Search results for: ethnic business opportunities

Authors: Obadiah Nwabueze

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Bodija market is classified as Central Business District (CBD) of Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State (Nigeria) because of socio economic activities, so Crime is a peculiar social issue that causes insecurity. The law enforcement agencies tasked with crime prevention and control such as the Nigerian Police have insufficient manpower, and a resultant effect is the emergence of Vigilante groups as citizen’s response to crime control and prevention (self-help). The research design adopted for this study is a case study design exploring Vigilante activities in Bodija Market. The study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative approach, sources of data includes primary and secondary sources. A sample of 127 respondents randomly picked from the 4 sections of Bodija Market through questionnaire, comprising of 50 male and 77 females which alienates issues of gender bias in addition to the 4 in-depth interview, making a total of 131 respondents. Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used. The descriptive statistics of simple frequency, percentage, charts and graphs were computed for the analysis. Finding in the study shows that the market vigilante is able to deter and disrupt criminal activities through strategic spiritual intelligence (SSI), use of charm and juju, physical presence in strategic locations vulnerable to crime occurrence. Findings in the study also show that vigilantes collaborate with the police by assisting them in surveillance, tracking down criminals, identifying black spots, acting as informants to the police, arrest and handover criminal to police. Their challenges include poor equipment, motivation, unhealthy rivalry between the vigilante and the police. The study recommends that the government should support vigilantes with logistics and training, including patrol vehicle and radio communication. The study also recommends the integration of the informal mechanism (juju and charm) of crime detection and prevention into the formal policing strategy, an office should be created in the force commands for use of SSI.

Keywords: central business district, CBD, charm, Juju, strategic spiritual intelligence, SSI

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Authors: Pavel Porubiak, Lukas Kudlacek

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Introduction Transplant tourism is a controversial method of obtaining an organ, and that goes all the more for a country such as China, where sources of evidence point out to the possibility of organs being harvested illegally. This research aimed at listing the individual countries these tourists come from, or which medical companies sell transplant related products in there, with China being used as an example. Materials and methods The methodology of scoping study was used for both parts of the research. The countries from which transplant tourists come to China were identified by a search through existing medical studies in the NCBI PubMed database, listed under the keyword ‘transplantation in China’. The search was not limited by any other criteria, but only the studies available for free – directly on PubMed or a linked source – were used. Other research studies on this topic were considered as well. The companies were identified through multiple methods. The first was an online search focused on medical companies and their products. The Bloomberg Service, used by stock brokers worldwide, was then used to identify the revenue of these companies in individual countries – if data were available – as well as their business presence in China. A search through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was done in the same way. Also a search on the Chinese internet was done, and to obtain more results, a second online search was done as well. The results and discussion The extensive search has identified 14 countries with transplant tourists to China. The search for a similar studies or reports resulted in finding additional six countries. The companies identified by our research also amounted to 20. Eight of them are sourcing China with organ preservation products – of which one is just trying to enter the Chinese market, six with immunosuppressive drugs, four with transplant diagnostics, one with medical robots which Chinese doctors use for transplantation as well, and another one trying to enter the Chinese market with a consumable-type product also related to transplantation. The conclusion The question of the ethicality of transplant tourism may be very pressing, since as the research shows, just the sheer amount of participating countries, sourcing transplant tourists to another one, amounts to 20. The identified companies are facing risks due to the nature of transplantation business in China, as officially executed prisoners are used as sources, and widely cited pieces of evidence point out to illegal organ harvesting. Similar risks and ethical questions are also relevant to the countries sourcing the transplant tourists to China.

Keywords: China, illegal organ harvesting, transplant tourism, organ harvesting technology

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Authors: Mohita Gangwar Sharma

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Different factors are compelling manufacturers to move towards the phenomenon of servitization i.e. when firms go beyond giving support to the customers in operating the equipment. The challenges that are being faced in this transition by the manufacturing firms from being a product provider to a product- service provider are multipronged. Product-Service Systems (PSS) lies in between the pure-product and pure-service continuum. Through this study, we wish to understand the dimensions of ‘PSS-quality’. We draw upon the quality literature for both the product and services and through an expert survey for a specific transportation sector using analytical hierarchical process (AHP) derive a conceptual model that can be used as a comprehensive measurement tool for PSS offerings.

Keywords: servitisation, quality, product-service system, AHP

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Authors: Paul Flynn, Luke O’Donnell

