonesian farmers with different decisions made in terms of number and timing of new horticultural crop adoption. Adopters were motivated mainly by higher profit, higher yield, and more cash opportunities. The result also showed that current low rates of horticultural crop adoption are associated with a variety of factors, such as lower levels of education among farmers, resource constraints, lack of information on horticultural crop production and low participation in farmer groups. These findings will be helpful for policymakers when designing policies and programs to promote greater participation of Indonesian smallholder farmers in horticultural value chains. In other words, a revitalisation of agricultural policy beyond staple food is important to seize potential benefits from the ongoing agricultural food market transformation.

Keywords: farmer adoption, high value, horticultural crops, Indonesia

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Authors: Mohamed Zaher Bouaziz

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Our study examines the Ohlson Model, which links a company's market value to its equity and net earnings, in the context of the evolution of the Canadian accounting model, characterized by more extensive use of fair value and a broader measure of performance after IFRS adoption. Our hypothesis is that if equity is reported at its fair value, this valuation is closely linked to market capitalization, so the weight of earnings weakens or even disappears in the Ohlson Model. Drawing on Canada's adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), our results support our hypothesis that equity appears to include most of the relevant information for investors, while earnings have become less important. However, the predictive power of earnings does not disappear.

Keywords: fair value accounting, Ohlson model, IFRS adoption, value-relevance of equity and earnings

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Authors: Renata Kurpiewska-Korbut

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Making an assumption that the use and sharing of data generated in humanitarian action constitute a core function of humanitarian organizations, the paper analyzes the position of the largest Polish humanitarian non-governmental organizations in the humanitarian data ecosystem in Ukraine and their approach to non-personal and personal data management since February of 2022. Both expert interviews and document analysis of non-profit organizations providing a direct response in the Ukrainian crisis context, i.e., the Polish Humanitarian Action, Caritas, Polish Medical Mission, Polish Red Cross, and the Polish Center for International Aid and the applicability of theoretical perspective of contingency theory – with its central point that the context or specific set of conditions determining the way of behavior and the choice of methods of action – help to examine the significance of data complexity and adaptive approach to data management by relief organizations in the humanitarian supply chain network. The purpose of this study is to determine how the existence of well-established and accurate internal procedures and good practices of using and sharing data (including safeguards for sensitive data) by the surveyed organizations with comparable human and technological capabilities are implemented and adjusted to Ukrainian humanitarian settings and data infrastructure. The study also poses a fundamental question of whether this crisis experience will have a determining effect on their future performance. The obtained finding indicate that Polish humanitarian organizations in Ukraine, which have their own unique code of conduct and effective managerial data practices determined by contingencies, have limited influence on improving the situational awareness of other assistance providers in the data ecosystem despite their attempts to undertake interagency work in the area of data sharing.

Keywords: humanitarian data ecosystem, humanitarian data management, polish NGOs, Ukraine

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Authors: Shariffah Dawood

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During the past decade, workplace bullying has attracted increasing attention from researchers internationally as it is reported to be a major social problem and has severe consequences towards the job satisfaction and health of victims and towards the organization. It is characterized by “systematic aggression or violence targeted towards one or more individuals by one individual or by a group, consists of repeated and enduring acts, and the target is or ends up in an inferior position from which it is difficult to defend oneself.” Despite the seriousness of workplace bullying, not all sectors have received the same degree of scholarly attention. Most studies have been undertaken in the public and private sectors, such as, in hospitals, universities, retail industry, local council, and restaurant kitchens. The nonprofit sector has received limited attention despite its significant economic and social role in the society. In order to understand the nature of workplace bullying in non-profit sector, this research explored 29 British nonprofit organizations through surveys and interviews. Despite the nonprofit sector’s emphasis on an egalitarianism ethos, their reputation to be the defenders of the most vulnerable/disadvantaged and the perception that they are protected from such negative behaviors in the workplace, the findings uncovered pertinent factors that make this sector highly vulnerable towards workplace bullying. Overall, the study identifies some organizational factors which need to be addressed in order to curb bullying in this sector: management commitment towards a zero-tolerance bullying policy; management training in areas such as conflict resolution, organizational changes, and maintenance of the commitment of a conscientious workforce. The researcher further recommends that the nonprofit organizations work towards improving relationships with voluntary board members and funding bodies. The researcher will also outline the second phase of the study, which aims to investigate bullying in the nonprofit sector across cultures (the USA, Malaysia and Japan), and implications for the research will be identified.

