Search results for: international firms

Authors: Bilgehan Gültekin, Tuba Gültekin

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It is quite essential to form dialogue mechanisms and dialogue channels to solve intercultural communication issues. Therefore, every country should develop a intercultural education project which aims to resolve international communication issues. For proper mediation training, the first step is to reach an agreement on the actors to run the project. The strongest mediation mechanisms in the world should be analyzed and initiated within the educational policies. A communication-based mediation model should be developed for international mediation training. Mediators can use their convincing communication skills as a part of this model. At the first, fundamental stages of the mediation training should be specified within the scope of the model. Another important topic at this point is common sence and peace leaders to act as an ombudsman in this process. Especially for solving some social issues and conflicts, common sense leaders acting as an ombudsman would lead to effective communication. In mediation training that is run by universities and non-governmental organizations, another phase is to focus on conducting the meetings. In intercultural mediation training, one of the most critical topics is to conduct the meeting traffic and performing a shuttle diplomacy. Meeting traffic is where the mediator organizes meetings with the parties with initiative powers, in order to contribute to the solution of the issue, and schedule these meetings. In this notice titled “ Intercultural mediation training and the training process of common sense leaders by the leadership of universities communication and artistic campaigns" , communication models and strategies about this topic will be constructed and an intercultural art activities and perspectives will be presented.

Keywords: Intercultural communication, mediation education, common sense leaders, artistic sensitivity

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Authors: Carlo Bellettini, Alessandro Marchetto, Andrea Trentini

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Web applications have become complex and crucial for many firms, especially when combined with areas such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BPR (Business Process Reengineering). The scientific community has focused attention to Web application design, development, analysis, testing, by studying and proposing methodologies and tools. Static and dynamic techniques may be used to analyze existing Web applications. The use of traditional static source code analysis may be very difficult, for the presence of dynamically generated code, and for the multi-language nature of the Web. Dynamic analysis may be useful, but it has an intrinsic limitation, the low number of program executions used to extract information. Our reverse engineering analysis, used into our WAAT (Web Applications Analysis and Testing) project, applies mutational techniques in order to exploit server side execution engines to accomplish part of the dynamic analysis. This paper studies the effects of mutation source code analysis applied to Web software to build application models. Mutation-based generated models may contain more information then necessary, so we need a pruning mechanism.

Keywords: Validation, Dynamic Analysis, MutationAnalysis, Reverse Engineering, Web Applications

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Authors: Päivi J. Tossavainen , Leena Alakoski, Katri Ojasalo

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Building a service-centric business model requires new knowledge and capabilities in companies. This paper enlightens the challenges small and medium sized firms (SMEs) face when developing their service-centric business models. This paper examines the premise for knowledge transfer and capability development required. The objective of this paper is to increase knowledge about SME-s transformation to service-centric business models.This paper reports an action research based case study. The paper provides empirical evidence from three case companies. The empirical data was collected through multiple methods. The findings of the paper are: First, the developed model to analyze the current state in companies. Second, the process of building the service – centric business models. Third, the selection of suitable service development methods. The lack of a holistic understanding on service logic suggests that SMEs need practical and easy to use methods to improve their business

Keywords: service-centric business model, service development, action research, case study

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Authors: Kristina Maiksteniene

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Various formal and informal brand alliances are being formed in professional service firms. Professional service corporate brand is heavily dependent on brands of professional employees who comprise them, and professional employee brands are in turn dependent on the corporate brand. Prior work provides limited scientific evidence of brand alliance effects in professional service area – i.e., how professional service corporate-employee brand allies are affected by an alliance, what are brand attitude effects after alliance formation and how these effects vary with different strengths of an ally. Scientific literature analysis and theoretical modeling are the main methods of the current study. As a result, a theoretical model is constructed for estimating spillover effects of professional service corporate-employee brand alliances and for comparison among different professional service firm expertise practice models – from “brains" to “procedure" model. The resulting theoretical model lays basis for future experimental studies.

Keywords: Brand alliances, professional services, corporatebrand, employee brand.

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Authors: Adeolu O. Dairo

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

Keywords: Geospatial, geo-analytics, self-organizing map, customer-centric.

