Search results for: small business barriers

Authors: Lien T. H. Tran, David A. Holloway

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Corporate governance practices have changed significantly across the world in the past three decades. Spectacular corporate failures during this period have acted as a catalyst for the development of codes and guidelines that have resulted in the global acceptance of a ‘best practice’ model. This study assesses the relevance of such a ‘one size fits all model’ for the developing nation state of Vietnam. The findings of this analytical paper is that there are three key elements (government, international institutions and the nature of business) that are pertinent and central to corporate governance developments in the country. We also find that the quality of corporate governance in Vietnam is at a medium level when compared to international practices. Vietnam still has a long way to go to construct and embed effective corporate governance policies and practices and promote ethical business behaviours and sound decision making at board level.

Keywords: corporate governance, government, international institutions, public companies, Vietnam

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Authors: Panprae Bunyapukkna

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The purpose of this research is to analyze the process that most of the Thai film industries commonly use in order to find the right cast to play the role. The result proved that most of the low-budget film productions find the cast by asking from the crew’s friends or friend of friend. Therefore, finding the cast in low-budget film productions normally has only few people shown up for the auditions and sometimes either none of them has acting knowledge or their appearances do not match the character. However, since most of the low-budget film productions do not have much ability to find members of the cast, thus some of them still will be selected. On the other hand, most of the high-budget film productions use modeling companies to find the cast for them. However, most of modeling agencies in Thailand seek and select their cast members from the cast’s appearances or talents rather than the knowledge of acting.

Keywords: casting for film, modeling business, acting, film, performing arts, film business

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Authors: Paul W. Murray, Marco Barajas

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Recent changes in supply chains, especially globalization and collaboration, have created new risks for enterprises of all sizes. A variety of complex frameworks, often based on enterprise risk management strategies have been presented under the heading of Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM). The literature on promotes the benefits of a robust SCRM strategy; however, implementing SCRM is difficult and resource demanding for Large Enterprises (LEs), and essentially out of reach for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This research debunks the idea that SCRM is necessary for all enterprises and instead proposes a simple and effective Vendor Selection Template (VST). Empirical testing and a survey of supply chain practitioners provide a measure of validation to the VST. The resulting VSTis a valuable contribution because is easy to use, provides practical results, and is sufficiently flexible to be universally applied to SMEs.

Keywords: multiple regression analysis, supply chain management, risk assessment, vendor selection

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Authors: Jeonghwan Jeon

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Recently, the industry and academia have been planning development through industry/university cooperation (IUC), and the government has been promoting alternative methods to achieve successful IUC. Representatively, business cultivation involves the lead university (regarding IUC), research and development (R&D), company support, professional manpower cultivation, and marketing, etc., and the scale of support expands every year. Research is performed by many academic researchers to achieve IUC and although satisfaction of their results is high, expectations are not being met and study of the main factor is insufficient. Therefore, this research improves on theirs by analysing the main factors influencing their satisfaction. Each factor is analysed by AHP, and portfolio analysis is performed on the importance and current satisfaction level. This will help improve satisfaction of business participants and ensure effective IUC in the future.

Keywords: industry/university cooperation, satisfaction, portfolio analysis, research and development

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Authors: Madeleine Cox

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Objective; analyse patient choices in management of first trimester miscarriage, rates of complications including repeat procedure. Design: all first trimester miscarriages from a tertiary institution on the Gold Coast in a 6 month time frame (July to December 2021) were reviewed, including choice of management, histopathology, any representations or admissions, and potential complications. Results: a total of 224 first trimester miscarriages were identified. Of these, 183 (81%) opted to have surgical management in the first instance. Of the remaining patients, 18 (8%) opted to have medical management, and 28 (12.5%) opted to have expectant management. In total, 33(15%) patients required a repeat treatment for retained products. 1 had medical management for a small volume PROC post suction curette. A significant number of these patients initially opted for medical management but then elected to have shorter follow up than usual and went on to have retained products noted. 5 women who had small volumes of RPOC post medical or surgical management had repeat suction curette, however, had very small volumes of products on scan and on curette and may have had a good result with repeated misoprostol administration. It is important to note that whilst a common procedure, suction curettes are not without risk. 2 women had significant blood loss of 1L and 1.5L. A third women had a uterine perforation, a rare but recognised complication, she went on to require a laparoscopy which identified a small serosal bowel injury which was closed by the colorectal team. Conclusion: Management of first trimester miscarriage should be guided by patient preference. It is important to be able to provide patients with their choice of management, however, it is also important to have a good understanding of the risks of each management choice, chances of repeated procedure, appropriate time frame for follow up. Women who choose to undertake medical or expectant management should be supported through this time, with appropriate time frame between taking misoprostol and repeat scan so that the true effects can be evaluated. Patients returning for scans within 2-3 days are more likely to be booked for further surgery, however, may reflect patients who did not have adequate counselling or simply changed their mind on their preferred management options.

Keywords: miscarriage, gynaecology, obstetrics, first trimester

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Authors: Ulrike Dowie, Ralph Grothmann

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Rational planning decisions are based upon forecasts. Precise forecasting has, therefore, a central role in business. The prediction of customer demand is a prime example. This paper introduces recurrent neural networks to model customer demand and combines the forecast with uncertainty measures to derive decision support of the demand planning department. It identifies and describes the keys to the successful implementation of an AI-based solution: bringing together data with business knowledge, AI methods, and user experience, and applying agile software development practices.