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There is a pressing societal need for educators in formal and non-formal settings to develop pedagogical frameworks, programmes, and interventions that support the development of transversal skills for life beyond the classroom. These skills include communication, collaboration, interpersonal relationship building, problem-solving, and planning, and organizational skills; or lifeworld literacies encountered first hand. This is particularly true for young people aged between 15-18. This demographic represents both the future of society and those best positioned to take advantage of well-designed, structured educational supports within and across formal and non-formal settings. Secondary school history has been identified as an appropriate area of study which deftly develops many of those transversal skills so crucial to positive societal engagement. However, in the formal context, students often challenge history’s relevance to their own lived experience and dismiss it as a study option. In response to such challenges, teachers will often design stimulating lessons which are often well-received. That said, some students continue to question modern-day connections, presenting a persistent and pervasive classroom distraction. The continuing decline in numbers opting to study second-level history indicates an erosion of what should be a critical opportunity to develop all-important lifeworld literacies within formal education. In contrast, students readily acknowledge relevance in non-formal settings where many participants meaningfully engage with history by way of student-focused activities. Furthermore, many do so without predesigned pedagogical aids which support transversal skills development as embodied learning outcomes. As this paper will present, there is a dearth of work pertaining to the circular subject of history and its embodied learning outcomes, including lifeworld literacies, in formal and non-formal settings. While frequently challenging to reconcile formal (often defined by strict curricula and examination processes), and non-formal engagement with history, opportunities do exist. In the Irish context, this is exemplified by a popular university outreach programme: breaking the SEAL. This programme supports second-level history students as they fulfill curriculum requirements in completing a research study report. This report is a student-led research project pulling on communication skills, collaboration with peers and teachers, interpersonal relationships, problem-solving, and planning and organizational skills. Completion of this process has been widely recognized as excellent preparation not only for higher education (third level) but work-life demands as well. Within a formal education setting, the RSR harnesses non-formal learning virtues and exposes students to limited aspects of independent learning that relate to a professional work setting –a lifeworld literacy. Breaking the SEAL provides opportunities for students to enhance their lifeworld literacy by engaging in an independent research and learning process within the protective security of the classroom and its teacher. This paper will highlight the critical role this programme plays in preparing participating students (n=315) for life after compulsory education and presents examples of how lifeworld literacies may be developed through a scaffolded process of historical research and reporting anchored in non-formal contexts.

Keywords: history, education, literacy, transversal skills

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Authors: Sumalee Tientongdee

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The pre-service teacher training program at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bankgok Thailand has been provided for undergraduate students for more than 80 years. It was established as the first teacher college in the country. The pre-service teacher program in science education is considered as one of the new training programs to prepare pre-service teacher to teach science in secondary school level. The need of program assessment is strongly important. Therefore, this study was conducted to gain the opinions and recommendations from the principals, in-service teachers, and mentoring teachers from the partnership schools of Bangkok. The invited 120 participants for the annual meeting was hold in May 2017. The focus group discussion and questionnaires were used to collect the data during the reflection session. The content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The results showed that the pre-service teacher training program in science education should improve students’ creative thinking skill, service mind, personality, and attitudes toward teaching science career. Also, the future science teachers must be able to teach in English to have more opportunities to teach science in Southeast Asian countries.

Keywords: pre-service teacher training program, reflection, science education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat university

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Authors: C. Caudwell, R. Syed, C. Lacey

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While the development and advancement of information communication technologies (ICTs) offers powerful opportunities for meaningful connections and relationships, shame is a significant barrier to social and cultural acceptance. In particular, artificial intelligence and socially oriented robots are increasingly becoming partners in romantic relationships with people, offering bonding, support, comfort, growth, and reciprocity. However, these relationships suffer hierarchical, anthropocentric shame that is a significant barrier to their success and longevity. This paper will present case studies of human and artificially intelligent agent relationships, in the context of internal and external shame, as cultivated, propagated, and communicated through ICT. Using an interdisciplinary methodology we aim to present a framework for technological shame, building on the experimental and emergent psychoanalytical theories of emotions. Our study finds principally that socialization is a powerful factor in the vectors of shame as experienced by humans. On a wider scale, we contribute understanding of social emotion and the phenomenon of shame proliferated through ICTs, which is at present under-explored, but vital, as society and culture is increasingly mediated through this medium.

Keywords: shame, artificial intelligence, romance, society

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Authors: Anudeep Appe, Bhanu Poluparthi, Lakshmi Kasivajjula, Udai Mv, Sobha Bagadi, Punya Modi, Aditya Singh, Hemanth Gunupudi, Spenser Troiano, Jeff Paul, Justin Stovall, Justin Yamamoto

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The necessity of data-driven decisions in healthcare strategy formulation is rapidly increasing. A reliable framework which helps identify factors impacting a healthcare provider facility or a hospital (from here on termed as facility) market share is of key importance. This pilot study aims at developing a data-driven machine learning-regression framework which aids strategists in formulating key decisions to improve the facility’s market share which in turn impacts in improving the quality of healthcare services. The US (United States) healthcare business is chosen for the study, and the data spanning 60 key facilities in Washington State and about 3 years of historical data is considered. In the current analysis, market share is termed as the ratio of the facility’s encounters to the total encounters among the group of potential competitor facilities. The current study proposes a two-pronged approach of competitor identification and regression approach to evaluate and predict market share, respectively. Leveraged model agnostic technique, SHAP, to quantify the relative importance of features impacting the market share. Typical techniques in literature to quantify the degree of competitiveness among facilities use an empirical method to calculate a competitive factor to interpret the severity of competition. The proposed method identifies a pool of competitors, develops Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) and feature level word vectors, and evaluates the key connected components at the facility level. This technique is robust since its data-driven, which minimizes the bias from empirical techniques. The DAGs factor in partial correlations at various segregations and key demographics of facilities along with a placeholder to factor in various business rules (for ex. quantifying the patient exchanges, provider references, and sister facilities). Identified are the multiple groups of competitors among facilities. Leveraging the competitors' identified developed and fine-tuned Random Forest Regression model to predict the market share. To identify key drivers of market share at an overall level, permutation feature importance of the attributes was calculated. For relative quantification of features at a facility level, incorporated SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations), a model agnostic explainer. This helped to identify and rank the attributes at each facility which impacts the market share. This approach proposes an amalgamation of the two popular and efficient modeling practices, viz., machine learning with graphs and tree-based regression techniques to reduce the bias. With these, we helped to drive strategic business decisions.