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Authors: Aliya Isaeva, Anar Sultaniarova

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The report focuses on such an important indicator of the nature and direction of development of ethnic and cultural processes in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as ethno linguistic situation. It is shown that, in essence, on the one hand, expresses the degree of the actual propagation and the level of use of the languages of the various ethnic communities. On the other hand, reflects the important patterns, trends and prospects of ethno-cultural and ethnodemographic processes in the Republic. It is important to note that the ethno linguistic situation in different regions of Kazakhstan, due to its more dynamic and much more difficult to demonstrate a much greater variety of options when compared with the ethnic situation in the country. For the two major ethnic groups of the republic – Kazakh and Russian language ethno differentiating retains its value, while for the other ethnic groups observed decline in the importance of this indicator. As you know, the language of international communication in the country is Russian. As the censuses of population, the Russian language in many areas of Northern, Central and Eastern Kazakhstan becomes a means of ethno linguistic development for most of the non-Russian population. This is most clearly illustrated by the Germans, and the Slavic ethnic groups. In this case, the Russian language is not just a means of international communication for a number of ethnic groups, and ethnic groups, it becomes a factor of ethnic self-expression. The value of the Kazakh language as their mother tongue for the other groups of the population is small. More clearly it can be traced only to the Turkic-speaking population of the republic – Uzbeks, Uighurs, Tatars, Turks, etc. The state Kazakh language is a means of international communication in the Western and Southern Kazakhstan, with a predominance of the Kazakh population. The report shows that the most important factor in the development of ethno-linguistic and ethno-cultural processes is bilingualism. Comparative analysis of materials census shows, first, on the increase of the proportion of bilingual population among Kazakhs and Russian, and second, to reduce the proportion of bilingual population of other ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan, and third, a higher proportion bilingual population among residents than rural residents, regardless of their ethnicity. Bilingualism is mainly of a "national Kazakh", "national Russian" or "Kazakh-national" or "Russian-national" character. The President N.A. Nazarbayev said that the Kazakh language is the most important factor in the consolidation of the people of Kazakhstan. He therefore called on government and other state and local representative bodies fully develop the state language, to create all the necessary organizational, material and technical conditions for free and open learning the state language by all citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Keywords: Ethnos, ethno cultural processes, ethnolinguistic situation, mother tongue, bilingualism.

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Authors: Jirarat Teeravaraprug, Tarathorn Podcharathitikull

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

Keywords: AHP, Eco-industrial town, success factors, Thailand.

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Authors: Giorgi Gaprindashvili

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One of the best examples, in evolution of the public procurement, from post-soviet countries are reforms carried out in Georgia, which brought them close to international standards of procurement. In Georgia, public procurement legislation started functioning short after gaining independence. The reform has passed several stages and came in the form as it is today. It should also be noted, that countries with economy in transition, including Georgia, implemented all the reforms in public procurement based on recommendations and support of World Bank, the United Nations and other international organizations. The aim of first adopted law was regulation of the procurement process of budget-organizations, transparency and creation of competitive environment for private companies to access state funds legally. The priorities were identified quite clearly in the wording of the law, but operation/function of this law could not be reached on its level, because of some objective and subjective reasons. The high level of corruption in all levels of governance can be considered as a main obstacle reason and of course, it is natural, that it had direct impact on the procurement process, as well as on transparency and rational use of state funds. These circumstances were the reasons that reforms in this sphere continued, to improve procurement process, in particular, the first wave of reforms began after several years. Public procurement agency carried out reform with World Bank with main purpose of smartening the procurement legislation and its harmonization with international treaties and agreements. Also with the support of World Bank various activities were carried out to raise awareness of participants involved in procurement system. Further major changes in the legislation were filed bit later, which was also directed towards the improvement and smarten of the procurement process. The third wave of the reform more or less guaranteed the transparency of the procurement process, which later became the basis for the rational spending of state funds. The reform of the procurement system completely changed the procedures. Carried out reform in Georgia resulted in introducing new electronic tendering system, which benefit the transparency of the process, after this became the basis for the further development of a competitive environment, which become a prerequisite for the state rational spending. Increased number of supplier organizations participating in the procurement process resulted in reduction of the estimated cost and the actual cost. Assessment of the reforms in Georgia in the field of public procurement can be concluded, that proper regulation of the sector and relevant policy may proceed to rational and transparent spending of the budget from country’s state institutions. Also, the business sector has the opportunity to work in competitive market conditions and to make a preliminary analysis, which is a prerequisite for future strategy and development.