Keywords: agile software development, AI project success factors, deep learning, demand forecasting, forecast uncertainty, neural networks, supply chain management

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Authors: A. Errasti, F. Doffagne, O. Foucrier, S. Kao, A. Meigne, H. Pellae, T. Rouland

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Renewable energy recovery is an important domain of research in past few years in view of protection of our ecosystem. Several industrial companies are setting up widespread recovery systems to exploit wave energy. Most of them have a large size, are implanted near the shores and exploit current flows. However, as oceans represent 70% of Earth surface, a huge space is still unexploited to produce energy. Present analysis focuses on surface small scale wave energy recovery. The principle is exactly the opposite of wheel damper for a car on a road. Instead of maintaining the car body as non-oscillatory as possible by adapted control, a system is designed so that its oscillation amplitude under wave action will be maximized with respect to a boat carrying it in view of differential potential energy recuperation. From parametric analysis of system equations, interesting domains have been selected and expected energy output has been evaluated.

Keywords: small scale wave, potential energy, optimized energy recovery, auto-adaptive system

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Authors: Venugopal Kummamuru

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Corporate Governance (CG) is of utmost importance for running a company ethically. It is essential for the growth and success of the corporation. It is intended to increase the accountability of an organization to the larger context of the business environment. The general principles of CG include and are related to Shareholder recognition, Stakeholder interests, and focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Clear Board responsibilities, Ethical behavior, and Business transparency. Network Marketing Organizations (NMOs) focus on marketing through direct-sales using people who are associated with the organization but are not their employees. This paper tries to study the importance of Ethics and CSR in an NMO and suggest a basic guideline for CG in NMO(s). This paper could be used as a basis or starting point for conducting an in-depth research to understand the difference in CG practices between NMO(s) and other organizations and define a standard set of guidelines for CG practice.

Keywords: corporate governance, corporate responsibility, direct selling, network marketing

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Authors: Sukhbaatar Dorj, Erdenebaatar Altangerel

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As alternative to existing e-government measuring models, here proposed a new customer centric, service oriented, simple approach for measuring countries e-Governments. If successfully implemented, built infrastructure will provide a single e-government index number for countries. Main schema is as follows. Country CIO or equal position government official, at the beginning of each year will provide to United Nations dedicated web site 4 numbers on behalf of own country: 1) Ratio of available online public services, to total number of public services, 2) Ratio of interagency inter ministry online public services to total number of available online public services, 3) Ratio of total number of citizen and business entities served online annually to total number of citizen and business entities served annually online and physically on those services, 4) Simple index for geographical spread of online served citizen and business entities. 4 numbers then combined into one index number by mathematical Average function. In addition to 4 numbers 5th number can be introduced as service quality indicator of online public services. If in ordering of countries index number is equal, 5th criteria will be used. Notice: This approach is for country’s current e-government achievement assessment, not for e-government readiness assessment.

Keywords: countries e-government index, e-government, infrastructure for measuring e-government, measuring e-government

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Authors: Jinming Ma, Tianbing Xia, Janusz Getta

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This paper presents the application of fuzzy set theory to implement of mobile advertisement anti-fraud systems. Mobile anti-fraud is a method aiming to identify mobile advertisement fraudsters. One of the main problems of mobile anti-fraud is the lack of evidence to prove a user to be a fraudster. In this paper, we implement an application by using fuzzy set theory to demonstrate how to detect cheaters. The advantage of our method is that the hardship in detecting fraudsters in small data samples has been avoided. We achieved this by giving each user a suspicious degree showing how likely the user is cheating and decide whether a group of users (like all users of a certain APP) together to be fraudsters according to the average suspicious degree. This makes the process more accurate as the data of a single user is too small to be predictable.

Keywords: mobile internet, advertisement, anti-fraud, fuzzy set theory

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Authors: Amir Farouk Ahmed Ali Hussin

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Social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Ex-Twitter have experienced exponential growth and a remarkable adoption rate in recent years. They give fantastic means of online social interactions and communications with family, friends, and colleagues from around the corner or across the globe, and they have become an important part of daily digital interactions for more than one and a half billion users around the world. The personal information sharing practices that social network providers encourage have led to their success as innovative social interaction platforms. Moreover, these practices have outcome in concerns with respect to privacy and security from different stakeholders. Guiding these privacy and security concerns in social networks is a must for these networks to be sustainable. Real security and privacy tools may not be enough to address existing concerns. Some points should be followed to protect users from the existing risks. In this research, we have checked the various privacy and security issues and concerns pertaining to social media. However, we have classified these privacy and security issues and presented a thorough discussion of the effects of these issues and concerns on the future of the social networks. In addition, we have presented a set of points as precaution measures that users can consider to address these issues.