Keywords: competition, DAGs, facility, healthcare, machine learning, market share, random forest, SHAP

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Authors: Emmanuel U. Unuafe, Oyegoke T. Bukoye, Sandhya Sastry, Yanqing Duan

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Globally, there is increasing interest in project management due to a shortage in infrastructure services supply capability. Hence, it is of utmost importance that organisations understand that choosing a particular project over another is an opportunity cost – tying up the organisations resources. In order to devise constructive ways to bring direction, structure, and oversight to the process of project selection has led to the development of tools and techniques by researchers and practitioners. However, despite the development of various frameworks to assist in the appraisal and selection of government projects, failures are still being recorded with government projects. In developing countries, where frameworks are rarely used, the problems are compounded. To improve the situation, this study will investigate the current practice of construction project selection processes within the Nigeria public sector in order to inform theories of decision making from the perspective of developing nations and project management practice. Unlike other research around construction projects in Nigeria this research concentrate on factors influencing the selection process within the Nigeria public sector, which has received limited study. The authors report the findings of semi-structured interviews of top management in the Nigerian public sector and draw conclusions in terms of decision making extant theory and current practice. Preliminary results from the data analysis show that groups make project selection decisions and this forces sub-optimal decisions due to pressure on time, clashes of interest, lack of standardised framework for selecting projects, lack of accountability and poor leadership. Consequently, because decision maker is usually drawn from different fields, religious beliefs, ethnic group and with different languages. The choice of a project by an individual will be greatly influence by experience, political precedence than by realistic investigation as well as his understanding of the desired outcome of the project, in other words, the individual’s ideology and their level of fairness.

Keywords: factors influencing project selection, public sector construction project selection, projects portfolio selection, strategic decision-making

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Authors: S. Bayona, J. Nunez, D. Paez, C. Diaz

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The application of Lean manufacturing tools continues to be an effective solution for increasing productivity, reducing costs and eliminating waste in the manufacture of goods and services. This article analyzes the production process of a hot asphalt manufacturing company from an administrative and technical perspective. Three main phases were analyzed, the first phase was related to the determination of the risk priority number of the main operations in asphalt mix production process by an FMEA (Failure Mode Effects Analysis), in the second phase the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) of the production line was performed and in the third phase a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities, Threats) matrix was constructed. Among the most valued failure modes were the lack training of workers in occupational safety and health issues, the lack of signaling and classification of granulated material, and the overweight of vehicles loaded. The analysis of the results in the three phases agree on the importance of training operational workers, improve communication with external actors in order to minimize delays in material orders and strengthen control suppliers.

Keywords: asphalt, lean manufacturing, productivity, process

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Authors: Aurelio Palacardo, Giulio Mangano, Alberto De Marco

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Nowadays, the global economic framework is extremely competitive, and it consequently requires an efficient deployment of the resources provided by EU. In this context, Project management practices are intended to be one of the levers for increasing such an efficiency. The objective of this work is to explore the usage of Project Management methodologies and good practices in the European-wide research program “Horizon2020” and establish whether their maturity might impact the project's success. This allows to identify strengths in terms of application of PM methodologies and good practices and, in turn, to provide feedback and opportunities for improvements to be implemented in future programs. In order to achieve this objective, the present research makes use of a survey-based data retrieval and correlation analysis to investigate the level of perceived PM maturity in H2020 projects and the correlation of maturity with project success. The results show the Project Managers involved in H2020 to hold a high level of PM maturity, confirming PM standards, which are imposed by the EU commission as a binding process, are effectively enforced.

Keywords: project management, project management maturity, maturity models, project success

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Authors: Wai Ha Leung

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Mother tongue language (MTL) curriculum is core to school education in most countries/regions' school curriculum. Through mother tongue language learning, students are expected to enhance their understanding of the nation's culture and foster the sense of cultural and ethnic identity. However, MTL education in Hong Kong is complicated by the colonial history. This study examines Hong Kong Chinese language teachers' perceptions of MTL education, and the implication on MTL curriculum development. The questionnaire was administrated to 97 teachers, and interviews were carried out on 17 teachers. Usually, MTL is both the tool with which knowledge and skills are taught and learned and the vehicle for students to learn about the traditions of the countries' literature and culture. In Hong Kong, 95% of the population is of Chinese descent. Traditionally, education in China was a mixture of philosophy, history, politics and literacy. Chinese as an MTL subject in pre-colonial Hong Kong has always been assigned the mission of developing students' cultural identity in addition to the development of linguistic proficiency. During the colonial period, the Chinese Language curriculum shifted to be more language skills based with less emphasis on Chinese culture and moral education. After the sovereignty of Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, although a new curriculum was implemented in 2002, teaching and learning in school as well as public examinations seem to be remaining language skills oriented instead of culturally based. This deviation from the trend of both Chinese traditional education and global mother tongue language education makes some Chinese language teachers feel confused. In addition, there is comment that in general Hong Kong students' Chinese language proficiency is becoming weaker and weaker in recent years. Thus, effectiveness of the skills oriented language curriculum has come under question. How a language teacher views the aims and objectives of the language subject he or she is teaching has a direct effect on the curriculum delivery and pedagogies used. It is, therefore, important to investigate what is the language teachers' perception of MTL education, and whether the current school curriculum can meet the teachers' expectation as well as achieve the aims of MTL education. Given this context, this study explored the views of Hong Kong Chinese language teachers on MTL education. The data indicate that teachers showed a strong resentment towards the current curriculum. Results may have implications on mother tongue language curriculum development.

