Search results for: business practices

Authors: Asif Ali, Daud Salim Faruquie

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With the advancement of knowledge about the utility and impact of sustainability, its feasibility has been explored into different walks of life. Scientists, however; have established their knowledge in four areas viz environmental, economic, social and cultural, popularly termed as four pillars of sustainability. Aspects of environmental and economic sustainability have been rigorously researched and practiced and huge volume of strong evidence of effectiveness has been founded for these two sub-areas. For the social and cultural aspects of sustainability, dependable evidence of effectiveness is still to be instituted as the researchers and practitioners are developing and experimenting methods across the globe. Therefore, the present research aimed to identify globally used practices of social and cultural sustainability and through evidence synthesis assess their outcomes to determine the effectiveness of those practices. A PICO format steered the methodology which included all populations, popular sustainability practices including walkability/cycle tracks, social/recreational spaces, privacy, health & human services and barrier free built environment, comparators included ‘Before’ and ‘After’, ‘With’ and ‘Without’, ‘More’ and ‘Less’ and outcomes included Social well-being, cultural co-existence, quality of life, ethics and morality, social capital, sense of place, education, health, recreation and leisure, and holistic development. Search of literature included major electronic databases, search websites, organizational resources, directory of open access journals and subscribed journals. Grey literature, however, was not included. Inclusion criteria filtered studies on the basis of research designs such as total randomization, quasi-randomization, cluster randomization, observational or single studies and certain types of analysis. Studies with combined outcomes were considered but studies focusing only on environmental and/or economic outcomes were rejected. Data extraction, critical appraisal and evidence synthesis was carried out using customized tabulation, reference manager and CASP tool. Partial meta-analysis was carried out and calculation of pooled effects and forest plotting were done. As many as 13 studies finally included for final synthesis explained the impact of targeted practices on health, behavioural and social dimensions. Objectivity in the measurement of health outcomes facilitated quantitative synthesis of studies which highlighted the impact of sustainability methods on physical activity, Body Mass Index, perinatal outcomes and child health. Studies synthesized qualitatively (and also quantitatively) showed outcomes such as routines, family relations, citizenship, trust in relationships, social inclusion, neighbourhood social capital, wellbeing, habitability and family’s social processes. The synthesized evidence indicates slight effectiveness and efficacy of social and cultural sustainability on the targeted outcomes. Further synthesis revealed that such results of this study are due weak research designs and disintegrated implementations. If architects and other practitioners deliver their interventions in collaboration with research bodies and policy makers, a stronger evidence-base in this area could be generated.

Keywords: built environment, cultural sustainability, social sustainability, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Sanja Seljan, Ivan Dunđer

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The paper presents combined automatic speech recognition (ASR) for English and machine translation (MT) for English and Croatian in the domain of business correspondence. The first part presents results of training the ASR commercial system on two English data sets, enriched by error analysis. The second part presents results of machine translation performed by online tool Google Translate for English and Croatian and Croatian-English language pairs. Human evaluation in terms of usability is conducted and internal consistency calculated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, enriched by error analysis. Automatic evaluation is performed by WER (Word Error Rate) and PER (Position-independent word Error Rate) metrics, followed by investigation of Pearson’s correlation with human evaluation.

Keywords: automatic machine translation, integrated language technologies, quality evaluation, speech recognition

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Authors: Nurulhuda A. Manaf, Nor Najihah Zainal Abidin, Nur Amalina Jamaludin

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Coordinating service interactions are a vital part of developing distributed applications that are built up as networks of autonomous participants, e.g., software components, web services, online resources, involve a collaboration between a diverse number of participant services on different providers. The complexity in coordinating service interactions reflects how important the techniques and approaches require for designing and coordinating the interaction between participant services to ensure the overall goal of a collaboration between participant services is achieved. The objective of this research is to develop capability of steering a complex service interaction towards a desired outcome. Therefore, an efficient technique for modelling, generating, and verifying the coordination of service interactions is developed. The developed model describes service interactions using service choreographies approach and focusing on a declarative approach, advocating an Object Management Group (OMG) standard, Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR). This model, namely, SBVR model for service choreographies focuses on a declarative deontic rule expressing both obligation and prohibition, which can be more useful in working with coordinating service interactions. The generated SBVR model is then be formulated and be transformed into Alloy model using Alloy Analyzer for verifying the generated SBVR model. The transformation of SBVR into Alloy allows to automatically generate the corresponding coordination of service interactions (service choreography), hence producing an immediate instance of execution that satisfies the constraints of the specification and verifies whether a specific request can be realised in the given choreography in the generated choreography.

Keywords: service choreography, service coordination, behavioural modelling, complex interactions, declarative specification, verification, model transformation, semantics of business vocabulary and rules, SBVR

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Authors: Vivian Guo, Yan Qu

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Online marketplaces are not only digital places where consumers buy and sell merchandise, and they are also destinations for brands to connect with real consumers at the moment when customers are in the shopping mindset. For many marketplaces, brands have been important partners through advertising. There can be, however, a risk of advertising impacting a consumer’s shopping journey if it hurts the use experience or takes the user away from the site. Both could lead to the loss of transaction revenue for the marketplace. In this paper, we present user-based methods for cannibalization control by selectively turning off ads to users who are likely to be cannibalized by ads subject to business objectives. We present ways of measuring cannibalization of advertising in the context of an online marketplace and propose novel ways of measuring cannibalization through purchase propensity and uplift modeling. A/B testing has shown that our methods can significantly improve user purchase and engagement metrics while operating within business objectives. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that addresses cannibalization mitigation at the user-level in the context of advertising.