Keywords: international legal, consultation mix, legal research, small and medium-sized enterprises, strategic International law, strategy alignment, house of laws, deployment, production strategy, legal strategy, business strategy

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Authors: Rudainah Alkhazam, Özlem Yaşar Uğurlu

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Immigrant entrepreneurship arises from the start of entrepreneurial activity by immigrants in the country they relocate to. The future prosperity and stability of the refugee-hosting countries depends on the mutual social and economic benefits between the residents and the refugees. Syrian refugees and workers in host countries necessitate efforts to assist their residents and refugees in meeting their daily needs, contributing lawfully to local and possibly regional economies through trade, and instilling hope in their future. This study investigates the effects of Syrian refugee entrepreneurs on host communities' business sectors, focusing on Turkey. Specifically, we examine entrepreneurship in general and its role in the country's economy. Because Turkey is the most popular resettlement destination for Syrian refugees, this study will shed light on the challenges of successful migrant entrepreneurship in Turkey and their role in the business sector. The research relies on a mixed-method approach which helps identify recurring themes, favorable results, and conflicting results across methods, allowing us to draw accurate conclusions. The study will adopt a quantitative method in collecting numerical data from Syrian refugees in Turkey. The self-administered survey would be translated into Arabic to ensure that the respondents understood the questions and possible replies. The research will use survey questionnaires to gather the majority of the data. These surveys would have closed-ended questions with nominal ratio and Likert scales. The data will be analyzed using linear regression and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to ascertain the role of Syrian entrepreneurs in the business sectors of Turkey. The research will use the findings to make future recommendations. Syrian entrepreneurs, among the migrant entrepreneurs, contribute to the labor market, the majority of whom are young people. This research noted the significant participation of Syrian immigrant women in the entrepreneurship sector. The previous experience of Syrians in the field of trade and running their own business plays a vital role in the success of their business in the host countries. The study shows that Syrian entrepreneurs could integrate effectively into the various Turkish business sectors and could rely on themselves, open and manage their projects, and market them in the Turkish market. Syrian entrepreneurs consider that the investment and labor laws, commercial arrangements, and facilities for obtaining financial resources in Turkey need to be more flexible and available to immigrant entrepreneurs.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, immigration, Syrian, Turkey, refugees, investors, socio-economic benefits, unemployment

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Authors: Korosh Khorshidi, Mohammad Khodadadi

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In this paper, exact close form solution for out of plate free flexural vibration of moderately thick rectangular nanoplates are presented based on nonlocal modified trigonometric shear deformation theory, with assumptions of the Levy's type boundary conditions, for the first time. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of small-scale parameters on the frequency parameters of the moderately thick rectangular nano-plates. To describe the effects of small-scale parameters on vibrations of rectangular nanoplates, the Eringen theory is used. The Levy's type boundary conditions are combination of six different boundary conditions; specifically, two opposite edges are simply supported and any of the other two edges can be simply supported, clamped or free. Governing equations of motion and boundary conditions of the plate are derived by using the Hamilton’s principle. The present analytical solution can be obtained with any required accuracy and can be used as benchmark. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method compared to other methods reported in the literature. Finally, the effect of boundary conditions, aspect ratios, small scale parameter and thickness ratios on nondimensional natural frequency parameters and frequency ratios are examined and discussed in detail.

Keywords: exact solution, nonlocal modified sinusoidal shear deformation theory, out of plane vibration, moderately thick rectangular plate

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Authors: Bahram Fathi, Karim Alizadeh, Azam Mohammadbagheri

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The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of oil price shocks in explaining business cycles in Iran using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium approach. This model incorporates both productivity and oil revenue shocks. The results indicate that productivity shocks are relatively more important to business cycles than oil shocks. The model with two shocks produces different values for volatility, but these values have the same ranking as that of the actual data for most variables. In addition, the actual data are close to the ratio of standard deviations to the output obtained from the model with two shocks. The results indicate that productivity shocks are relatively more important to business cycles than the oil shocks. The model with only a productivity shock produces the most similar figures in term of volatility magnitude to that of the actual data. Next, we use the Impulse Response Functions (IRF) to evaluate the capability of the model. The IRF shows no effect of an oil shock on the capital stocks and on labor hours, which is a feature of the model. When the log-linearized system of equations is solved numerically, investment and labor hours were not found to be functions of the oil shock. This research recommends using different techniques to compare the model’s robustness. One method by which to do this is to have all decision variables as a function of the oil shock by inducing the stationary to the model differently. Another method is to impose a bond adjustment cost. This study intends to fill that gap. To achieve this objective, we derive a DSGE model that allows for the world oil price and productivity shocks. Second, we calibrate the model to the Iran economy. Next, we compare the moments from the theoretical model with both single and multiple shocks with that obtained from the actual data to see the extent to which business cycles in Iran can be explained by total oil revenue shock. Then, we use an impulse response function to evaluate the role of world oil price shocks. Finally, I present implications of the findings and interpretations in accordance with economic theory.