Keywords: Chinese language education, curriculum development, mother tongue language education, teachers' perception

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Authors: Mateusz Wielopolski, Asia Guerreschi

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Circular Economy, as the counterargument to the ‘make-take-dispose’ linear model, is an approach that includes a variety of schools of thought looking at environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This, in turn, leads to a variety of strategies and often confusion when it comes to choosing the right one to make a circular transition as effective as possible. Due to the close interplay of circular product design, business model and social responsibility, companies often struggle to develop strategies that comply with all three triple-bottom-line criteria. Hence, to transition to circularity effectively, product design approaches must become more inclusive. In a case study conducted with the University of Bayreuth and the ISPO, we correlated aspects of material choice in product design, labeling and technological innovation with customer preferences and education about specific material and technology features. The study revealed those attributes of the consumers’ environmental awareness that directly translate into an increase of purchase power - primarily connected with individual preferences regarding sports activity and technical knowledge. Based on this outcome, we constituted a product development approach that incorporates the consumers’ individual preferences towards sustainable product features as well as their awareness about materials and technology. It allows deploying targeted customer education campaigns to raise the willingness to pay for sustainability. Next, we implemented the customer preference and education analysis into a circularity assessment tool that takes into account inherent company assets as well as subjective parameters like customer awareness. The outcome is a detailed but not cumbersome scoring system, which provides guidance for material and technology choices for circular product design while considering business model and communication strategy to the attentive customers. By including customer knowledge and complying with corresponding labels, companies develop more effective circular design strategies, while simultaneously increasing customers’ trust and loyalty.

Keywords: circularity, sustainability, product design, material choice, education, awareness, willingness to pay

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Authors: Elena Cangelosi, Wayne Beyea

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This research expands the resilience planning literature by exploring the barriers and enablers to climate and health adaptation planning for small urban, coastal Great Lakes communities. With funding from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Climate Ready City and States Initiative, this research took place during a 3-year pilot intervention project which integrates urban planning and public health. The project used the CDC’s Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework to prevent or reduce the human health impacts from climate change in Marquette County, Michigan. Using a deliberation with the analysis planning process, interviews, focus groups, and community meetings with over 25 stakeholder groups and over 100 participants identified the area’s climate-related health concerns and adaptation interventions to address those concerns. Marquette County, on the shores of Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes, was selected for the project based on their existing adaptive capacity and proactive approach to climate adaptation planning. With Marquette County as the context, this study fills a gap in the adaptation literature, which currently heavily emphasizes large-urban or agriculturally-based rural areas, and largely neglects small urban areas. This research builds on the qualitative case-study, survey, and interview approach established by previous researchers on contextual barriers and enablers for adaptation planning. This research uses a case study approach, including surveys and interviews of public officials, to identify the barriers and enablers for climate and health adaptation planning for small-urban areas within a large, non-agricultural, Great Lakes county. The researchers hypothesize that the barriers and enablers will, in some cases, overlap those found in other contexts, but in many cases, will be unique to a rural setting. The study reveals that funding, staff capacity, and communication across a large, rural geography act as the main barriers, while strong networks and collaboration, interested leaders, and community interest through a strong human-land connection act as the primary enablers. Challenges unique to rural areas are revealed, including weak opportunities for grant funding, large geographical distances, communication challenges with an aging and remote population, and the out-migration of education residents. Enablers that may be unique to rural contexts include strong collaborative relationships across jurisdictions for regional work and strong connections between residents and the land. As the factors that enable and prevent climate change planning are highly contextual, understanding, and appropriately addressing the unique factors at play for small-urban communities is key for effective planning in those areas. By identifying and addressing the barriers and enablers to climate and health adaptation planning for small-urban, coastal areas, this study can help Great Lakes communities appropriately build resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change. In addition, this research expands the breadth of research and understanding of the challenges and opportunities planners confront in the face of climate change.

Keywords: climate adaptation and resilience, climate change adaptation, climate change and urban resilience, governance and urban resilience

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Authors: Goh Mingyuan Asher, Nurul Fadiah Johari, Neo Yu Wei, Kim Aryung, Ho Kong Chong, Irene Y. H. N. G.

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The COVID-19 pandemic represents an externally induced force as they face a combination of reduced work, dismissal, and job change for young precarious workers. The paper drew insights from two interview waves of the in-work poverty study in Singapore which were conducted a year apart. By analysing respondents’ job histories before and at the start of the pandemic as well as their job experiences over the two waves of interviews, the study found the presence of what scholars describe as trap and stepping stone trajectories. Trap trajectories refer to how the nature of precarious employment leads respondents to be in dead-end jobs with no room for progression while stepping stone trajectories refer to how poor work provides opportunities for the accumulation of work experiences. We also look at how structure, agency and biographical factors affect job trajectories and discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on work experiences and the implications of the bifurcation of trajectory outcomes on poverty and inequality among the young working poor in Singapore.