Keywords: nonprofit sector, workplace bullying, harassment, management, HRM

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Authors: Fahad Y. Al-dawish

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The current trend by a large number of organizations and individuals to use cloud computing. Many consider it a significant shift in the field of computing. Cloud computing are distributed and parallel systems consisting of a collection of interconnected physical and virtual machines. With increasing request and profit of cloud computing infrastructure, diverse computing processes can be executed on cloud environment. Many organizations and individuals around the world depend on the cloud computing environments infrastructure to carry their applications, platform, and infrastructure. One of the major and essential issues in this environment related to allocating incoming tasks to suitable virtual machine (cloud task scheduling). Cloud task scheduling is classified as optimization problem, and there are several meta-heuristic algorithms have been anticipated to solve and optimize this problem. Good task scheduler should execute its scheduling technique on altering environment and the types of incoming task set. In this research project a cloud task scheduling methodology based on ant colony optimization ACO algorithm, we call it ACO-TS Ant Colony Optimization for Task Scheduling has been proposed and compared with different scheduling algorithms (Random, First Come First Serve FCFS, and Fastest Processor to the Largest Task First FPLTF). Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is random optimization search method that will be used for assigning incoming tasks to available virtual machines VMs. The main role of proposed algorithm is to minimizing the makespan of certain tasks set and maximizing resource utilization by balance the load among virtual machines. The proposed scheduling algorithm was evaluated by using Cloudsim toolkit framework. Finally after analyzing and evaluating the performance of experimental results we find that the proposed algorithm ACO-TS perform better than Random, FCFS, and FPLTF algorithms in each of the makespaan and resource utilization.

Keywords: cloud Task scheduling, ant colony optimization (ACO), cloudsim, cloud computing

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Authors: Amina Jibrin Ahmed

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The environment is mankind's natural habitat. Industrial activities over time have taken their toll on it in the form of deterioration and degradation. The petroleum industry is particularly notorious for its negative impact on its host environments. The realization that this poses a threat to sustainability led to the increased awareness and subsequent recognition of the importance of environmental disclosure in financial statements. This paper examines the laws and regulations put in place by the Nigerian Government to mitigate this impact, and the level of compliance by Shell Nigeria, the pioneer and largest oil company in the country. Based on the disclosure made, this paper finds there is indeed a high level of compliance by that company, and voluntary disclosure moreover.

Keywords: environmental accounting, legitimacy theory, environmental impact assessment, environmental disclosure, host communities

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Authors: Suzanne L. Stewart, Sarah J. Ponton, Mikaela D. Gabriel, Roy Strebel, Xinyi Lu

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Indigenous Peoples have faced unique barriers to accessing and receiving culturally safe and appropriate mental health care while also facing daunting rates of mental health diagnoses and comorbidities. Indigenous researchers and clinicians have well established the connection of the current mental health issues in Indigenous communities as a direct result of colonization by way of intergenerational trauma throughout Canada’s colonial history. Such mental health barriers and challenges have become exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, access to mental health, cultural, ceremonial, and community services were severely impacted and restricted; however, it is these same cultural activities and community resources that are key to supporting Indigenous mental health from a traditional and community-based perspective. This research employed a unique combination of a thorough, analytical scoping review of the existent mental health literature of Indigenous mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside narrative interviews employing an oral storytelling tradition methodology with key community informants that provide comprehensive cultural services to the Indigenous community of Toronto, as well as across Canada. These key informant interviews provided a wealth of insights into virtual transitions of Indigenous care and mental health support; intersections of historical underfunding and current financial navigation in technology infrastructure; accessibility and connection with Indigenous youth in remote locations; as well as maintaining community involvement and traditional practices in a current pandemic. Both the scoping review and narrative interviews were meticulously analyzed for overarching narrative themes to best explore the extent of the literature on Indigenous mental health and services during COVID-19; identify gaps in this literature; identify barriers and supports for the Indigenous community, and explore the intersection of community and cultural impacts to mental health. Themes of the scoping review included: Historical Context; Challenges in Culturally-Based Services; and Strengths in Culturally-Based Services. Meta themes across narrative interviews included: Virtual Transitions; Financial Support for Indigenous Services; Health Service Delivery & Wellbeing; and Culture & Community Connection. The results of this scoping review and narrative interviews provide wide application and contribution to the mental health literature, as well as recommendations for policy, service provision, autonomy in Indigenous health and wellbeing, and crucial insights into the present and enduring mental health needs of Indigenous Peoples throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: indigenous community services, indigenous mental health, indigenous scoping review, indigenous peoples and Covid-19

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Authors: Somnath Mukhuti, Prem Kumar Ghosh