Keywords: cannibalization, machine learning, online marketplace, revenue optimization, yield optimization

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Authors: Shari S. C. Shang, Lynn S. L. Chiu

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In the digital payment market, some consumers use only one payment wallet while many others play multi-homing with a variety of payment services. With the diffusion of new payment systems, we examined the determinants of the adoption of multi-homing behavior. This study aims to understand how a digital payment provider dynamically expands business touch points with cross-business strategies to enrich the digital ecosystem and avoid the trap of multi-homing in customers. By synthesizing platform ecosystem literature, we constructed a two-dimensional research framework with one determinant of user digital behavior from offline to online intentions and the other determinant of digital payment touch points from convenient accessibility to cross-business platforms. To explore on a broader scale, we selected 12 digital payments from 5 countries of UK, US, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. With the interplays of user digital behaviors and payment touch points, we group the study cases into four types: (1) Channel Initiated: users originated from retailers with high access to in-store shopping with face-to-face guidance for payment adoption. Providers offer rewards for customer loyalty and secure the retailer’s efficient cash flow management. (2) Social Media Dependent: users usually are digital natives with high access to social media or the internet who shop and pay digitally. Providers might not own physical or online shops but are licensed to aggregate money flows through virtual ecosystems. (3) Early Life Engagement: digital banks race to capture the next generation from popularity to profitability. This type of payment aimed to give children a taste of financial freedom while letting parents track their spending. Providers are to capitalize on the digital payment and e-commerce boom and hold on to new customers into adulthood. (4) Traditional Banking: plastic credit cards are purposely designed as a control group to track the evolvement of business strategies in digital payments. Traditional credit card users may follow the bank’s digital strategy to land on different types of digital wallets or mostly keep using plastic credit cards. This research analyzed business growth models and inter-firms’ coopetition strategies of the selected cases. Results of the multiple case analysis reveal that channel initiated payments bundled rewards with retailer’s business discount for recurring purchases. They also extended other financial services, such as insurance, to fulfill customers’ new demands. Contrastively, social media dependent payments developed new usages and new value creation, such as P2P money transfer through network effects among the virtual social ties, while early life engagements offer virtual banking products to children who are digital natives but overlooked by incumbents. It has disrupted the banking business domains in preparation for the metaverse economy. Lastly, the control group of traditional plastic credit cards has gradually converted to a BaaS (banking as a service) model depending on customers’ preferences. The multi-homing behavior is not avoidable in digital payment competitions. Payment providers may encounter multiple waves of a multi-homing threat after a short period of success. A dynamic cross-business collaboration strategy should be explored to continuously evolve the digital ecosystems and allow users for a broader shopping experience and continual usage.

Keywords: digital payment, digital ecosystems, multihoming users, cross business strategy, user digital behavior intentions

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Authors: Suppara Charoenpoom

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The objectives of this research was to design and develop a quality management of the school buildings and environment. A quantitative and qualitative mixed research methodology was used. The population sample included 14 directors of primary schools. Two research tools were used. The first research tool included an in-depth interview and questionnaire. The second research tool included the Quality Business Process and Quality Work Procedure, and a Key Performance Indicator of each activity. The statistics included mean and standard deviation. The findings for the development of a quality management process of buildings and environment administration of the basic schools consisted of one quality business process (QBP) and seven quality work processes (QWP). The result from the experts’ evaluation revealed that the process and implementation of quality management of the school buildings and environment has passed the inspection process with consensus. This implies that the process of quality management of the school buildings and environment is suitable for implementation. Moreover, the level of agreement in the feasibility of the implementation of this plan had the mean in the range of 0.64-1.00 which suggests the design of the new plan is acceptable.

Keywords: process, building, environment, management

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Authors: Monika Yadav

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The incorporation of a healthy lifestyle significantly contributes to the advancement of economic development. Urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth have enhanced living conditions, promoting sedentary behaviours among individuals with elevated socio-economic statuses. The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased globally, along with the rise in living standards, posing a growing health risk. Overweight and obesity are known to be precursors to a range of modifiable and metabolic risk factors, contributing to the increase in lifestyle diseases. Unhealthy dietary choices and lifestyle practices primarily drive these diseases. Lifestyle diseases refer to chronic and non-communicable illnesses, encompassing conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, kidney disorders, infertility, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOD), diabetes, respiratory diseases, and certain forms of cancer. This study examines the prevalence of lifestyle diseases among urban Indian women, explicitly differentiating between individuals with normal weight and those classified as obese. The main aim of this study is to investigate whether there is a correlation between a higher body mass index (BMI) in women and an increased vulnerability to lifestyle diseases when compared to women with a normal BMI. This research provides insights into the intricate relationship between lifestyle, health, and economic development within urban areas.