Keywords: working poor, precarity, young workers, COVID-19, work trajectories

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Authors: Tamar Lazariashvili

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The development of agrotourism in Georgia has significant potential. The trend of population growth and demand for agrotourism products makes the interest and importance of the development of this field even more relevant. The article studies the trends in the development of agrotourism in Georgia; SWOT analysis reveals the potential for the development of agrotourism and assesses the perspectives, examines the factors hindering the development of agrotourism, assesses the role of the state in the development of agrotourism. Objectives: The purpose of the study is to determine the development trends of agrotourism in Georgia and to develop recommendations for prospective directions based on the assessment of the field's potential. Methodologies: Research methods are used: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison, statistical (selection, grouping, observation, trend) and other methods, as well as SWOT analysis. Contributions: A positive trend in the development of agrotourism has been revealed. It is also shown that the demand for agrotourism products is growing. The agro touristic potential of Georgia was assessed and prospective directions for the development of the field have been determined. Conclusions: are drawn on the problems identified in the work and recommendations are proposed on ways to effectively use the potential opportunities of agrotourism and ways of long-term development.

Keywords: agrotourism, agrotourism products, agrotourism potential, development prospects.

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Authors: Nicolay Worren, Christopher A. Brown

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Axiomatic design (AD) has mainly been applied to support the design of physical products and software solutions. However, it was intended as a general design approach that would also be applicable to the design of social systems, including organizations (i.e., organization design). In this article, we consider how AD may be successfully transferred to the field of organizational design. On the one hand, it provides a much-needed pragmatic approach that can help leaders clarify the link between the purpose and structure of their organizations, identify ineffective organizational structures, and increase the chance of achieving strategic goals. On the other hand, there are four conceptual challenges that may create uncertainty and resistance among scholars and practitioners educated in the social sciences: 1) The exclusive focus in AD on negative interdependencies ('coupling'); 2) No obvious way of representing the need for integration across design parameters (DPs); 3) A lack of principles for handling control processes that seem to require 'deliberate coupling' of FRs; and 4) A lack of principles for handling situations where conflicting FRs (i.e., coupling) might require integration rather than separation. We discuss alternative options for handling these challenges so that scholars and practitioners can make use of AD for organization design.

Keywords: axiomatic design, organization design, social systems, concept definitions

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Authors: Gang Wang

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Education is widely believed to be a prerequisite for democracy and civil society, but the causal link between education and outcome variables is usually hardly to be identified. This study applies a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to examine the effects of college education on democratic attitudes in the Chinese context. In the analysis treatment assignment is determined by students’ college entry years and thus naturally selected by subjects’ ages. Using a sample of Chinese college students collected in Beijing in 2009, this study finds that college education actually reduces undergraduates’ motivation for political development in China but promotes political loyalty to the authoritarian government. Further hypotheses tests explain these interesting findings from two perspectives. The first is related to the complexity of politics. As college students progress over time, they increasingly realize the complexity of political reform in China’s authoritarian regime and rather stay away from politics. The second is related to students’ career opportunities. As students are close to graduation, they are immersed with job hunting and have a reduced interest in political freedom.

Keywords: china, college education, democratic attitudes, regression discontinuity

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Authors: Abhijith Asok

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This paper presents a generalized approach for the simple linear data transformation, Y=bX, through an integration of multidimensional coordinate geometry, vector space theory and polygonal geometry. The scaling is performed by adding an additional ’Dummy Dimension’ to the n-dimensional data, which helps plot two dimensional component-wise straight lines on pairs of dimensions. The end result is a set of scaled extensions of observations in any of the 2n spatial divisions, where n is the total number of applicable dimensions/dataset variables, created by shifting the n-dimensional plane along the ’Dummy Axis’. The derived scaling factor was found to be dependent on the coordinates of the common point of origin for diverging straight lines and the plane of extension, chosen on and perpendicular to the ’Dummy Axis’, respectively. This result indicates the geometrical interpretation of a linear data transformation and hence, opportunities for a more informed choice of the factor ’b’, based on a better choice of these coordinate values. The paper follows on to identify the effect of this transformation on certain popular distance metrics, wherein for many, the distance metric retained the same scaling factor as that of the features.

Keywords: data transformation, dummy dimension, linear transformation, scaling

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Authors: Jihane Abdessadak, Hicham Achelhi, Kamal Reklaoui

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For any company or organization, change must be natural and binding in order to evolve its business, protect its durability and remain competitive. "Adapt or disappear". But how often managers, leaders or employees develop astonishing ideas that could improve several aspects of the organization and the feedback is less that encouraging and people give unrealistic judgments just to escape change. In this paper, we are going to discuss what we do know about change and resistance to change and what we can do to tame this phenomenon and, above all, the main steps that can follow an idea man in the delicate and decisive implementation of innovations.

Keywords: innovation, change, resistance to change/innovation, barriers to innovation, levers of innovation

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Authors: M. S. Maglasang, S. O. Palacio, L. P. Ogdoc

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Business Process Outsourcing has been one of the fastest growing and emerging industry in the Philippines today. Unlike most of the contact service centers, more popularly known as "call centers", The BPO Industry’s primary outsourced service is performing audits of the global clients' logistics. As a service industry, manpower is considered as the most important yet the most expensive resource in the company. Because of this, there is a need to maximize the human resources so people are effectively and efficiently utilized. The main purpose of the study is to optimize the current manpower resources through effective distribution and assignment of different types of bills to the different skill-level of data entry operators. The assignment model parameters include the average observed time matrix gathered from through time study, which incorporates the learning curve concept. Subsequently, a simulation model was made to duplicate the arrival rate of demand which includes the different batches and types of bill per day. Next, a mathematical linear programming model was formulated. Its objective is to minimize direct labor cost per bill by allocating the different types of bills to the different skill-levels of operators. Finally, a hypothesis test was done to validate the model, comparing the actual and simulated results. The analysis of results revealed that the there’s low utilization of effective capacity because of its failure to determine the product-mix, skill-mix, and simulated demand as model parameters. Moreover, failure to consider the effects of learning curve leads to overestimation of labor needs. From 107 current number of operators, the proposed model gives a result of 79 operators. This results to an increase of utilization of effective capacity to 14.94%. It is recommended that the excess 28 operators would be reallocated to the other areas of the department. Finally, a manpower capacity planning model is also recommended in support to management’s decisions on what to do when the current capacity would reach its limit with the expected increasing demand.