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Background and significance of the study Indian stock market has undergone sudden changes after the current China crisis in terms of turnover, market capitalization, share prices, etc. The average returns on equity investment in both markets have more than three and half times after global financial crisis owing to the development of industrial activity, corporate sectors development, enhancement in global consumption, change of global financial association and fewer imports from developed countries. But the economic policies of both the economies are far different, that is to say, where Indian economy maintaining a conservative policy, Chinese economy maintaining an aggressive policy. Besides this, Chinese economy recently lowering its currency for increasing mysterious growth but Indian does not. But on August 24, 2015 Indian stock market and world stock markets were fall down due to the reason of Chinese stock market. Keeping in view of the above, this study seeks to examine the influence of Chinese stock on Indian stock market. Methodology This research work is based on daily time series data obtained from yahoo finance database between 2009 (April 1) to 2015 (September 28). This study is based on two important stock markets, that is, Indian stock market (Bombay Stock Exchange) and Chinese stock market (Shanghai Stock Exchange). In the course of analysis, the daily raw data were converted into natural logarithm for minimizing the problem of heteroskedasticity. While tackling the issue, correlation statistics, ADF and PP unit root test, bivariate cointegration test and causality test were used. Major findings Correlation statistics show that both stock markets are associated positively. Both ADF and PP unit root test results demonstrate that the time series data were not normal and were not stationary at level however stationary at 1st difference. The bivariate cointegration test results indicate that the Indian stock market was associated with Chinese stock market in the long-run. The Granger causality test illustrates there was a unidirectional causality between Indian stock market and Chinese stock market. Concluding statement The empirical results recommend that India’s stock market was not very much dependent on Chinese stock market because of Indian economic conservative policies. Nevertheless, Indian stock market might be sturdy if Indian economic policies are changed slightly and if increases the portfolio investment with Chinese economy. Indian economy might be a third largest economy in 2030 if India increases its portfolio investment and trade relations with both Chinese economy and US economy.

Keywords: Indian stock market, China stock market, bivariate cointegration, causality test

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Authors: Yitian Ren, Liyin Shen, Tao Zhou, Xiao Li

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The past urbanization process in China has brought out series of problems, the Chinese government has then positioned small towns in essential roles for implementing the strategy 'The National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020)'. As the connector and transfer station of cities and countryside, small towns are important force to narrow the gap between urban and rural area, and to achieve the mission of new-type urbanization in China. The sustainable development of small towns plays crucial role because cities are not capable enough to absorb the surplus rural population. Nevertheless, there are various types of barriers hindering the sustainable development of small towns, which led to the limited development of small towns and has presented a bottleneck in Chinese urbanization process. Therefore, this paper makes deep understanding of these barriers, thus effective actions can be taken to address them. And this paper chooses the perspective of Southwest China (refers to Sichuan province, Yunnan province, Guizhou province, Chongqing Municipality City and Tibet Autonomous Region), cause the urbanization rate in Southwest China is far behind the average urbanization level of the nation and the number of small towns accounts for a great proportion in mainland China, also the characteristics of small towns in Southwest China are distinct. This paper investigates the barriers of sustainable development of small towns which located in Southwest China by using the content analysis method, combing with the field work and interviews in sample small towns, then identified and concludes 18 barriers into four dimensions, namely, institutional barriers, economic barriers, social barriers and ecological barriers. Based on the research above, questionnaire survey and data analysis are implemented, thus the key barriers hinder the sustainable development of small towns in Southwest China are identified by using fuzzy set theory, those barriers are, lack of independent financial power, lack of construction land index, financial channels limitation, single industrial structure, topography variety and complexity, which mainly belongs to institutional barriers and economic barriers. In conclusion part, policy suggestions are come up with to improve the politic and institutional environment of small town development, also the market mechanism are supposed to be introduced to the development process of small towns, which can effectively overcome the economic barriers, promote the sustainable development of small towns, accelerate the in-situ urbanization by absorbing peasants in nearby villages, and achieve the mission of new-type urbanization in China from the perspective of people-oriented.

Keywords: barrier analysis, sustainable development, small town, Southwest China

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Authors: Sami Mestiri, Abdeljelil Farhat

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The aim of this current paper is to predict the credit risk of banks in Tunisia, over the period (2000-2005). For this purpose, two methods for the estimation of the logistic regression model with random effects: Penalized Quasi Likelihood (PQL) method and Gibbs Sampler algorithm are applied. By using the information on a sample of 528 Tunisian firms and 26 financial ratios, we show that Bayesian approach improves the quality of model predictions in terms of good classification as well as by the ROC curve result.

Keywords: forecasting, credit risk, Penalized Quasi Likelihood, Gibbs Sampler, logistic regression with random effects, curve ROC

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Authors: Adu Micheal Kwaku, Lamptey Shirley

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Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walpis) is a major food grain legume in Ghana and plays a significant role in consumer diets. Drought in rain-fed crop production is known to cause substantial crop yield reduction due to their negative impacts on plant growth, physiology, and reproduction. There are various ways of reducing the effect of drought or addressing the problem of drought stress, including irrigation, breeding, and mulching. Among these three ways of reducing the effect of drought stress, the cheapest and quickest method is mulching. The broad objective of this project is to determine the influence of mulching on the performance of cowpea. The experiment was conducted at Planting for future garden located at Nyankpala Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS), comprising five treatments (black plastic, rice hull, groundnut hull, dry grass mulch, and control). The treatments were evaluated in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The result shows that black plastic mulch increased soil moisture by 1, 8, 15, and 24% compared to rice hull, groundnut hull, dry grass, and control, respectively. Increased soil moisture translated into black plastic mulch increasing grain yield by 8, 25, 39, and 46% compared to groundnut hull, rice hull, dry grass and control, respectively. However, black plastic mulch increased the cost of production, resulting in decreased net returns compared to the other treatment. This study recommends the use of rice and groundnut hull as mulching material to improve soil moisture, grain yield, and profit of smallholder cowpea farmers and also because they are almost free and available.