Keywords: urbanization, economic development, BMI, NCDs, urban, women, lifestyle practices

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Authors: Christos Bouras, Eirini Stergiou, Charitini Karakostaki, Vasileios Tzanos, Vasileios Kokkinos

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Wind power represents a major pathway to curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and thus reducing the rate of climate change. A wind turbine runs practically emission-free for 20 years, representing one of the most environmentally sustainable sources of energy. Nevertheless, environmental and biodiversity concerns can often slow down or halt the deployment of wind farms due to local public opposition. This opposition is often fueled by poor relationships between wind energy stakeholders and civil society, which in many cases led to conflictual protests and property damage. In this context, addressing these concerns is essential in order to facilitate the proliferation of wind farms in Europe and the phase-out of fossil fuels from the energy mix. The aim of this study is to identify a number of good practices and cases to avoid increasing biodiversity protection at all stages of wind farms’ lifecycle in three participating countries, namely Greece, Latvia, and Poland. The results indicate that although available technological solutions are already being exploited worldwide, in these countries, there is still room for improvement. To address this gap, a set of policy recommendations is proposed to accomplish the wind energy targets in the near future while simultaneously mitigating the pertinent biodiversity risks.

Keywords: biodiversity protection, environmental impact, social acceptance, wind energy

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Authors: Per Blomqvist

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This study is part of a larger research project on creativity and writing cultures in upper secondary schools in Sweden, with the purpose of exploring how formative assessment practices can be developed to better support students' writing of subject-specific texts. The purpose of the study is to shed light on how writing has changed over time in the subjects of Social Studies and Swedish, especially regarding changes in the formative assessment practice in relation to students opportunities to take part in creative writing processes that can develop their subject specific-writing. Theoretically, the study is based on concepts and models concerning creativity, writing instructions and formative assessment, especially regarding scaffolding in relation to the development of students' subject-specific writing. The empirical data consists of video recordings of teacher groups' conversations from five upper secondary schools in Sweden, compromising a total of twenty teachers. The conversations were conducted as so-called collective remembering interviews, a method to stimulate the participants' memory through social interaction, and focused on addressing issues on how writing assessment has changed over time. Topic analysis was used to analyze the conversations in order to identify common descriptions and expressions among the teachers in each group. The result highlights two different assessment practices that are described as giving students different opportunities to take part in creative writing processes to develop their writing of subject-specific texts. One of the assessment practices is characterized by teachers focusing on explaining to the students what the grading criteria mean and showing sample texts that correspond to a certain grade. The teachers describe that this assessment practice has led to a formalized, instrumental and product-oriented writing culture that has negative consequences for the student's development of their subject-specific writing, which often lacks independent reasoning, own conclusions and understanding of concepts. The other assessment practice is characterized by students examining text qualities and discussing a variety of sample texts to understand what different texts require. These teachers describe the assessment practice as an exploratory work that leads to more creative writing processes where the students gradually deepen their understanding of subject-specific texts and develop their writing.

Keywords: teaching for creativity, writing processes, formative assessment, subject-specific writing

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Authors: Do Jaesoo, Kim Kyoung Seok

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Under the recent difficult economic conditions, a number of people are increasingly expecting fostering ventures as the breakthrough in economic recovery and thus more attention is socially paid to an entrepreneur spirit. However, even though the role of managers is very important for the success of a venture company, programs to cultivate their qualities and skills are quite insufficient. In recent years, programs to foster entrepreneurs and business men have proliferated, which are led mainly by national agencies, research institutions, and large corporations. However, these programs still remain at a tottering stage, since there is no accumulated knowledge in many aspects, including systemic know-how and education. Therefore, this study attempted to introduce the definition of the entrepreneur (founder’s) spirit and furthermore identify the characteristics required for entrepreneurs as the subject of management. It thus tried to examine how those characteristics have an influence on entrepreneurs as their successful conditions, and presented foreign cases after analyzing the entrepreneur spirit through case studies. The entrepreneur spirit and the venture management emerge as a new field in business administration and scholars have reported various theories. Further research activities and efforts for active exchanges are also needed thereof.

Keywords: venture, entrepreneur, entrepreneur (founder’s) spirit, characteristics of entrepreneur spirit

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Authors: Sarah Müller-Sägebrecht

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Today’s volatile environment challenges executives to make the right strategic decisions to gain sustainable success. Entrepreneurship scholars postulate mainly positive effects of environmental changes on entrepreneurship behavior, such as developing new business opportunities, promoting ingenuity, and the satisfaction of resource voids. A strategic solution approach to overcome threatening environmental changes and catch new business opportunities is business model innovation (BMI). Although this research stream has gained further importance in the last decade, BMI research is still insufficient. Especially BMI barriers, such as inefficient strategic decision-making processes, need to be identified. Strategic decisions strongly impact organizational future and are, therefore, usually made in groups. Although groups draw on a more extensive information base than single individuals, group-interaction effects can influence the decision-making process - in a favorable but also unfavorable way. Decisions are characterized by uncertainty and risk, whereby their intensity is perceived individually differently. The individual risk-willingness influences which option humans choose. The special nature of strategic decisions, such as in BMI processes, is that these decisions are not made individually but in groups due to their high organizational scope. These groups consist of different personalities whose individual risk-willingness can vary considerably. It is known from group decision theory that these individuals influence each other, observable in different group-interaction effects. The following research questions arise: i) How does group interaction shape BMI decision-making from managers’ perspective? ii) What are the potential interrelations among managers’ risk-willingness, group biases, and BMI decision-making? After conducting 26 in-depth interviews with executives from the manufacturing industry, applied Gioia methodology reveals the following results: i) Risk-averse decision-makers have an increased need to be guided by facts. The more information available to them, the lower they perceive uncertainty and the more willing they are to pursue a specific decision option. However, the results also show that social interaction does not change the individual risk-willingness in the decision-making process. ii) Generally, it could be observed that during BMI decisions, group interaction is primarily beneficial to increase the group’s information base for making good decisions, less than for social interaction. Further, decision-makers mainly focus on information available to all decision-makers in the team but less on personal knowledge. This work contributes to strategic decision-making literature twofold. First, it gives insights into how group-interaction effects influence an organization’s strategic BMI decision-making. Second, it enriches risk-management research by highlighting how individual risk-willingness impacts organizational strategic decision-making. To date, it was known in BMI research that risk aversion would be an internal BMI barrier. However, with this study, it becomes clear that it is not risk aversion that inhibits BMI. Instead, the lack of information prevents risk-averse decision-makers from choosing a riskier option. Simultaneously, results show that risk-averse decision-makers are not easily carried away by the higher risk-willingness of their team members. Instead, they use social interaction to gather missing information. Therefore, executives need to provide sufficient information to all decision-makers to catch promising business opportunities.