Keywords: Public Administration, Public Procurement, Reforms, Transparency.

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Authors: Tung-Liang Chen, Ming - Yi Huang, Tchiu-Hui Su

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This study investigates the relationships between Work Motivation, Work Stress, and Job Satisfaction toward cross-strait employees. The target subjects are three manufacturing firms in Mainland China and Taiwan. Out of 450 distributed surveys, 352 valid surveys were obtained with the response rate of 78.22%.The findings have addressed three main pull factors toward cross-strait employees in choosing jobs, which are (1) high level of firm stability, (2) good firm image, and (3) good employee benefits. In addition, various employee attributes exert different impacts on Work Motivation, Work Stress, and Job Satisfaction. The comparison between expected and actual perceived Job Satisfaction toward cross-strait employees shows that “salary" ranks highest regarding expected Job Satisfaction whereas “co-worker relationship" ranks highest regarding actual perceived Job Satisfaction, which implies actual perceived Job Satisfaction do not match employee expectations. Therefore, this research further concludes that there exists differences between employees- expected and actual perceived Job Satisfaction.

Keywords: Cross-strait, job satisfaction, work motivation, work stress

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Authors: J. Cheeneebash, K. B. Lallmamode, A. Gopaul

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Throughout this paper, a relatively new technique, the Tabu search variable selection model, is elaborated showing how it can be efficiently applied within the financial world whenever researchers come across the selection of a subset of variables from a whole set of descriptive variables under analysis. In the field of financial prediction, researchers often have to select a subset of variables from a larger set to solve different type of problems such as corporate bankruptcy prediction, personal bankruptcy prediction, mortgage, credit scoring and the Arbitrage Pricing Model (APM). Consequently, to demonstrate how the method operates and to illustrate its usefulness as well as its superiority compared to other commonly used methods, the Tabu search algorithm for variable selection is compared to two main alternative search procedures namely, the stepwise regression and the maximum R 2 improvement method. The Tabu search is then implemented in finance; where it attempts to predict corporate bankruptcy by selecting the most appropriate financial ratios and thus creating its own prediction score equation. In comparison to other methods, mostly the Altman Z-Score model, the Tabu search model produces a higher success rate in predicting correctly the failure of firms or the continuous running of existing entities.

Keywords: Predicting Bankruptcy, Tabu Search

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Authors: Manirath Wongsim, Pawornprat Hongsakon

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Information Quality (IQ) has become a critical, strategic issue in Accounting Information Systems (AIS) adoption. In order to implement AIS adoption successfully, it is important to consider the quality of information use throughout the adoption process, which seriously impacts the effectiveness of AIS adoption practice and the optimisation of AIS adoption decisions. There is a growing need for research to provide insights into issues and solutions related to IQ in AIS adoption. The need for an integrated approach to improve IQ in AIS adoption, as well as the unique characteristics of accounting data, demands an AIS adoption specific IQ framework. This research aims to explore ways of managing information quality and AIS adoption to investigate the relationship between the IQ issues and AIS adoption process. This study has led to the development of a framework for understanding IQ management in AIS adoption. This research was done on 44 respondents as ten organisations from manufacturing firms in Thailand. The findings of the research’s empirical evidence suggest that IQ dimensions in AIS adoption to provide assistance in all process of decision making. This research provides empirical evidence that information quality of AIS adoption affect decision making and suggests that these variables should be considered in adopting AIS in order to improve the effectiveness of AIS.

Keywords: Information quality, information quality dimensions, accounting information systems, accounting Information system adoption.

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Authors: XhevrieMamaqi

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Organization capacity learning is a process referring to the sum total of individual and collective learning through training programs, experience and experimentation, among others. Today, in-business ongoing training is one of the most important strategies for human capital development and it is crucial to sustain and improve workers’ knowledge and skills. Many organizations, firms and business are adopting a strategy of continuous learning, encouraging employees to learn new skills continually to be innovative and to try new processes and work in order to achieve a competitive advantage and superior business results. This paper uses the Resource Based View and Capacities (RBV) approach to construct a hypothetical relationships model between training and business results. The test of the model is applied on transversal data. A sample of 266 business of Spanish sector service has been selected. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) is used to estimate the relationship between ongoing training, represented by two latent dimension denominated Human and Social Capital resources and economic business results. The coefficients estimated have shown the efficient of some training aspectsexplaining the variation in business results.