Keywords: mulch, plastic mulch, cowpea, growth response

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Authors: Jochen Edmund Kerschenbauer, Roman Salinger, Daniel Strametz

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Insufficient informal communication systems can lead to the first crisis (‘Crisis of Leadership’) for start-ups. Management Control Systems (MCS) are one way for high-technology start-ups to successfully overcome these problems. So far the literature has investigated the incubation of a start-up, but focused less on the post-incubation stage. This paper focuses on the use of MCS in post-incubation and, if failed start-ups agree, on how MCS are used. We conducted 14 semi-structured interviews for this purpose, to obtain our results. The overall conclusion is that the majority of the companies were closed down due to a combination of strategic, operative and financial reasons.

Keywords: closed down, high-technology, incubation, levers of control, management control systems, post-incubation, start-ups

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Authors: Ernest Tambo, Ghislaine Madjou, Jeanne Y. Ngogang, Shenglan Tang, Zhou XiaoNong

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Implementing national to community-based 'One Health' surveillance approach for human, animal and environmental consequences mitigation offers great opportunities and value-added in sustainable development and wellbeing. 'One Health' surveillance approach global partnerships, policy commitment and financial investment are much needed in addressing the evolving threats and epidemics crises mitigation in African countries. The paper provides insights onto how China-Africa health development cooperation in promoting “One Health” surveillance approach in response advocacy and mitigation. China-Africa health development initiatives provide new prospects in guiding and moving forward appropriate and evidence-based advocacy and mitigation management approaches and strategies in attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Early and continuous quality and timely surveillance data collection and coordinated information sharing practices in malaria and other diseases are demonstrated in Comoros, Zanzibar, Ghana and Cameroon. Improvements of variety of access to contextual sources and network of data sharing platforms are needed in guiding evidence-based and tailored detection and response to unusual hazardous events. Moreover, understanding threats and diseases trends, frontline or point of care response delivery is crucial to promote integrated and sustainable targeted local, national “One Health” surveillance and response approach needs implementation. Importantly, operational guidelines are vital in increasing coherent financing and national workforce capacity development mechanisms. Strengthening participatory partnerships, collaboration and monitoring strategies in achieving global health agenda effectiveness in Africa. At the same enhancing surveillance data information streams reporting and dissemination usefulness in informing policies decisions, health systems programming and financial mobilization and prioritized allocation pre, during and post threats and epidemics crises programs strengths and weaknesses. Thus, capitalizing on “One Health” surveillance and response approach advocacy and mitigation implementation is timely in consolidating Africa Union 2063 agenda and Africa renaissance capabilities and expectations.

Keywords: Africa, one health approach, surveillance, response

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Authors: Jill Stephenson, Marie Vaganay, Robert Cameron, Caoimhe McGurk, Neil Hewitt

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Purpose: The key aim of the research was to identify the secondary stressors experienced by businesses affected by single or repeated flooding and to determine to what extent businesses were affected by these stressors, along with any resulting impact on health. Additionally, the research aimed to establish the likelihood of businesses being re-exposed to the secondary stressors through assessing awareness of flood risk, implementation of property protection measures and level of community resilience. Design/methodology/approach: The chosen research method involved the distribution of a questionnaire survey to businesses affected by either single or repeated flood events. The questionnaire included the Impact of Event Scale (a 15-item self-report measure which assesses subjective distress caused by traumatic events). Findings: 55 completed questionnaires were returned by flood impacted businesses. 89% of the businesses had sustained internal flooding while 11% had experienced external flooding. The results established that the key secondary stressors experienced by businesses, in order of priority, were: flood damage, fear of reoccurring flooding, prevention of access to the premise/closure, loss of income, repair works, length of closure and insurance issues. There was a lack of preparedness for potential future floods and consequent vulnerability to the emergence of secondary stressors among flood affected businesses, as flood resistance or flood resilience measures had only been implemented by 11% and 13% respectively. In relation to the psychological repercussions, the Impact of Event scores suggested that potential prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was noted among 8 out of 55 respondents (l5%). Originality/value: The results improve understanding of the enduring repercussions of flood events on businesses, indicating that not only residents may be susceptible to the detrimental health impacts of flood events and single flood events may be just as likely as reoccurring flooding to contribute to ongoing stress. Lack of financial resources is a possible explanation for the lack of implementation of property protection measures among businesses, despite 49% experiencing flooding on multiple occasions. Therefore it is recommended that policymakers should consider potential sources of financial support or grants towards flood defences for flood impacted businesses. Any form of assistance should be made available to businesses at the earliest opportunity as there was no significant association between the time of the last flood event and the likelihood of experiencing PTSD symptoms.