Keywords: oil price, shocks, dynamic stochastic general equilibrium, Iran

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Authors: Milica Lilic, Marina Rosales Martínez

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Academic research cannot be oblivious to social problems and needs, so projects that have the capacity for transformation and impact should have the opportunity to go beyond the University circles and bring benefit to society. Apart from patents and R&D research contracts, this opportunity can be achieved through entrepreneurship as one of the most direct tools to turn knowledge into a tangible product. Thus, as an example of good practices, it is intended to analyze the case of an institutional entrepreneurship program carried out at the University of Seville, aimed at researchers interested in assessing the business opportunity of their research and expanding their knowledge on procedures for the commercialization of technologies used at academic projects. The program is based on three pillars: training, teamwork sessions and networking. The training includes aspects such as product-client fit, technical-scientific and economic-financial feasibility of a spin-off, institutional organization and decision making, public and private fundraising, and making the spin-off visible in the business world (social networks, key contacts, corporate image and ethical principles). On the other hand, the teamwork sessions are guided by a mentor and aimed at identifying research results with potential, clarifying financial needs and procedures to obtain the necessary resources for the consolidation of the spin-off. This part of the program is considered to be crucial in order for the participants to convert their academic findings into a business model. Finally, the networking part is oriented to workshops about the digital transformation of a project, the accurate communication of the product or service a spin-off offers to society and the development of transferable skills necessary for managing a business. This blended program results in the final stage where each team, through an elevator pitch format, presents their research turned into a business model to an experienced jury. The awarded teams get a starting capital for their enterprise and enjoy the opportunity of formally consolidating their spin-off company at the University. Studying the results of the program, it has been shown that many researchers have basic or no knowledge of entrepreneurship skills and different ways to turn their research results into a business model with a direct impact on society. Therefore, the described program has been used as an example to highlight the importance of knowledge transfer at the University and the role that this institution should have in providing the tools to promote entrepreneurship within it. Keeping in mind that the University is defined by three main activities (teaching, research and knowledge transfer), it is safe to conclude that the latter, and the entrepreneurship as an expression of it, is crucial in order for the other two to comply with their purpose.

Keywords: good practice, knowledge transfer, a spin-off company, university

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Authors: Samet Aktaş, Nurtekin Erkmen, Faruk Guven, Halil Taskin

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This study aimed to determine the effects of 3 versus 3 small-sided games (SSG) with different recovery times on soma physiological parameters in soccer players. Twelve soccer players from Regional Amateur League volunteered for this study (mean±SD age, 20.50±2.43 years; height, 177.73±4.13 cm; weight, 70.83±8.38 kg). Subjects were performing soccer training for five days per week. The protocol of the study was approved by the local ethic committee in School of Physical Education and Sport, Selcuk University. The subjects were divided into teams with 3 players according to Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test. The field dimension was 26 m wide and 34 m in length. Subjects performed two times in a random order a series of 3 bouts of 3-a-side SSGs with 3 min and 5 min recovery durations. In SSGs, each set were performed with 6 min duration. The percent of maximal heart rate (% HRmax), blood lactate concentration (LA) and Rated Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale points were collected before the SSGs and at the end of each set. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures. Significant differences were found between %HRmax in before SSG and 1st set, 2nd set, and 3rd set in both SSG with 3 min recovery duration and SSG with 5 min recovery duration (p<0.05). Means of %HRmax in SSG with 3 min recovery duration at both 1st and 2nd sets were significantly higher than SSG with 5 min recovery duration (p<0.05). No significant difference was found between sets of either SSGs in terms of LA (p>0.05). LA in SSG with 3 min recovery duration was higher than SSG with 5 min recovery duration at 2nd sets (p<0.05). RPE in soccer players was not different between SSGs (p>0.05).In conclusion, this study demonstrates that exercise intensity in SSG with 3 min recovery durations is higher than SSG with 5 min recovery durations.

Keywords: small-sided games, soccer, heart rate, lactate

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Authors: Jagannath Singh, Durga Prasad Mohapatra

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Software refactoring is very essential for maintaining the software quality. It is an usual practice that we first design the software and then go for coding. But after coding is completed, if the requirement changes slightly or our expected output is not achieved, then we change the codes. For each small code change, we cannot change the design. In course of time, due to these small changes made to the code, the software design decays. Software refactoring is used to restructure the code in order to improve the design and quality of the software. In this paper, we propose an approach for performing code refactoring. We use slice-based cohesion metrics to identify the target methods which requires refactoring. After identifying the target methods, we use program slicing to divide the target method into two parts. Finally, we have used the concepts of Aspects to adjust the code structure so that the external behaviour of the original module does not change.

Keywords: software refactoring, program slicing, AOP, cohesion metrics, code restructure, AspectJ