Keywords: business model innovation, cognitive biases, group-interaction effects, strategic decision-making, risk-willingness

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Authors: Joane Adeclas, Yoonyoung Kim, Taekyun Hur

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This study investigates individual’s intrinsic motivation to practice their leisure activities, as well as, how the cultural environment may influence their motivation to practice their activities. Focused on the positive psychology, the present study proposed redefinition of leisure activities considering two factors. First, leisure activities could be as any activities that provide pleasure or meaning to individuals. Second, they can be practiced alone or in groups. In fact, based on this definition, a four-dimensional model of leisure activities was developed, to measure individual’s perception of their leisure experience, based on four factors that are: personal pleasure, social pleasure, personal meaning and social meaning. Furthermore, recent studies have argued that leisure activities can be interpreted and understood differently across cultures. Therefore, the present study proposed to examine the possible role of the cultural context of individual’s leisure practices. To do so, two cultural groups (Koreans vs. French) were compared in terms of the four-dimensional model of leisure activities. Three hundred Koreans and three hundred French participants were asked to answer an online survey about their leisure activities. Participants had to respond to questions related to several aspects of leisure practices as followed: the reason why their practice their leisure activities, the reason why they fail to practice their leisure, and their obsession relate to their leisure activities. Factor analyses based on participant’s responses proposed a moderate fit of the four-dimensional model of leisure activities. Furthermore, significant cultural differences were also found. As a result, the cultural context seems to influence the reason why individuals practice their leisure activities based on our model. In fact, Koreans explained more than French, the practice of their leisure activities with social-pleasurable reasons. At a contrary, French explained more than Koreans, the practice of their leisure activities with social-meaningful reasons. The two cultural groups also significantly differ on their perception of failure. The results showed that French participants used more meaningful social factors to explain why they failed to practice their leisure activities than did Koreans participants. Finally, Koreans and French significantly differed regarding their obsession on their leisure activities. In general, French tend to have more obsession than Koreans about their leisure activities. Those results validated the four-dimensional model of leisure, as well as, the cultural differences in leisure practices. However, further studies are needed to validate this model at an individual and cultural level.

Keywords: culture, leisure, meaning, pleasure

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Authors: P. Mambanga, T. G. Tshitangano, H. Akinsola

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Background: Unintended pregnancies constitute a most serious public health challenge to women to an extent that they sometimes end in illegal abortions resulting in adverse consequences. However, the introduction of emergency contraception has served as the last chance for women to avoid unintended pregnancies, though, in countries like Zimbabwe the cause for underutilisation of emergency contraception has been hardly investigated. Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of female students regarding emergency contraception among in preventing unintended pregnancy. Methodology: A quantitative approach using descriptive cross-sectional survey design was conducted among 319 stratified random sampled female university students of Midland State University, Zimbabwe. Self-administered close-ended questionnaire was used to collect the data. To ensure validity, the development of the instrument was guided by a wide range of literature and the inputs of experts. The instrument was retested for reliability and the responses will be comparing using Cronbach’s alpha which yielded high reliability alpha (α) value of 0.84. Data was coded and entered into a computer using Microsoft Excel 2010 and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 22.0. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data in the form of cross tabulation and the results were presented in table, graphs and pie charts. Results: The results indicated that apart from all sources of information about EC, mass media has shown to be the most famous. Although female students knows about EC, the knowledge about effective level and correct use of EC poor. The attitudes of female students at MSU are unfavourable for EC as they gave reasons like EC promotes promiscuity and it can pose risk. The practice of EC at MSU is low with only 47% of respondents said they have once use EC. Conclusion and recommendation: The study concluded the lack of actual knowledge about EC which has directly influenced attitudes and practices. The study concluded that there MSU female students has fair knowledge about EC which has resulted in negative and attitudes towards EC with few EC practices. The study, therefore, recommends the adoption and use of Health Belief Model approach in promoting the young to use EC to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Keywords: emergency contraception, knowledge, attitude, practice, female students