Keywords: flood event, flood resilience, flood resistance, PTSD, secondary stressors

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Authors: Zakir Hossain

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Nowadays reading e-books on laptops, smartphones, and tablets have become a new leisure activity for Vietnamese youth. Since 2011 the copyrighted e-book market began to develop in Vietnam with the participation of five local enterprises. Over the last five years, thousands of e-books were published including the first online early education book series for children from 0 to 6 years old. Research shows that 61% Vietnamese find reading e-books is comfortable, and 45% feel convenient buying books online. More than half of the Vietnamese consider reading online far better than buying printed books, and surprisingly people over age 30 desire reading online while those under 18 prefer reading printed books. Hence with a market of more than 40 million regular internet users including 22 million smartphone users, Vietnam has ample opportunities to develop the e-book market and contribute a great deal to the diversity of the local reading culture which is essential for Building a Lifelong Learning Society, a state ambition of Vietnam by 2020. However, the e-book market in Vietnam is still in its infancy and is growing far too slowly than e-book producers had expected. All five e-book enterprises are facing numerous challenges. While the big profit that e-book technology can bring has been clearly recognised in other countries, e-books in Vietnam only make up less than 1% share of the book market. The objective of the study is to identify the difficulties and barriers to the development of the e-book market in Vietnam through an extensive literature review available in English. The study revealed that illegal e-books due to copyright infringement and an inconvenient payment system to purchase e-books are the major obstacles. The great potential of e-books in Vietnam is a reality but requires government enforcement of copyright protection laws, a new area of focus for the e-book market. Furthermore, Vietnamese readers should change their habits from using free and illegal e-books to develop the e-publishing industry in Vietnam.

Keywords: copyright, e-book, e-book reading, e-publishing, Vietnam

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Authors: Mohammad Iqbal Maiik

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Islamic marketing ethics combines the principle of value maximization with the principles of equity and justice for the welfare of the society. Adherence to the Islamic ethics in the Islamic banking industry can help elevate the standards of both behavior and living of bankers and customers alike. In a rapidly changing marketing environment, the need to be customer-focused has never been as important as it is today. At present where customers are becoming more demanding and increasingly mobile between competing financial providers, being customer-focused is not enough. Islamic banks and more specifically their customer-contact employees (customer relation advisers or officers) need to be perceived by their customers as being Islamic. This study represents an initial step in analyzing the role of Islamic ethical sales behavior as it may be perceived by the customers of Islamic Banks.

Keywords: Islam, ethics, marketing, Islamic banks

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Authors: Jonathan Matyenyika

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In recent years, automobile manufacturers have increasingly produced vehicles equipped with cutting-edge automotive electronic technology to match the fast-paced digital world of today; this has brought about various benefits in different business sectors that make use of these vehicles as a means of turning over a profit. In the logistics industry, vehicles equipped with this technology have proved to be very utilitarian; this paper focuses on the benefits automobile electronic equipped vehicles have in the logistics industry. Automotive vehicle manufacturers have introduced new technological electronic features to their vehicles to enhance and improve the overall performance, efficiency, safety and driver comfort. Some of these features have proved to be beneficial to logistics operators. To start with the introduction of adaptive cruise control in long-distance haulage vehicles, to see how this system benefits the drivers, we carried out research in the form of interviews with long-distance truck drivers with the main question being, what major difference have they experienced since they started to operate vehicles equipped with this technology to which most stated they had noticed that they are less tired and are able to drive longer distances as compared to when they used vehicles not equipped with this system. As a result, they can deliver faster and take on the next assignment, thus improving efficiency and bringing in more monetary return for the logistics company. Secondly, the introduction of electric hybrid technology, this system allows the vehicle to be propelled by electric power stored in batteries located in the vehicle instead of fossil fuel. Consequently, this benefits the logistic company as vehicles become cheaper to run as electricity is more affordable as compared to fossil fuel. The merging of electronic systems in vehicles has proved to be of great benefit, as my research proves that this can benefit the logistics industry in plenty of ways.

Keywords: logistics, manufacturing, hybrid technology, haulage vehicles

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Authors: Zahra A. Al Nasser, Domenico Campa

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This paper investigates board of directors and firms’ ownership structure on non-financial companies listed in Gulf Cooperation council (GCC) countries using data from 2009 to 2013. The overall result of the study is that board size and board meeting have increased over years. Additionally, all combined committee variables have improved as well as audit committee size, audit committee meeting and audit committee experience have improved over the years. Furthermore, Oman is the only country that has not shown any statistically significant change in value of its associated variables.