Keywords: Business results, Human and Social Capital resources, training, RBV Theory, SEM.

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Authors: Ashkan Mirzay Fashami

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This study examines the effects of auditor switch, auditee’s industry, and auditee’s location on audit fees in Australia. It uses fee data of Australian Securities Exchange 500 companies, considering all industry classifications throughout the country from 2006 until 2016. Main findings show that auditor switch does not affect audit fees. However, auditee’s industry affects audit fees. This effect occurs in information technology, financials, energy, and materials sectors among the top 500 companies. Financials, energy, and materials sectors face a fee rise, whereas information technology has a fee cut. The extent of fee changes is different among various industries, wherein the financial sector has the highest increase. Further, auditee’s location affects audit fees. Top 500 companies in Hobart, Perth, and Brisbane face a fee reduction, wherein the highest cut is in Hobart. Further analysis suggests that the Australian audit market is being increasingly concentrated in the hands of the Big Four audit firms.

Keywords: Audit fee, auditor switch, Australia, industry, location.

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Authors: González Carreño G., Rejas Muslera Rj., Padilla Fernández-Vega J., Cepeda González M. I.

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Automobile Industry has great importance in the Spanish economy (8,7 % of the active Spanish population is employed in this sector).The above mentioned sector has been one of the principal sectors affected by the current economic crisis, consistently, the budgets in advertising have been severely limited (46,9 % less in the period of reference), these needs of reduction have originated a substantial change in the advertising strategy (from 2007 the increase of the advertising investment in Internet is 251,6 %), and increase profitability. The growing use of social media by consumers therefore makes online consumer conversations an attractive additional format for Automobile firms to promote products at a lower cost. This research analyzes the relation between the activity in Social Media and the design in the car industry, looking for relations between strategies of design based on Social Media and sales and a channel of information for companies to know what the consumer preferences. For this ongoing research we used a longitudinal withdrawal of information has been used using information of panel. Managerial and research implications of the finding are discussed.

Keywords: Automobile Industry, Design, Economics Crisis, Innovation, Internet, Social Media.

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Authors: Arūnas Burinskas

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Although Europe is on the threshold of a new industrial revolution called Industry 4.0, many believe that this will increase the flexibility of production, the mass adaptation of products to consumers and the speed of their service; it will also improve product quality and dramatically increase productivity. However, as expected, all the benefits of Industry 4.0 face many of the inevitable changes and challenges they pose. One of them is the inevitable transformation of current competition and business models. This article examines the possible results of competitive conversion from the classic Bertrand and Cournot models to qualitatively new competition based on innovation. Ability to deliver a new product quickly and the possibility to produce the individual design (through flexible and quickly configurable factories) by reducing equipment failures and increasing process automation and control is highly important. This study shows that the ongoing transformation of the competition model is changing the game. This, together with the creation of complex value networks, means huge investments that make it particularly difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the ongoing digitalization of data raises new concerns regarding legal obligations, intellectual property, and security.

Keywords: Bertrand and Cournot Competition, competition model, Industry 4.0, industrial organization, monopolistic competition.

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Authors: Nazira B. Boldurukova

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The main aim of this article is to give the information about life and social and diplomatic work of Zhou Enlai, to prove his identity in his impact to the history of the world; to show his place in the organization of internal and foreign policy and in the peaceful international relationships of China with other countries.

Keywords: China, foreign policy of China, identity, politician, diplomacy, Zhou Enlai.

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Authors: Paisarn Larpsomboonchai

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Agro-industry is one of major industries that have strong impacts on national economic incomes, growth, stability, and sustainable development. Moreover, this industry also has strong influences on social, cultural and political issues. Furthermore, this industry, as producing primary and secondary products, is facing challenges from such diverse factors such as demand inconsistency, intense international competition, technological advancements and new competitors. In order to maintain and to improve industry’s competitiveness in both domestics and international markets, science and technology are key factors. Besides hard sciences and technologies, modern industrial engineering concepts such as Just in Time (JIT) Total Quality Management (TQM), Quick Response (QR), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Lean can be very effective to support to increase efficiency and effectiveness of these agricultural products on world stage. Onion is one of Thailand’s major export products which bring back national incomes. But, it is also facing challenges in many ways. This paper focused its interests in onion packing process and its related activities such as storage and shipment from one of major packing plant and storage in Mae Wang District, Chiang Mai, Thailand, by applying Toyota Production System (TPS) or Lean concepts, to improve process capability throughout the entire packing and distribution process which will be profitable for the whole onion supply chain. And it will be beneficial to other related agricultural products in Thailand and other ASEAN countries.