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Authors: Uyanga Jadamba

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Globalisation of the world economy has necessitated the development and implementation of a comparable and understandable reporting language suitable for use by all reporting entities. The International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) provides an international reporting language that lets all users understand the financial information of their business and potentially allows them to have access to finance at an international level. The study is based on logistic regression analysis to investigate the factors for the adoption of theInternational Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). The study started with a list of 217 countries from World Bank data. Due to the lack of availability of data, the final sample consisted of 136 countries, including 60 countries that have adopted the IFRS for SMEs and 76 countries that have not adopted it yet. As a result, the study included a period from 2010 to 2020 and obtained 1360 observations. The findings confirm that the adoption of the IFRS for SMEs is significantly related to the existence of national reporting standards, law enforcement quality, common law (legal system), and extent of disclosure. It means that the likelihood of adoption of the IFRS for SMEs decreases if the country already has a national reporting standard for SMEs, which suggests that implementation and transitional costs are relatively high in order to change the reporting standards. The result further suggests that the new standard adoption is easier in countries with constructive law enforcement and effective application of laws. The finding also shows that the adoption increases if countries have a common law system which suggests that efficient reportingregulations are more widespread in these countries. Countries with a high extent of disclosing their financial information are more likely to adopt the standard than others. The findings lastly show that the audit qualityand primary education levelhave no significant impact on the adoption.One possible explanation for this could be that accounting professionalsfrom in developing countries lacked complete knowledge of the international reporting standards even though there was a requirement to comply with them. The study contributes to the literature by providing factors that impact the adoption of the IFRS for SMEs. It helps policymakers to better understand and apply the standard to improve the transparency of financial statements. The benefit of adopting the IFRS for SMEs is significant due to the relaxed and tailored reporting requirements for SMEs, reduced burden on professionals to comply with the standard, and provided transparent financial information to gain access to finance.The results of the study are useful toemerging economies where SMEs are dominant in the economy in informing its evaluation of the adoption of the IFRS for SMEs.

Keywords: IFRS for SMEs, international financial reporting standard, adoption, institutional factors

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Authors: Pius A. Onobhayedo, Eugene A. Ohu

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Nigeria has one of the fastest growing mobile telecommunications industry in the world. In the absence of fixed connection access to the Internet, access to the Internet is primarily via mobile devices. It, therefore, provides a test case for how to penetrate the mobile market in an emerging economy. We also hope to contribute to a sparse literature on strategies employed in building successful data-driven mobile businesses in emerging economies. We, therefore, sought to identify and analyse the strategic approach taken in a successful locally born mobile data-driven business in Nigeria. The analysis was carried out through the framework of strategic intent and competitive advantages developed from the conception of the company to date. This study is based on an exploratory investigation of an innovative digital company based in Nigeria specializing in the mobile advertising business. The projected growth and high adoption of mobile in this African country, coinciding with the smartphone revolution triggered by the launch of iPhone in 2007 opened a new entrepreneurial horizon for the founder of the company, who reached the conclusion that ‘the future is mobile’. This dream led to the establishment of three digital businesses, designed for convergence and complementarity of medium and content. The mobile Ad subsidiary soon grew to become a truly African network with operations and campaigns across West, East and South Africa, successfully delivering campaigns in several African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Zambia amongst others. The company recently declared a 40% year-end profit which was nine times that of the previous financial year. This study drew from an in-depth interview with the company’s founder, analysis of primary and secondary data from and about the business, as well as case studies of digital marketing campaigns. We hinge our analysis on the strategic intent concept which has been proposed to be an engine that drives the quest for sustainable strategic advantage in the global marketplace. Our goal was specifically to identify the strategic intents of the founder and how these were transformed creatively into processes that may have led to some distinct competitive advantages. Along with the strategic intents, we sought to identify the respective absorptive capacities that constituted favourable antecedents to the creation of such competitive advantages. Our recommendations and findings will be pivotal information for anybody wishing to invest in the world’s fastest technology business space - Africa.

Keywords: Africa, competitive advantage, competitive strategy, digital, mobile business, marketing, strategic intent

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Authors: Achitphol Chookaew, Paramee Thongsukhsai, Patamarerk Engsontia, Narongwit Nakwan, Pritsana Raugrut

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Lung cancer is one of the most common malignancies and primary cause of death due to cancer worldwide. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the main subtype in which majority of patients present with advanced-stage disease. Herein, we analyzed differentially expressed genes to find potential biomarkers for lung cancer diagnosis as well as prognostic markers. We used transcriptome data from our 2 NSCLC patients and public data (GSE81089) composing of 8 NSCLC and 10 normal lung tissues. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between NSCLC and normal tissue and between early-stage and late-stage NSCLC were analyzed by the DESeq2. Pairwise correlation was used to find the DEGs with false discovery rate (FDR) adjusted p-value £ 0.05 and |log2 fold change| ³ 4 for NSCLC versus normal and FDR adjusted p-value £ 0.05 with |log2 fold change| ³ 2 for early versus late-stage NSCLC. Bioinformatic tools were used for functional and pathway analysis. Moreover, the top ten genes in each comparison group were verified the expression and survival analysis via GEPIA. We found 150 up-regulated and 45 down-regulated genes in NSCLC compared to normal tissues. Many immnunoglobulin-related genes e.g., IGHV4-4, IGHV5-10-1, IGHV4-31, IGHV4-61, and IGHV1-69D were significantly up-regulated. 22 genes were up-regulated, and five genes were down-regulated in late-stage compared to early-stage NSCLC. The top five DEGs genes were KRT6B, SPRR1A, KRT13, KRT6A and KRT5. Keratin 6B (KRT6B) was the most significantly increased gene in the late-stage NSCLC. From GEPIA analysis, we concluded that IGHV4-31 and IGKV1-9 might be used as diagnostic biomarkers, while KRT6B and KRT6A might be used as prognostic biomarkers. However, further clinical validation is needed.