Keywords: corporate governance, GCC countries, board of directors, ownership structure

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Authors: Soumya Chaturvedi

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Ever since India opened its doors for the world economy to enter, there has not been a single instance of recoil. A consequence of this move by the government of India resulted in India evolving as a consumer-driven market and in order to survive in this era of extreme competition, the corporate houses have employed every possible means to reach out and hit onto the sentiments of the consumers. The most obvious way to ensure a strong perseverance towards the specific product or brand is through celebrity endorsements. In a country like India, whose film industry accounts for the largest sales and output, it is indeed appalling to acknowledge the fact that it lacks an effective mechanism of protection of the commercial exploitation of celebrities’ attributes under the ambit of law. The western half of the globe has very well accepted and recognized the rights of the celebrities to decide upon the quantum of commercial exploitation of their own attributes and earn profit out of the same. However, the eastern half seems to be a little reluctant in accepting and enforcing these views per se. A celebrity has a right to publicity over the traits of his personality which involves voice, autographs, reputation, and style, so on and so forth as it is these attributes that are responsible for huge trade profits concerning the products to which such traits are attributed to. This clearly involves the right of the celebrity to benefit himself by commercially exploiting the same and refraining the unauthorized gain to third parties. The market is making it nearly impossible to proceed further with such weak laws considering the escalating rate of celebrity endorsements in the nation. This paper discusses the lacunae in law per se to identify a right as such by a celebrity over his traits that are potentially under the circle of commercial exploitation and the need of a definite legislation that would ensure a change in the paradigm of the Courts in India. Also, it discusses the only remedy available currently for violation, which is, a suit for passing off by Indian Courts under Trademark and Copyright laws and a comparison of the same with the mechanisms adopted by the legal systems across the globe.

Keywords: celebrity, rights, intellectual property, trademark, copyrights

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Authors: Alon Cohen, Jeffrey Kantor, Shalom Levy

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Technology adoption models are extensively used in the literature to explore drivers and inhibitors affecting the adoption of Computer Assisted Audit Techniques and Tools (CAATTs). Further studies from recent years suggested additional factors that may affect technology adoption by CPA firms. However, the adoption of CAATTs by financial auditors differs from the adoption of technologies in other industries. This is a result of the unique characteristics of the auditing process, which are expressed in the audit risk elements and the risk-based auditing approach, as encoded in the auditing standards. Since these audit risk factors are not part of the existing models that are used to explain technology adoption, these models do not fully correspond to the specific needs and requirements of the auditing domain. The overarching objective of this qualitative research is to fill the gap in the literature, which exists as a result of using generic technology adoption models. Followed by a pretest and based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 16 Israeli CPA firms of different sizes, this study aims to reveal determinants related to audit risk factors that influence the adoption of CAATTs in audits and proposes a new modeling approach for the successful adoption of CAATTs. The findings emphasize several important aspects: (1) while large CPA firms developed their own inner guidelines to assess the audit risk components, other CPA firms do not follow a formal and validated methodology to evaluate these risks; (2) large firms incorporate a variety of CAATTs, including self-developed advanced tools. On the other hand, small and mid-sized CPA firms incorporate standard CAATTs and still need to catch up to better understand what CAATTs can offer and how they can contribute to the quality of the audit; (3) the top management of mid-sized and small CPA firms should be more proactive and updated about CAATTs capabilities and contributions to audits; and (4) All CPA firms consider professionalism as a major challenge that must be constantly managed to ensure an optimal CAATTs operation. The study extends the existing knowledge of CAATTs adoption by looking at it from a risk-based auditing approach. It suggests a new model for CAATTs adoption by incorporating influencing audit risk factors that auditors should examine when considering CAATTs adoption. Since the model can be used in various audited scenarios and supports strategic, risk-based decisions, it maximizes the great potential of CAATTs on the quality of the audits. The results and insights can be useful to CPA firms, internal auditors, CAATTs developers and regulators. Moreover, it may motivate audit standard-setters to issue updated guidelines regarding CAATTs adoption in audits.

Keywords: audit risk, CAATTs, financial auditing, information technology, technology adoption models

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Authors: Ebenezer Amoquandoh, Daniel Bruce Sarpong, Godfred K. Ofosu-Budu, Andreas Fliessbach

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Soil quality is at stake globally, but under tropical conditions, the loss of soil fertility may be existential. The current rates of soil nutrient depletion, erosion and environmental degradation in most of Africa’s farmland urgently require methods for soil fertility restoration through affordable agricultural management techniques. The study assessed the effects of locally available organic resources to improve soil fertility, crop yield and profitability compared to business as usual on farms in the Eastern and Greater Accra regions of Ghana. Apart from this, we analyzed the change of farmers’ perceptions and knowledge upon the experience with the new techniques; the effect of using locally available organic resource on farmers’ yield and determined the factors influencing the profitability of farming. Using the Difference in Mean Score and Proportion to estimate the extent to which farmers’ perceptions, knowledge and practices have changed, the study showed that farmers’ perception, knowledge and practice on the use of locally available organic resources have changed significantly. This paves way for the sustainable use of locally available organic resource for soil fertility improvement. The Propensity Score Matching technique and Endogenous Switching Regression model used showed that using locally available organic resources have the potential to increase crop yield. It was also observed that using the Profit Margin, Net Farm Income and Return on Investment analysis, it is more profitable to use locally available organic resources than other soil fertility amendments techniques studied. The results further showed that socioeconomic, farm characteristics and institutional factors are significant in influencing farmers’ decision to use locally available organic resources and profitability.