Keywords: optimization modelling, linear programming, simulation, time and motion study, capacity planning

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Authors: Wenli Tsou, Jessica Wu

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Courses of English for specific academic purposes (ESAP) have become popular for higher education in Taiwan; however, no standardized tests have been developed for evaluating learners’ English proficiency in individual designated fields. Assuming a learner’s proficiency in a specific academic area is built up with one’s general proficiency in English with specific knowledge and vocabulary in the content areas, an adequate ESAP proficiency test may be constructed by some selected test items related to the designated academic areas. In this study, through collaboration between a language testing institution and a university in Taiwan, three sets of ESAP tests, covering three disciplinary areas of business and the workplace, science and engineering, and health and medicine majors, were developed and administered to sophomore students (N=1704) who were enrolled in ESAP courses at a university in southern Taiwan. For this study, the courses were grouped into the above-mentioned three disciplines, and students took the specialized proficiency test based on the ESAP course they were taking. Because students were free to select which ESAP course to take, each course had both major and non-major students. Toward the end of the one-semester course, ending in January, 2015, each student took two tests, one of general English (General English Proficiency Test, or GEPT) and the other ESAP. Following each test, students filled out a survey, reporting their test taking experiences. After comparing students’ two test scores, it was found that business majors and health and medical students performed better in ESAP than the non-majors in the class, whereas science and engineering majors did about the same as their non-major counterparts. In addition, test takers with CERF B2 (upper intermediate) level or above performed well in both tests, while students who are below B2 did slightly better in ESAP. The findings suggest that students’ test performance have been enhanced by their specialist content and vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, results of the survey show that the difficulty levels reported by students are consistent with their test performances. Based on the item analysis, the findings can be used to develop proficiency tests for specific disciplines and to identify ability indicators for college students in their designated fields.

Keywords: english for specific academic purposes (ESAP), general english proficiency test (GEPT), higher education, proficiency test

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Authors: Payton Small

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In response to increasing demographic diversity, many U.S. organizations have implemented diversity initiatives to increase the representation of women and ethnic minorities. While these initiatives aim to promote more fair and positive outcomes for underrepresented minorities (URMs) widespread backlash against these policies can negatively impact the groups of individuals that are supposed to be supported by them. A recent theory-based analysis of best practices for instituting diversity policies proposes an "inclusion for all" approach that negotiates the oft-divergent goals and motivations of both marginalized and dominant group members in these contexts. Empirical work finds that "inclusion for all" strategies decrease White's tendency to implicitly associate diversity with exclusion and increased their personal endorsement of diversity initiatives. Similarly, Whites report higher belongingness when considering an inclusion for all approach to diversity versus a colorblind approach. While inclusion-for-all approaches may effectively increase Whites' responsiveness to diversity efforts, the downstream consequences of implementing these policies on URM's have yet to be explored. The current research investigated how inclusion-for-all diversity framing influences Whites' sensitivity to detecting discrimination against URM's as well as perceptions of reverse discrimination against Whites. Lastly, the current research looked at how URM's respond to inclusion-for-all diversity approaches. Three studies investigated the impact of inclusion-for-all diversity framing on perceptions of discrimination against Whites and URM's in a company setting. Two separate mechanisms by which exposure to an inclusion-for-all diversity statement might differentially influence perceptions of discrimination for URMs and Whites were also tested. In Studies 1 and 2, exposure to an inclusion-for-all diversity approach reduced Whites' concerns about reverse discrimination and heightened sensitivity to detecting discrimination against URM's. These effects were mediated by decreased concerns about zero-sum outcomes at the company. Study 3 found that racial minorities are concerned about increased discrimination at a company with an inclusion-for-all diversity statement and that this effect is mediated by decreased feelings of belonging at the company. In sum, companies that adopt an inclusion-for-all approach to diversity implementation reduce Whites' backlash and the negative downstream consequences associated with such backlash; however, racial minorities feel excluded and expect heightened experiences of discrimination at these same companies.

Keywords: diversity, intergroup relations, organizational social psychology, zero-sum

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Authors: Vered Holzmann, Ramzi Halabi

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The current research investigates motivators and barriers to high-tech entrepreneurship in the Israeli-Arab Community. With the aim to exploit the capacity of Israel as a 'start-up nation', we identify the most important aspects to promote integration of Israeli-Arab entrepreneurs in high-tech startups and business companies, thus impact the socio-economic status of the Arab community in Israel. We reviewed the literature on the role of high-tech and entrepreneurship in the Israeli economy, the profile of the Israeli-Arab community with regard to education and employability, and the characteristics of minority entrepreneurship to understand entrepreneurs' intentions, their incentives to choose the entrepreneurial route on one hand and the obstacles that they face on the other hand. Based on the literature review, we conducted an integrated study that included a survey among 73 Israeli-Arabs involved in high-tech entrepreneurship and 16 semi-structured interviews with Israeli-Arab and Jewish entrepreneurs and leaders in the high-tech industry. We analyzed the data to explore personal and social motivating factors to entrepreneurship as well as educational and socio-economical barriers for entrepreneurship. Three major elements were found to be the most influential on Arab high-tech entrepreneurship in Israel: education, financial resources, and strategic-institutional support. The relationship between education and employability that is well-known with regard to general education, requires two additional aspects in the field of high-tech entrepreneurship: education of technology and engineering, and education of business and entrepreneurship. The study findings reveal that the main motivation factors for entrepreneurship are development of creative ideas and improvement of the socio-economic status, while financial-related factors and lack of institutional and governmental support are perceived as impediments to entrepreneurial activities. Financing difficulties are mainly derived from discriminating financial environment and lack of professional networking. The relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth seems to be clear and simple; thus it is a national interest to encourage entrepreneurship among the Arab community, and especially high-tech entrepreneurship which has a significant role in the economic growth of Israel.