Keywords: differentially expressed genes, early and late-stages, gene ontology, non-small cell lung cancer transcriptomics

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Authors: Gladys Oppong, Saumya Singh, Pramod Pathak

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Women entrepreneurship has started establishing itself globally. Despite various social hurdles, Indian women have proved their strength in the area of entrepreneurship. Rising pattern of women entrepreneurship in Indian context make it significant to know the reason behind it. It’s a normal perception that women with financially strong backgrounds are highly motivated to progress in the area of entrepreneurship while lack of money becomes a major restraint for others. The proposed study attempts to identify the motivational factors for becoming women entrepreneur. The research work is to be conducted on women entrepreneurs. For this purpose, factor analysis will be used. The study has identified a set of motivational factors namely family business, social status, education and qualification, self-fulfillment and achievement among others that give momentum to the women to become an entrepreneur. The outcome of the study will be helpful in developing women entrepreneurship in India.

Keywords: women entrepreneurship, motivation, family business, social status

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Authors: Charles L. Sigmund, M. A. Aed, Lissa Graciela Rivera Picado

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One critical component of the training development process is the evaluation of the impact and value of the program. Oftentimes, however, learning organizations bypass this phase either because they are unfamiliar with effective methods for measuring the success or effect of the training or because they believe the effort to be too time-consuming or cumbersome. As a result, most organizations that do conduct evaluation limit their scope to Kirkpatrick L1 (reaction) and L2 (learning), or at most carry through to L4 (results). In 2021 Microsoft made a strategic decision to assess the measurable and monetized impact for all training launches and designed a scalable and program-agnostic tool for providing full-scale L5 return on investment (ROI) estimates for each. In producing this measurement tool, the learning and development organization built a framework for making business prioritizations and resource allocations that is based on the projected ROI of a course. The analysis and measurement posed by this process use a combination of training data and operational metrics to calculate the effective net benefit derived from a given training effort. Business experts in the learning field generally consider a 10% ROI to be an outstanding demonstration of the value of a project. Initial findings from this work applied to a critical customer-facing program yielded an estimated ROI of more than 49%. This information directed the organization to make a more concerted and concentrated effort in this specific line of business and resulted in additional investment in the training methods and technologies being used.

Keywords: evaluation, measurement, return on investment, value

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Authors: Flex Anim

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The financial system is a decentralized studies system that was put into place in Ghana as a grassroots financial studies approach. Its main goal is to give people the precise knowledge, abilities, and training required for a given trade, business, profession, or occupation. In this essay, the question of how the financial studies system's devolution to local businesses results in responsible and responsive representation as well as long-term company learning is raised. It centers on two case studies, Asekwa Municipal and Oforikrom. The next question posed by the study is how senior high school students are rebuilding their livelihoods and socioeconomic well-being by creating new curriculum and social practices related to the finance and business studies system. The paper here concentrates on Kumasi District and makes inferences for the other two examples. The paper demonstrates how the financial studies system's establishment of representative groups creates the democratic space required for the successful representation of community goals. Nonetheless, the interests of a privileged few are advanced as a result of elite capture. The state's financial and business training programs do not adhere to the financial studies system's established policy procedures and do not transfer pertinent and discretionary resources to local educators. As a result, local educators are unable to encourage representation that is accountable and responsive. The financial studies system continues to pique the interest of rural areas, but this desire is skewed toward getting access to financial or business training institutions for higher education. Since the locals are not actively involved in financial education, the financial studies system serves just to advance the interests of specific populations. This article explains how rhetoric and personal benefits can be supported by the public even in the case of "failed" interventions.

Keywords: financial studies system, financial studies' devolution, local government, senior high schools and financial education, as well as community goals and representation

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Authors: Juliza Hidayati, Sukardi, Ani Suryani, Sugiharto, Anas M. Fauzi

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The idea of making North Sumatera as a barometer of national oil palm industry requires efforts commodities and agro-industry development of oil palm. One effort that can be done is by successful execution plantation revitalization. The plantation Revitalization is an effort to accelerate the development of smallholder plantations, through expansion and replanting by help of palm Estate Company as business partner and bank financed plantation revitalization fund. Business partner agreement obliged and bound to make at least the same smallholder plantation productivity with business partners, so that the refund rate to banks become larger and prosperous people as a plantation owner. Generally low productivity of smallholder plantations under normal potential caused a lot of old and damaged plants with plant material at random. The purpose of revitalizing oil palm plantations is which are to increase their competitiveness through increased farm productivity. The research aims to identify potential criteria in influencing plantation productivity improvement priorities to be observed and followed up in order to improve the competitiveness of destinations and make North Sumatera barometer of national palm oil can be achieved. Research conducted with Analytical Network Process (ANP), to find the effect of dependency relationships between factors or criteria with the knowledge of the experts in order to produce an objective opinion and relevant depict the actual situation.