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Authors: Aungkana Kmonpetch

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Protection of trafficked victims and partnership among stakeholders are established as core principles in 5P’ strategies in international and national anti-human trafficking policies. In this article, it is of interest to discuss how the role of public-private partnerships in promoting the occupation development for employment in wage will enhance the better protection for victims of trafficking who affirmatively decide they want a criminal justice intervention, using Thailand as a case. Most of the victims who have accepted to be witness in the criminal justice system have lost income during their absence from work. The analysis of Thailand case is based on two methodological approaches: 1) interview with victims of trafficking, protection authorities, service providers, trainers and teachers, social workers, NGOs, police, prosecutors, business owners and enterprises, ILO, UNDP etc.; 2) create collaborative effort through workshops/consultation meetings in participation of all stakeholders – governmental agencies, private organizations, UN and international agencies. The linking of protection and partnership is anchored in international conventions and human trafficking directives. While this is actually framed as a responsive advantage for 5P strategies of anti-human trafficking – prevention, protection, persecution, punishment, and partnership, in reality, there might have more practical requirements of care and support. The article addresses how the partnership between governmental agencies and private organizations provide opportunities for trafficked victims to engage in high-skilled occupational development such as Silk-Sewing and Tailoring. The discussion is also focused how this approach of capacity building of the trainer for trainee, be enable the trafficked victims to cultivate the practices of high-skilled training to engage them into the business of social enterprise with employment in wage. The partnership coordination draws specifically to two aspects: firstly, to formulate appropriate assistance for promotion and protection of human rights of the trafficked victims in response to the 5P’ strategies of anti-human trafficking policy; secondly, to empower them to settle some economic stability for livelihood opportunity in the country of origin on their return and reintegration. Therefore, they can define how they want to move forward to prevent them at risk of vulnerable situations where they might being trafficked again or going on to work in exploitative conditions. It strengthens proper access to protection and assistance, depending on how the incentive of protection for cooperation is perceived to be and how useful the capacity building in occupation development for employment in wage will be implemented practically both in the host country and in the country of origin. This also brings into question how the victim of trafficking are able to access to the trade of market and are supported the employment opportunity according to the concept of decent work as they are constituted as witnesses. We discuss these issues in the area of a broader literature on social protection, economic security, gender, law, and victimhood.

Keywords: employment opportunity, occupation development, protection for victim of trafficking, public-private partnership

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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: Nariman O. Kandil, Ehab K. Abou-Elkheir, Amr M. Kotb

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Effective IT governance guarantees the strategic alignment of IT and business goals, risk mitigation control, and better IT and business performance. This study seeks to examine empirically the extent of IT governance implementation within the firms listed on the Egyptian stock exchange (EGX30) and its determinants. Accordingly, 18 semi-structured interviews face to face, phone, and video-conferencing interviews using various tools (e.g., WebEx, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams) were undertaken at the interviewees’ offices in Egypt between the end of November 2019 and the end of August 2020. Results suggest that there are variances in the extent of IT Governance (ITG) implementation within the firms listed on the Egyptian stock exchange (EGX30), mainly caused by the industry type and internal and external triggers. The results also suggest that the organization size, the type of auditor, the criticality of the industry, the effective processes & KPIs, and the information intensity expertise of the CIO have a significant impact on IT governance implementation within the firms.

Keywords: effective IT governance, Egyptian market, information security, risk controls

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Authors: Luzia Dominguez

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This paper explores the concept of ‘translanguaging’ and the relevance of its pedagogical application in the context of foreign language education in a multilingual urban environment. We review relevant literature discussing this theoretical concept, its scope, potential, and limitations when applied to the teaching of foreign languages. We then discuss its possible practical application in Welsh secondary schools, particularly in the most diverse areas of the Welsh capital, Cardiff (United Kingdom). The concept of translanguaging has evolved in scope, from its initial application in the teaching of Welsh and English in the Welsh bilingual context to finding a relevant space not only in the international arena of Sociolinguistics and language pedagogy but also being present in current Welsh educational policies and, presumably, practices. However, it is important to consider the actual pedagogical relevance of incorporating this concept into these policies, particularly in the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages. Additionally, it is important to examine any social factors that may influence the effectiveness of its application in the social context, in our case, a multilingual, ethnically diverse urban context. By analyzing these issues, we aim to explore possible teaching practices that could be pedagogically effective in applying the concept in Cardiff secondary schools.

Keywords: pedagogy, modern foreign languages, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics

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Authors: Daekook Kang, Wooseok Jang, Jeonghwan Jeon

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As Korea government has expanded the budget for the national research and development business, the need for the installation of institute taking a role of deliberation, coordination, and operation of research development business and its budget has been increased continuously. In response to the demands of the times, recently, the National Science & Technology Council (NSTC) was installed. However, to achieve a creative economy more efficiently, the fundamental introspection on the current state of the national administration system of science and technology in Korea should be needed. Accordingly, this study, firstly, analyzes the function and organizational structure of NSTC in Korea. Then, this study investigates the current state of the National Science and Technology Council in main world countries. Lastly, this study derives some implications based on the comparison analysis of the current state of the National Science and Technology Council between Korea and these countries. The present study will help in finding the way for the advancement of the NSTC in Korea.