Keywords: high-tech industry, innovation management, Israeli-Arab community, minority entrepreneurship, motivating factors and barriers

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Authors: Musa Shu'aibu

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This paper centered on the abuse of secretarial profession by employers of labour. The paper further explains vividly the meaning of secretarial profession and that of a secretary. The paper also makes an attempt to explain the training of a secretary, duties and business attributes of a secretary. It further highlighted the personal attributes of a secretary, prospects of secretaries/secretarial profession and some abuses of the secretarial profession were discussed. It concluded that the rapid advancement in technology has changed today's offices which resulted in changing in the requirement of today's secretarial posts. Finally, recommendations were provided.

Keywords: abuse, employers, labour, profession

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Authors: Mohosina Jabin Toma, Gerald Tembrevilla, Marina Milner-Bolotin

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Science education in Bangladesh is losing its appeal at an alarming rate due to the lack of science laboratory equipment, excessive teacher-student ratio, and outdated teaching strategies. Research-based educational technologies aim to address some of the problems faced by teachers who have limited access to laboratory resources, like many Bangladeshi teachers. Physics Education Technology (PhET) research team has been developing science and mathematics interactive simulations to help students develop deeper conceptual understanding. Still, PhET simulations are rarely used in Bangladesh. The purpose of this study is to explore Bangladeshi teachers’ challenges in learning to implement PhET-enhanced pedagogies and examine teachers’ views on PhET’s pedagogical opportunities in secondary science education. Since it is a new technology for Bangladesh, seven workshops on PhET were conducted in Dhaka city for 129 in-service and pre-service teachers in the winter of 2023 prior to data collection. This study followed an explanatory mixed method approach that included a pre-and post-workshop survey and five semi-structured interviews. Teachers participated in the workshops voluntarily and shared their experiences at the end. Teachers’ challenges were also identified from workshop discussions and observations. The interviews took place three to four weeks after the workshop and shed light on teachers’ experiences of using PhET in actual classroom settings. The results suggest that teachers had difficulty handling new technology; hence, they recommended preparing a booklet and Bengali YouTube videos on PhET to assist them in overcoming their struggles. Teachers also faced challenges in using any inquiry-based learning approach due to the content-loaded curriculum and exam-oriented education system, as well as limited experience with inquiry-based education. The short duration of classes makes it difficult for them to design PhET activities. Furthermore, considering limited access to computers and the internet in school, teachers think PhET simulations can bring positive changes if used in homework activities. Teachers also think they lack pedagogical skills and sound content knowledge to take full advantage of PhET. They highly appreciated the workshops and proposed that the government designs some teacher training modules on how to incorporate PhET simulations. Despite all the challenges, teachers believe PhET can enhance student learning, ensure student engagement and increase student interest in STEM Education. Considering the lack of science laboratory equipment, teachers recognized the potential of PhET as a supplement to hands-on activities for secondary science education in Bangladesh. They believed that if PhET develops more curriculum-relevant sims, it will bring revolutionary changes to how Bangladeshi students learn science. All the participating teachers in this study came from two organizations, and all the workshops took place in urban areas; therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to all secondary science teachers. A nationwide study is required to include teachers from diverse backgrounds. A further study can shed light on how building a professional learning community can lessen teachers’ challenges in incorporating PhET-enhanced pedagogy in their teaching.

Keywords: educational technology, inquiry-based learning, PhET interactive simulations, PhET-enhanced pedagogies, science education, science laboratory equipment, teacher professional development

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Authors: Bangaly Kaba

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In the global information society, the importance of the Internet cannot be overemphasized. Africa needs access to the powerful information and communication tools of the Internet in order to obtain the resources and efficiency essential for sustainable development. Unfortunately, in 2013, the data from Internetworldstats showed only 15% of African populations have access to Internet. This relative low Internet penetration rate signals a problem that may threaten the economic development, governmental efficiency, and ultimately the global competitiveness of African countries. Many initiatives were undertaken to bring the benefits of the global information revolution to the people of Africa, through connection to the Internet and other Global Information Infrastructure technologies. The purpose is to understand differences between socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged internet users. From that, we will determine what prevents disadvantaged groups from benefiting from Internet usage. Data were collected through a survey from Internet users in Ivory Coast. The results reveal that Personal network exposure, Self-efficacy and Availability are the key drivers of continued use intention for the socio-economically disadvantaged group. The theoretical and practical implications are also described.