Keywords: palm barometer, acceleration of plantation development, productivity, revitalization

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Authors: J. M. Geyser

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Lamb is a popular meat throughout the world, particularly in Europe, the Middle East and Oceania. However, the conventional lamb industry faces challenges related to environmental sustainability, climate change, consumer health and dwindling profit margins. This has stimulated an increasing demand for organic lamb, as it is perceived to increase environmental sustainability, offer superior quality, taste, and nutritional value, which is appealing to farmers, including small-scale and female farmers, as it often commands a premium price. Despite its advantages, organic lamb production presents challenges, with a significant hurdle being the high production costs encompassing organic certification, lower stocking rates, higher mortality rates and marketing cost. These costs impact the profitability and competitiveness or organic lamb producers, particularly female and small-scale farmers, who often encounter additional obstacles, such as limited access to resources and markets. Therefore, this paper examines the cost of producing organic lambs and its impact on female farmers and raises the research question: “Is organic lamb production the saving grace for female and small-scale farmers?” Objectives include estimating and comparing production costs and profitability or organic lamb production with conventional lamb production, analyzing influencing factors, and assessing opportunities and challenges for female and small-scale farmers. The hypothesis states that organic lamb production can be a viable and beneficial option for female and small-scale farmers, provided that they can overcome high production costs and access premium markets. The study uses a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data involves semi-structured interviews with ten female and small-scale farmers engaged in organic lamb production in South Africa. The interview covered topics such as farm characteristics, practices, cost components, mortality rates, income sources and empowerment indicators. Quantitative data used secondary published information and primary data from a female farmer. The research findings indicate that when a female farmer moves from conventional lamb production to organic lamb production, the cost in the first year of organic lamb production exceed those of conventional lamb production by over 100%. This is due to lower stocking rates and higher mortality rates in the organic system. However, costs start decreasing in the second year as stocking rates increase due to manure applications on grazing and lower mortality rates due to better worm resistance in the herd. In conclusion, this article sheds light on the economic dynamics of organic lamb production, particularly focusing on its impact on female farmers. To empower female farmers and to promote sustainable agricultural practices, it is imperative to understand the cost structures and profitability of organic lamb production.

Keywords: cost analysis, empowerment, female farmers, organic lamb production

Procedia PDF Downloads 75

Authors: Philippe Gugler

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Goal of the study: The concept of competitiveness has been addressed by economic theorists and policymakers for several hundreds of years, with both groups trying to understand the drivers of economic prosperity and social welfare. The goal of this contribution is to address the major useful theoretical contributions that permit to identify the main drivers of a territory’s competitiveness. We first present the major contributions found in the classical and neo-classical theories. Then, we concentrate on two majors schools providing significant thoughts on the competitiveness of locations: the Economic Geography (EG) School and the International Business (IB) School. Methodology: The study is based on a literature review of the classical and neo-classical theories, on the economic geography theories and on the international business theories. This literature review establishes links between these theoretical mainstreams. This work is based on the academic framework establishing a meaningful literature review aimed to respond to our research question and to develop further research in this field. Results: The classical and neo-classical pioneering theories provide initial insights that territories are different and that these differences explain the discrepancies in their levels of prosperity and standards of living. These theories emphasized different factors impacting the level and the growth of productivity in a given area and therefore the degree of their competitiveness. However, these theories are not sufficient to more precisely identify the drivers and enablers of location competitiveness and to explain, in particular, the factors that drive the creation of economic activities, the expansion of economic activities, the creation of new firms and the attraction of foreign firms. Prosperity is due to economic activities created by firms. Therefore, we need more theoretical insights to scrutinize the competitive advantages of territories or, in other words, their ability to offer the best conditions that enable economic agents to achieve higher rates of productivity in open markets. Two major theories provide, to a large extent, the needed insights: the economic geography theory and the international business theory. The economic geography studies scrutinized in this study from Marshall to Porter, aim to explain the drivers of the concentration of specific industries and activities in specific locations. These activity agglomerations may be due to the creation of new enterprises, the expansion of existing firms, and the attraction of firms located elsewhere. Regarding this last possibility, the international business (IB) theories focus on the comparative advantages of locations as far as multinational enterprises (MNEs) strategies are concerned. According to international business theory, the comparative advantages of a location serves firms not only by exploiting their ownership advantages (mostly as far as market seeking, resource seeking and efficiency seeking investments are concerned) but also by augmenting and/or creating new ownership advantages (strategic asset seeking investments). The impact of a location on the competitiveness of firms is considered from both sides: the MNE’s home country and the MNE’s host country.

Keywords: competitiveness, economic geography, international business, attractiveness of businesses

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Authors: Chen Wang, Qiuxiao Chen

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With the advent of the information age and the era of big data, urban planning research is no longer satisfied with the analysis and application of traditional data. Because of the limitations of traditional urban commercial center system research, big data provides new opportunities for urban research. Therefore, based on the quantitative evaluation method of big data, the commercial center system of the main city of Hangzhou is analyzed and evaluated, and the scale and hierarchical structure characteristics of the urban commercial center system are studied. In order to make up for the shortcomings of the existing POI extraction method, it proposes a POI extraction method based on adaptive adjustment of search window, which can accurately and efficiently extract the POI data of commercial business in the main city of Hangzhou. Through the visualization and nuclear density analysis of the extracted Point of Interest (POI) data, the current situation of the commercial center system in the main city of Hangzhou is evaluated. Then it compares with the commercial center system structure of 'Hangzhou City Master Plan (2001-2020)', analyzes the problems existing in the planned urban commercial center system, and provides corresponding suggestions and optimization strategy for the optimization of the planning of Hangzhou commercial center system. Then get the following conclusions: The status quo of the commercial center system in the main city of Hangzhou presents a first-level main center, a two-level main center, three third-level sub-centers, and multiple community-level business centers. Generally speaking, the construction of the main center in the commercial center system is basically up to standard, and there is still a big gap in the construction of the sub-center and the regional-level commercial center, further construction is needed. Therefore, it proposes an optimized hierarchical functional system, organizes commercial centers in an orderly manner; strengthens the central radiation to drive surrounding areas; implements the construction guidance of the center, effectively promotes the development of group formation and further improves the commercial center system structure of the main city of Hangzhou.