Keywords: Comparison Analysis of Science & Technology Council (NSTC), CSTP, National Science & Technology Council in Korea, operating system of NSTC

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Authors: Sabina Mohsin

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The need for grounding of teachers and the trend of using innovative ways to deal with students of various abilities in schools, colleges and universities has always been essential in any part of the world. Teacher edification programs, and qualifications standards, all too repeatedly lack enough rigidity, extensiveness and profundity, resulting in high levels of unskilled teachers and squat student performance. Accordingly, the solution, from this viewpoint, lies in making the entry and training necessities for teaching deeper and more exact. Teachers’ continuous professional development is necessary to reach all kinds of learners in class. The training provided is a direct opportunity for new teachers to interact better and motivate students in a two way discussion class. The intention of the study was to scrutinize whether the teachers’ training played an important role to fabricate lectures and classroom activities and reflected the objectives of the training provided in various schools and universities. It also aims to examine the current practices used in the various teacher training programs and if there is any other method that can be associated to enhance the effectiveness of these programs further. This research uses qualitative data collected from interviews, peer discussions, classroom observations, reviews, feedback of students and teachers to study teacher training and teaching methods used in school and universities in Bangladesh. The study finds teacher training to be effective though it has some limitations. It also includes some suggestions to make teacher training more effective.

Keywords: current practices in teacher training, enhancing effectiveness, limitation, student motivation, teacher training

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Authors: Paul Saah, Charles Mbohwa, Nelson Sizwe Madonsela

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Organisations that want to have a competitive edge over their rivals in their industry are becoming more and more aware of the value of staff training and development programs. This conceptual study's primary goal is to determine how staff development and training affect an organization's ability to succeed. A non-empirical methodological approach was chosen because this was a conceptual study, and a thorough literature analysis was conducted to determine the contribution of staff training and development to the performance of a commercial organization. Twenty of the 100 publications about employee training and development that were obtained from Google Scholar and regarded to be more pertinent were examined for this study. The impact of employee training and development in an organization was found and documented during the analyses. According to the study's findings, some of the major advantages of staff development and training include greater productivity, the discovery of employee potential, job satisfaction, the development of skills, less supervision, a decrease in turnover and absenteeism as well as less supervision and reduction of errors and accidents. The findings show that organisations that make significant investments in the training and development of their personnel are more likely to succeed than those who do not.

Keywords: impact, employment, training and development, success, business, organization

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Authors: Pia Ulvenblad, Henrik Barth, Jennie Cederholm BjöRklund, Maya Hoveskog, Per-Ola Ulvenblad

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The importance of business model innovation (BMI) is widely recognized. This is also valid for firms in the agri-food industry, closely connected to global challenges. Worldwide food production will have to increase 70% by 2050 and the United Nations’ sustainable development goals prioritize research and innovation on food security and sustainable agriculture. The firms of the agri-food industry have opportunities to increase their competitive advantage through BMI. However, the process of BMI is complex and the implementation of new business models is associated with high degree of risk and failure. Thus, managers from all industries and scholars need to better understand how to address this complexity. Therefore, the research presented in this paper (i) explores different categories of barriers in research literature on business models in the agri-food industry, and (ii) illustrates categories of barriers with empirical cases. This study is addressing the rather limited understanding on barriers for BMI in the agri-food industry, through a systematic literature review (SLR) of 570 peer-reviewed journal articles that contained a combination of ‘BM’ or ‘BMI’ with agriculture-related and food-related terms (e.g. ‘agri-food sector’) published in the period 1990-2014. The study classifies the barriers in several categories and illustrates the identified barriers with ten empirical cases. Findings from the literature review show that barriers are mainly identified as outcomes. It can be assumed that a perceived barrier to growth can often be initially exaggerated or underestimated before being challenged by appropriate measures or courses of action. What may be considered by the public mind to be a barrier could in reality be very different from an actual barrier that needs to be challenged. One way of addressing barriers to growth is to define barriers according to their origin (internal/external) and nature (tangible/intangible). The framework encompasses barriers related to the firm (internal addressing in-house conditions) or to the industrial or national levels (external addressing environmental conditions). Tangible barriers can include asset shortages in the area of equipment or facilities, while human resources deficiencies or negative willingness towards growth are examples of intangible barriers. Our findings are consistent with previous research on barriers for BMI that has identified human factors barriers (individuals’ attitudes, histories, etc.); contextual barriers related to company and industry settings; and more abstract barriers (government regulations, value chain position, and weather). However, human factor barriers – and opportunities - related to family-owned businesses with idealistic values and attitudes and owning the real estate where the business is situated, are more frequent in the agri-food industry than other industries. This paper contributes by generating a classification of the barriers for BMI as well as illustrating them with empirical cases. We argue that internal barriers such as human factors barriers; values and attitudes are crucial to overcome in order to develop BMI. However, they can be as hard to overcome as for example institutional barriers such as governments’ regulations. Implications for research and practice are to focus on cognitive barriers and to develop the BMI capability of the owners and managers of agri-industry firms.

Keywords: agri-food, barriers, business model, innovation

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Authors: Siti Fatimah Kader Maideen, Abdul Rashid, Nur Indah Ahmad

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Introduction: Indigenous people have an increased risk of contracting zoonotic infections due to their practices. Similarly, the aborigines in Peninsular Malaysia, the Orang Asli, have a higher risk too. This study aimed to empower the Jahai children on the prevention of zoonotic infections by implementing a health promotion intervention program. Methods: A non-experimental pre and post-test interventional study was conducted among the indigenous primary school children aged between nine and 12 years in Perak, Malaysia. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the pre-and post-knowledge and attitudes towards zoonotic infections and hand hygiene practice. This is followed by three sessions of the health promotion program. Ethical approval was obtained prior to the data collection. Data were analysed using SPSS software. Results: The knowledge on whether diseases can spread from animals to humans, transmission via saliva and faeces, types of organisms that can infect, and signs and symptoms increased significantly between pre and post. Significant improvements were observed in the attitude and practices too. Conclusion: The intervention program demonstrated improvement in the knowledge, attitude, and practice among the children. The continuous program needs to be conducted for a sustainable outcome.