Keywords: soil fertility, locally available organic resources, perception, profitability, sustainability

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Authors: Soungwan Kim

Abstract:

This paper discusses an analysis of how the characteristics of resources at vocational rehabilitation facilities for the disabled affect the improvement of independency skills among people with severe disabilities. The analysis results indicate that more internal financial resources and more connections to local communities among network resources had greater effects on improving the independency of people with severe disabilities. Based on this result, this paper presents strategies for mobilizing resources to improve the independency of people with severe disabilities at vocational rehabilitation facilities.

Keywords: vocational rehabilitation facility for people with disabilities, types of resources, independency, network resources

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Authors: Muhammad Abdullahi Mago

Abstract:

Islamic Banking began in Nigeria last three years and the sector has shown the sign of bright future for the sector and the Nigerian economy, within this very short time it is important to know the perception of the customers particularly learned or educated individuals for immediate evaluation and adjustment. This study investigates into the perception, awareness and attitudes of the academicians in the most populous state/place in Nigeria with more than 90% muslims, and the results has shown a relatively low levels results in all the variables of the study.The study recommends aggressive marketing strategy for the Banks operating within the sector.

Keywords: Islamic Banking Products, Islamic Financial Products, academicians, Islamic finance industry, perception, awareness and attitude

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Authors: Protus A. Lumiti, Susan O. Wekesa, Mary Omondi

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Performance is a key pillar to the accomplishment of the goals of all organizations, whether private, public or non- profit. Employees are the intellectual assets of the organization and they are an avenue to the achievement of competitive advantage. An employee welfare service in an organization is vital in fostering employee motivation and improving their productivity. In view of this, the main goal of this research was to determine the relationship between employee welfare practices and the performance of non-governmental organizations in Kenya. The study was guided by four objectives, namely: to establish, determine, evaluate and assess the relationship between employee welfare practices and the performance of non-governmental organizations in Kenya. The study utilized a survey design using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In this study, a purposive, stratified and simple random sampling technique was used to arrive at a sample of 355 respondents who comprised senior managers, middle level managers and operational employees out of the targeted population of 14,283 employees of non-governmental organizations working in Nairobi County. The primary data collection tools were questionnaires supplemented by an interview schedule, while secondary data was obtained from reviewed journals, published books and articles. Data analysis was done using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences Software version 23. The study utilized multiple linear regression and a structural equation model. The findings of the study were that: employee welfare practices had a positive and significant relationship with the performance of Non-governmental organizations in Kenya. In addition, there was also a linear relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable and the study concluded that there was a relationship between the predictor variable and the dependent variable of the study. The study recommended that management of No-governmental organization boards in Kenya should come up with a comprehensive policy document on employee welfare practices in order to enhance the performance of non-governmental organizations in Kenya.

Keywords: employee, economic, performance, welfare

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Authors: Jeffrey M. Byford

Abstract:

The conceptualized theory of decision making on historical events often does not conform to uniform beliefs among students. When presented the opportunity, many students have differing opinions and rationales associated with historical events and outcomes. The intent of this paper was to provide students with the economic, social and political dilemmas associated with the autonomy of East Berlin. Students ranked seven possible actions from the most to least acceptable. In addition, students were required to provide both positive and negative factors for each decision and relative ranking. Results from this activity suggested that while most students chose a financial action towards West Berlin, some students had trouble justifying their actions.

Keywords: content-centered learning, cold war, Berlin, decision-making

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Authors: Tao Peng

Abstract:

This paper presents a holistic model of political economy based on Daoism – the foundational philosophy of classical Chinese epistemology. Daoism is both comprehensive and subtle in its manifestations and applications in all aspects of nature and society. Based on Daoist creation theory of the universe, life theory and five element functioning theory, a holistic model in economics with minimal assumptions and independent of ideology are constructed. Under this framework, different schools of economics, such as neo-liberal, Marxism, and Austrian school, are explored and shed new light on. Economic and financial predictions can be realized in applications to Qi Men Dun Jia. This framework can provide guidelines and inspirations to economic modelling, economic policies formulation and strategy development and guide society towards a more sustainable future.