Keywords: digital inequality, internet, integrative model, socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged, use continuance, Africa

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Authors: Driss Kettani

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ICT4D actors are naturally attempted to include AI in the range of enabling technologies and tools that could support and boost the Development process, and to refer to these as AI4D. But, doing so, assumes that AI complies with the very specific features of ICT4D context, including, among others, affordability, relevance, openness, and ownership. Clearly, none of these is fulfilled, and the enthusiastic posture that AI4D is a natural part of ICT4D is not grounded and, to certain extent, does not serve the purpose of Technology for Development at all. In the context of Development, it is important to emphasize and prioritize ICT4D, in the national digital transformation strategies, instead of borrowing "trendy" waves of the IT Industry that are motivated by business considerations, with no specific care/consideration to Development.

Keywords: AI, ICT4D, technology for development, position paper

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Authors: Khin Thi Htun, James Jain, Tim Andrews

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This study examines the under-researched phenomenon of crowdfunding use and effectiveness in developing non-western markets. More precisely, using an institutional theoretical lens, the research explores the attitudes, motivations, and practice surrounding the initiation, development, and receipt of crowdfunding campaignsin a business context symptomatic of widely dissimilar regulatory, normative cognitive institutional ‘pillars’ to those studied – and utilized in practice - to date. As, in essence, a form of alternative finance, crowdfunding is used primarily to fund a wide range of projects through the securement of small amounts of money from a large pool of investors/participants. Being tied almost inextricably to e-commerce channels, the practice of crowdfunding typically sources its means and communicates the purpose of each venture mainly, though not exclusively, online. The wide range of projects supported to date span social entrepreneurship, community benefits initiatives, creative and artistic endeavors, assistance to disadvantaged social cohorts, and small business start-ups. Adopting a longitudinal, comparative approach, the study reported here embodies an investigation centered on six case start-up campaigns within the Thai societal context, covering a range of fundings calls and cause choices. Data was sourced from a variety of respondents using semi-structured interviews, observation (direct and participant), and company information. Results suggest that the motives and effectiveness of crowdfunding campaigns differ significantly in non-western consumer contexts from the norms that have evolved to date in mature Western contexts(particularly the US and UK). Specifically, whereas data on the different regulatory pressures showed relatively insignificant variation, the results regarding cognitive and, especially, normative dissimilarities between the Thai and US/UK institutional profiles surfaced potentially important differences with far-reaching implications. Particular issuesto emerge from our data concerned consumer motivation in terms of support and engagement with different types of campaigns. This was found to stem from social norms symptomatic of ‘collectivist’ and ‘relations based/particularist’ cultural assistance behavior, in turn, linked to deeply-held societal values regarding interpersonal network (‘in group’) reciprocity. This research serves to refine and extend the limited body of knowledge to date on crowdfunding by exploring the phenomenon in a non-western, non-developed country contextswhere social norms and values differ. This was achieved through uncovering and explicating the effects of cultural dissimilarity on motivation, decision-making, construed ethics, and general engagement with crowdfunding ideas. Implications for theory into e-marketing and cross-cultural marketing, as well as for practitioners seeking to develop effective crowdfunding campaigns in a Southeast Asian cultural environment, are discussed to conclude the paper.

Keywords: crowdfunding, national culture, e-marketing, cross-cultural business

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Authors: Dale Dzemydiene, Aurelija Burinskiene, Arunas Miliauskas, Kristina Ciziuniene

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Data flow and the purpose of reporting the data are different and dependent on business needs. Different parameters are reported and transferred regularly during freight delivery. This business practices form the dataset constructed for each time point and contain all required information for freight moving decisions. As a significant amount of these data is used for various purposes, an integrating methodological approach must be developed to respond to the indicated problem. The proposed methodology contains several steps: (1) collecting context data sets and data validation; (2) multi-objective analysis for optimizing freight transfer services. For data validation, the study involves Grubbs outliers analysis, particularly for data cleaning and the identification of statistical significance of data reporting event cases. The Grubbs test is often used as it measures one external value at a time exceeding the boundaries of standard normal distribution. In the study area, the test was not widely applied by authors, except when the Grubbs test for outlier detection was used to identify outsiders in fuel consumption data. In the study, the authors applied the method with a confidence level of 99%. For the multi-objective analysis, the authors would like to select the forms of construction of the genetic algorithms, which have more possibilities to extract the best solution. For freight delivery management, the schemas of genetic algorithms' structure are used as a more effective technique. Due to that, the adaptable genetic algorithm is applied for the description of choosing process of the effective transportation corridor. In this study, the multi-objective genetic algorithm methods are used to optimize the data evaluation and select the appropriate transport corridor. The authors suggest a methodology for the multi-objective analysis, which evaluates collected context data sets and uses this evaluation to determine a delivery corridor for freight transfer service in the multi-modal transportation network. In the multi-objective analysis, authors include safety components, the number of accidents a year, and freight delivery time in the multi-modal transportation network. The proposed methodology has practical value in the management of multi-modal transportation processes.

Keywords: multi-objective, analysis, data flow, freight delivery, methodology

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Authors: Thomas Lauer

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The paper aims to give an overview of change management research by using bibliometric methodology. Based on research papers of the last decade, which are listed on Research Gate, a multidimensional categorization is done. Considering categories like topic (e.g., success factors), industry, or research methodology, the development of the discipline is traced and, in a second step, confronted with external developments of the business environment, such as climate change, gen Z or COVID, to name a few. Based on these findings, a final evaluation concerning the thematical fit of previous research topics is also made, as well as a preview of likely future trends in change management sciences.

Keywords: change management, bibliometrics, scientific trends, research topics

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