Keywords: health promotion, zoonotic infections, aborigines, knowledge, practice

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Authors: Mekonen Hailu, Liu Liping

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Cage aquaculture is highly preferred due to higher production per unit volume of water, lower costs of investment, and simpler routine farm management procedures compared to pond systems. In the 1980s, cage culture was first used on a trial basis in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past 20 years, a small number of prosperous freshwater cage culture operations have started to emerge in Egypt, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Brackish and marine cage culture also offers a lot of potential, although this subsector hasn't seen any significant commercial growth to date. In 2019, 263 cage aquaculture installations on the African inland waters on 18 water bodies within eight countries with an estimated 20,114 cages were reported. The lakes Victoria, Kariba, Volta, and River Volta, which together account for 82.9% of all cage aquaculture installations regarded as sub-Saharan Africa's principal cage aquaculture regions (Fig 1). Except few small-scale trials with North African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), almost all farms in Sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt grow Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). More than 247,398 tonnes of fish are produced yearly from ten African countries through cage aquaculture. The expansion of cage culture in Africa provides job opportunities for both skilled and unskilled workers, nutritious food and foreign currency. The escaping non-native strains of tilapia in Lake Volta and the occurrence of a risky Tilapia lake virus (syncytial hepatitis), which has the potential to wipe out entire populations in both wild and farmed Nile tilapia on Lake Victoria, are threats coming with the expansion of cage aquaculture in Africa. In addition, the installations of 138 cage aquacultures were found in contrary to best cage culture practices. To sustain cage aquaculture development and maintain harmony with other water uses, developers must strictly abide by best practices. Hence, the exclusion of protected areas and small lakes (average depth 5 m or less) should be done, as well an Environmental Impact Assessment should be conducted before establishing the cage farms.

Keywords: Africa, cage aquaculture, production, threats

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Authors: Timothy Whitehill

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

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

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Authors: Pelin Kinay, Andy P. Morse, Elmer V. Villanueva, Karyn Morrissey, Philip L Staddon, Shanzheng Zhang, Jingjing Liu

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The present study aims to evaluate the climate change and health related knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of the elderly population (60 years plus) in Hefei and Suzhou cities of China (n=300). This cross-sectional study includes 150 participants in each city. Data regarding demographic characteristics, KAP, and climate change perceptions were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. When asked about the potential impacts of climate change over 79% of participants stated that climate change affected their lifestyle. Participants were most concerned about storms (51.7%), food shortage (33.3%) and drought (26%). The main health risks cited included water contamination (32%), air pollution related diseases (38.3%) and lung disease (43%). Finally, a majority (68.3%) did not report receiving government assistance on climate change issues. Logistic regression models were used to analyse the data in order to understand the links between socio-demographical factors and KAP of the participants. These findings provide insights for potential adaptation strategies targeting the elderly. It is recommended that government should take responsibility in creating awareness strategies to improve the coping capacity of elderly in China to climate change and its health impacts and develop climate change adaptation strategies.

Keywords: China, climate change, elderly, KAP

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Authors: Priyanka Kalra

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Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) includes various practices like Ayurveda, Yoga & Meditation Acupressure Acupuncture and Reiki. These practices are frequently used by patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). They have shown effectiveness in the management of pain and stress consequently improving overall quality of life post injury. Objective: The goals of the present case series were to evaluate the feasibility of 1) Using of Ayurvedic herbal oil massages in shoulder pain management, 2) Using yoga & meditation on managing the stress in spinal cord injury. Methodology: 15 SCI cases with muscular pain around shoulder were treated with Ayurvedic herbal oil massage for 10 days in CAM Department. Each session consisted of 30 min oil massage followed by 10 min hot towel fomentation. The patients continued regular therapy medications along with CAM. Another 15 SCI cases were treated with yoga and meditation for 15 days 30 min yoga (20 min Asana+ 10 min Pranayam + 15 min Meditation) in isolated yoga room of CAM department. Results: On the VAS scale the patients reported a reduction in their pain score by 70 %. On the PSS scale, the patients reported a reduction in their stress score by 80 %. Conclusion: These case series may encourage more people to explore CAM therapies.

Keywords: spinal cord injury, Ayurveda, complementary and alternative medicine, yoga, meditation

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Authors: Ali Elshabrawy

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Cloud computing is expected to be important for e Government in near future. Governments need it for solving some of its e Government, financial, infrastructure, legacy systems and integration problems. It reduces information technology (IT) infrastructure needs and support costs, and offers on-demand infrastructure and computational power, improved collaboration capabilities, which are important for e Government projects start up and sustainability. Budget pressures will continue to drive more and more government IT to hybrid and even public clouds, and more cooperation between cloud service providers and governmental agencies are expected, Or developing governmental private, community clouds. Motivation to convince governments to use cloud computing services, will create a pressure on cloud service providers to cope with government's requirements for interoperability, security standards, open data and integration between their cloud systems There will be significant legal action arising out of governmental uses of cloud computing, and legislation addressing both IT and business needs and consumer fears and protections. Cloud computing is a considered a revolution for IT and E business in general and e commerce, e Government in particular. As governments faces increasing challenges regarding IT infrastructure required for e Government projects implementation. As a result of Lack of required financial resources allocated for e Government projects in developed and developing countries. Cloud computing can play a major role to solve some of e Government projects challenges such as, lack of financial resources, IT infrastructure, Human resources trained to manage e Government applications, interoperability, cost efficiency challenges. If we could solve some security issues related to cloud computing usage which considered critical for e Government projects. Pretty sure it’s Just a matter of time before cloud service providers will find out solutions to attract governments as major customers for their business.