Keywords: daoism, economics, holistic, philosophy

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Authors: Leja Salciute

Abstract:

Mental health difficulties are one of the reasons for abnormal feeding behaviour. This is especially evident in a crisis situation. Abnormal feeding behaviour occurs when individuals use food as a method to provide relief for these negative emotions. The study aimed to discover an association between emotional regulation, mental health difficulties and disruption in feeding behaviours in the UK in times of crisis. A mixed-methods design was used. Abnormal feeding behaviour was measured using the Binge Eating Disorder Screener-7, SCOFF scale, Crisis impact scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and demographics. The sample comprised 342 participants with a history of excessive overeating. The participants (male= 198, female= 141 and other= 3) came from the general population and they were aged 16 and over. Participants ranged in age from 16 to 89. Findings from the survey concluded that difficulties with emotion regulation were found to be associated with abnormal feeding behaviours. Mental health difficulties correlated significantly with changes in individuals’ lives, such as work or routines. Individuals differed in their abnormal feeding behaviour in terms of their age, that is, younger individuals showed less struggle with their eating patterns while older individuals faced greater struggles with their abnormal feeding behaviour. Emotion regulation significantly influenced abnormal feeding behaviour. Results from qualitative data suggest four common themes that were identified: demonstration of gratitude, negative emotions, disruptions to social life, and financial loss. For example, participants developed and gained an awareness of being grateful for the simple things in life even when participants experienced hardships. The results also suggested that emotional eating acted like a sedative that allowed the participant to run away from their painful reality. Crisis situation negatively affected relationships among participants and induced negativity related to social interaction. Finally, the respondents highlighted that the presence of uncertainty made it hard to plan ahead and look forward to the future. Although respondents experienced negative emotions and financial losses, some of them still managed to allocate time for themselves and enjoy their time off during crisis. However, majority of respondents referred to their inability to control their external circumstances and turned to and relied upon food overconsumption instead. This had a negative effect on their mental health and presented disruptions in feeding behaviour. It was recommended for individuals in times of crisis to seek psychological support in the form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

Keywords: binge eating, maladaptive eating behaviours, mental health, negative emotions in crisis

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Authors: Vaishali Joshi, Pallav Joshi

Abstract:

Environment concern has become an important topic and continues to acquire more popularity in the coming scenario. We all are exposed to messages daily, which encourage us to involve in green behavior. Factors such as Global Warming, Climate change are creating a big buzz amongst the people. Realizing this, many firms/companies are adopting the bright way of making profit along with creating a brand image, by going green. These firms/companies persuade consumers to use purchase eco-friendly products for the benefit of the environment and the society. In such scenario, it becomes very essential for such firms/companies to approach the customers in a better way. In other words, we can say that marketing approach plays a crucial role for such firm/companies. Hence in this research study, we have tried to create a marketing approach for the firms/companies for selling the eco-friendly apparels. We have studied the hypothetical apparel brand who has taken a green initiative of making their products eco-friendly. We have named this hypothetical brand as “Go-Green”. By taking this hypothetical brand we have studied about how this brand can achieve better marketing approach. In particular, we have studied the four types of print advertisements of this brand as follows :(i) print advertisement showing only eco-friendly apparel (ii) print advertisement showing eco-friendly apparel labeled with eco-label (iii) print advertisement showing eco-friendly apparel along with information about the benefit of the featured apparel and (iv) print advertisement showing eco-friendly apparel with both eco-label and information about the benefit of the featured apparel. The conclusion of this research suggest that respondents more positively evaluate the print advertisement of eco-friendly apparel labeled with eco-labels and information about the benefit of the featured apparel, compared by other three print advertisement. Moreover, in this research study, we have studied environment knowledge, as the moderating factor affecting the consumer green purchase behavior.

Keywords: eco-friendly apparel, print advertisement, eco-label, environment knowledge

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Authors: Md. Rezaul Karim, Md. Ashikur Rahman, Dewan Mahmud Mim

Abstract:

Scarcity of potable water as the result of rapid climate change and saltwater intrusion in groundwater has been a major problem in the coastal regions over the world. In equinoctial countries like Bangladesh, where sunlight is available for more than 10 hours a day, Solar Distillation provides a promising sustainable way for safe drinking water supply in coastal poor households with negligible major cost and difficulty of construction and maintenance. In this paper, two passive type solar stills- a Conventional Single Slope Solar still (CSS) and a Pyramid Solar Sill (PSS) is used and relationship is established between distill water output corresponding to four different factors- temperature, solar intensity, relative humidity and wind speed for Gazipur, Bangladesh. Comparison is analyzed between the two different still outputs for nine months period (January- September) and efficiency is calculated. Later a thermal mathematical model is developed and the distilled water output for Khulna, Bangladesh is computed. Again, difference between the output of the two cities- Gazipur and Khulna is demonstrated and finally an economic analysis is prepared. The distillation output has a positive correlation with temperature and solar intensity, inverse relation with relative humidity and wind speed has nugatory consequence. The maximum output of Conventional Solar Still is obtained 3.8 L/m2/day and Pyramid still is 4.3 L/m2/day for Gazipur and almost 15% more efficiency is found for Pyramid still. Productivity in Khulna is found almost 20% more than Gazipur. Based on economic analysis, taking 10 BDT, per liter, the net profit, benefit cost ratio, payback period all indicates that both stills are feasible but pyramid still is more feasible than Conventional Still. Finally, for a 3-4 member family, area of 4 m2 is suggested for Conventional Still and 3m2 for Pyramid Solar Still.

Keywords: solar distillation, household water supply, saline zones, Bangladesh

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