Keywords: business center system, business format, main city of Hangzhou, POI extraction method

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Jan Schmitt, Sophie Fischer

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After the Corona pandemic, climate change is a further, long-lasting challenge the society must deal with. An ongoing climate change need to be prevented. Nevertheless, the adoption tothe already changed climate conditionshas to be focused in many sectors. Recently, the decisive role of the economic sector with high value added can be seen in the Corona crisis. Hence, manufacturing industry as such a sector, needs to be prepared for climate change and adaption. Several examples from the manufacturing industry show the importance of a strategic effort in this field: The outsourcing of a major parts of the value chain to suppliers in other countries and optimizing procurement logistics in a time-, storage- and cost-efficient manner within a network of global value creation, can lead vulnerable impacts due to climate-related disruptions. E.g. the total damage costs after the 2011 flood disaster in Thailand, including costs for delivery failures, were estimated at 45 billion US dollars worldwide. German car manufacturers were also affected by supply bottlenecks andhave close its plant in Thailand for a short time. Another OEM must reduce the production output. In this contribution, a game-based learning approach is presented, which should enable manufacturing companies to derive their own strategies for climate adaption out of a mix of different actions. Based on data from a regional study of small, medium and large manufacturing companies in Mainfranken, a strongly industrialized region of northern Bavaria (Germany) the game-based learning approach is designed. Out of this, the actual state of efforts due to climate adaption is evaluated. First, the results are used to collect single actions for manufacturing companies and second, further actions can be identified. Then, a variety of climate adaption activities can be clustered according to the scope of activity of the company. The combination of different actions e.g. the renewal of the building envelope with regard to thermal insulation, its benefits and drawbacks leads to a specific strategy for climate adaption for each company. Within the game-based approach, the players take on different roles in a fictionalcompany and discuss the order and the characteristics of each action taken into their climate adaption strategy. Different indicators such as economic, ecologic and stakeholder satisfaction compare the success of the respective measures in a competitive format with other virtual companies deriving their own strategy. A "play through" climate change scenarios with targeted adaptation actions illustrate the impact of different actions and their combination onthefictional company.

Keywords: business strategy, climate change, climate adaption, game-based learning

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Authors: Carmen Avilés Palacios, Camilo Muñoz Arenas, Joaquín García Alfonso, Jesús González Arteaga, Alberto Alcalde Calonge

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There is a need for review of the consumption and production models of industrialized states in accordance with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (1) (OECD, 2016). This constitutes the basis of the bioeconomy (2) that is focused on striking a balance between economic development, social development and environmental protection. Bioeconomy promotes the adequate use and consumption of renewable natural resources (3) and involves developing new products and services adapted to the principles of circular economy: more sustainable (reusable, biodegradable, renewable and recyclable) and with a lower carbon footprint (4). In this context, Urban Forest Innovation Lab (UFIL) grows, an Urban Laboratory for experimentation focused on promoting entrepreneurship in forest bioeconomy (www.uiacuenca.es). UFIL generates local wellness taking sustainable advantage of an endogenous asset, forests. UFIL boosts forest bioeconomy opening its doors of knowledge to pioneers in this field, giving the opportunity to be an active part of a change in the way of understanding the exploitation of natural resources, discovering business, learning strategies and techniques and incubating business ideas So far now, 100 entrepreneurs are incubating their nearly 30 new business plans. UFIL has promoted an ecosystem to connect the rural-urban world that promotes sustainable rural development around the forest.

Keywords: bioeconomy, forestry, innovation, entrepreneurship

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Authors: Sutan Emir Hidayat, Latifa Hassan Al-Qassab

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The purpose of this study is to examine depositors’ awareness on the pursuit of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) conducted by Islamic retail banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain according to the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards. The outcome of the paper is the extent to which the depositors knew about the banks’ CSR activities in promoting the welfare of the society beyond their business objectives. The study covered all Islamic retail banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain where a survey questionnaire was distributed to a total of 200 Islamic banks' depositors. The results of the survey show that the level of depositors’ awareness is limited on the pursuit of corporate social responsibilities by the banks as indicated by the small number of statements in the survey questionnaire which the respondents agreed to or of which they had satisfactory knowledge. The significant statistical difference in the respondents' answers to the survey questionnaire when they are grouped according to their respective banks prove that the level of depositors’ awareness on the pursuit of corporate social responsibilities varies considerably among the six Islamic retail banks in the kingdom. The findings of the study might be used to assist the policy makers in the field of CSR of Islamic financial institutions in formulation of better CSR activities and in delivering better services for the public welfare. The study also might help Islamic banks in the kingdom to set up strategy in order to increase the level of depositors’ awareness on their CSR activities.

Keywords: corporate social responsibilities, awareness, Islamic banks, Bahrain

Procedia PDF Downloads 418