Keywords: cloud computing, e-government, adoption, supply side barriers, e-government requirements, challenges

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Authors: Nasser Almonawer

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Timely reaction to an evolving global business environment and volatile market conditions necessitates system and process flexibility, which in turn demands agile and adaptable architecture and a steady infusion of affordable new technologies. On the contrary, a large number of organizations utilize systems characterized by inflexible and obsolete legacy architectures. To effectively respond to the dynamic contemporary business environments, such architectures must be migrated to robust and modular open architectures. To this end, this paper proposes an integrated decision support system for a seamless migration to open systems. The proposed decision support system (DSS) integrates three well-established quantitative and qualitative decision-making models—namely, the Delphi method, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Goal Programming (GP) to (1) assess risks and establish evaluation criteria; (2) formulate migration strategy and rank candidate systems; and (3) allocate resources among the selected systems.

Keywords: decision support systems, open systems architecture, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), goal programming (GP), delphi method

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Authors: Yael Livneh, Shay Tzafrir, Ilan Meshoulam

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Technological startup companies have been recognized as bearing tremendous potential for business and economic success. However, many entrepreneurs who produce promising innovative ideas fail to implement them as successful businesses. A key argument for such failure is the entrepreneurs' lack of competence in adaptation of the relevant level of formality of human resource management (HRM). The purpose of the present research was to examine multiple antecedents and consequences of HRM formality in growing startup companies. A review of the research literature identified two central components of HRM formality: HR control and professionalism. The effect of three contextual predictors was examined. The first was an intra-organizational factor: the development level of the organization. We based on a differentiation between knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation. At a given time, the organization chooses to focus on a specific mix of these orientations, a choice which requires an appropriate level of HRM formality, in order to efficiently overcome the challenges. It was hypothesized that the mix of orientations of knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation would predict HRM formality. The second predictor was the personal characteristics the organization's leader. According the idea of blueprint effect of CEO's on HRM, it was hypothesized that the CEO's cognitive style would predict HRM formality. The third contextual predictor was an external organizational factor: the level of investor involvement. By using the agency theory, and based on Transaction Cost Economy, it was hypothesized that the level of investor involvement in general management and HRM would be positively related to the HRM formality. The effect of formality on trust was examined directly and indirectly by the mediation role of procedural justice. The research method included a time-lagged field study. In the first study, data was obtained using three questionnaires, each directed to a different source: CEO, HR position-holder and employees. 43 companies participated in this study. The second study was conducted approximately a year later. Data was recollected using three questionnaires by reapplying the same sample. 41 companies participated in the second study. The organizations samples included technological startup companies. Both studies included 884 respondents. The results indicated consistency between the two studies. HRM formality was predicted by the intra-organizational factor as well as the personal characteristics of the CEO, but not at all by the external organizational context. Specifically, the organizational orientations was the greatest contributor to both components of HRM formality. The cognitive style predicted formality to a lesser extent. The investor's involvement was found not to have any predictive effect on the HRM formality. The results indicated a positive contribution to trust in HRM, mainly via the mediation of procedural justice. This study contributed a new concept for technological startup company development by a mixture of organizational orientation. Practical implications indicated that the level of HRM formality should be matched to that of the company's development. This match should be challenged and adjusted periodically by referring to the organization orientation, relevant HR practices, and HR function characteristics. A relevant matching could enhance further trust and business success.

Keywords: control, formality, human resource management, organizational development, professionalism, technological startup company

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Authors: Kahandawala Arachchige Thani Chathurika Kahandawala

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This research is attempted to analyse, Sri Lanka’s current situation regarding the recognition and enforcement of international commercial arbitration awards. Sri Lanka has been involved with commercial arbitration for a long time period. But there are good and bad legal practices in place in proceedings in Sri Lanka legal system. The common perception and reality of Sri Lanka’s arbitration law and practices regarding recognition and enforcement of international arbitral awards is far behind the international standards. Therefore arbitration as a dispute resolution method has become a time-consuming and costly method in Sri Lanka. This research is employed with the qualitative method based on both primary and secondary resources. This carried out the comparative analysis of recognition and enforcement in international arbitration laws established jurisdiction in Singapore and the United Kingdom, which are known as best counties as a seat of arbitration in Asia and Europe. International conventions, act and all the legal proceedings regarding recognition and enforcement of an international arbitral award in Sri Lanka are going to be discussed in the research. In the Jurisdiction of Sri Lanka, critically need to value an international arbitral award in the domestic legal system. Therefore an award has to be recognised in Sri Lanka. Otherwise, it doesn’t have any value. After recognizing it, court can enforce it. This research intends to provide a comparative analysis to overcome the drawbacks.

Keywords: arbitration, alternative dispute method, recognition and enforcement, foreign arbitral awards, Sri Lankan legal system, arbitral award in Singapore

Procedia PDF Downloads 171