Keywords: Lean Concepts, Lean in Agro-industries Activities, Packing Process, Toyota Production System (TPS), Waste Reduction.

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Authors: Ari Lindeman, Melina Maunula, Jani Kiviranta, Ronja Pölkki

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The aim of this paper is to build a vision of the utilization of creative industry competences in industrial and services firms connected to Kymenlaakso region, Finland, smart specialization focus areas. Research indicates that creativity and the use of creative industry’s inputs can enhance innovation and competitiveness. Currently creative methods and services are underutilized in regional businesses and the added value they provide is not well grasped. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative exploratory approach. Data is collected in multiple ways including a survey, focus groups, and interviews. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the discussion about the use creative industry competences in regional development, and argues for building regional creative economy ecosystems in close co-operation with regional strategies and traditional industries rather than as treating regional creative industry ecosystem initiatives separate from them. The practical contribution of the paper is the creative vision for the use of regional authorities in updating smart specialization strategy as well as boosting industrial and creative & cultural sectors’ competitiveness. The paper also illustrates a research-based model of vision building.

Keywords: Business, cooperation, creative economy, regional development, vision.

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Authors: Insaf Mehani, Ahmed Boulal, Bachir Bouchekima

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Renewable energy, including bio energy are an alternative to fossil fuel depletion and a way to fight against the harmful effects of climate change. It is possible to develop common dates of low commercial value, and put on the local and international market a new generation of products with high added values ​​such as bio ethanol. Besides its use in chemical synthesis, bio ethanol can be blended with gasoline to produce a clean fuel while improving the octane.

Keywords: Bio energy, dates, bio ethanol.

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Authors: Chan-Sik Kim, Jong-Seong Kim, Se Won Lee, Hoo-Gon Choi

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In rapidly changing market environment, firms are investing a lot of time and resources into new product development (NPD) projects to make profit and to obtain competitive advantage. However, failure rate of NPD projects is becoming high due to various internal and external risks which hinder successful NPD projects. To reduce the failure rate, it is critical that risks have to be managed effectively and efficiently through good strategy, and treated by optimal responses to minimize risk cost. Four strategies are adopted to handle the risks in this study. The optimal responses are characterized by high reduction of risk costs with high efficiency. This study suggests a framework to decide the optimal responses considering the core risks, risk costs, response efficiency and response costs for successful NPD projects. Both binary particles warm optimization (BPSO) and multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) methods are mainly used in the framework. Although several limitations exist in use for real industries, the frame work shows good strength for handling the risks with highly scientific ways through an example.

Keywords: NPD projects, risk cost, strategy, optimal responses, Particle Swarm Optimization.

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Authors: J. J. Gyimah, E. Kissi, S. Osei-Tutu, C. D. Adobor, T. Adjei-Kumi, E. Osei-Tutu

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Price fluctuation contract is imperative and of paramount essence in the construction industry as it provides adequate relief and cushioning for changes in the prices of input resources during construction. As a result, several methods have been devised to better help in arriving at fair recompense in the event of price changes. However, stakeholders often appear not to be satisfied with the existing methods of fluctuation evaluation, ostensibly because of the challenges associated with them. The aim of this study was to identify the challenges to usage of building construction cost indices in Ghana. Data were gathered from contractors and quantity surveying firms. The study utilized survey questionnaire approach to elicit responses from the contractors and the consultants. Data gathered were analyzed scientifically, using the Relative Importance Index (RII) to rank the problems associated with the existing methods. The findings revealed the following among others: late release of data; inadequate recovery of costs; and work items of interest not included in the published indices as the main challenges of the existing methods. Findings provided useful lessons for policy makers and practitioners in decision making towards the usage and improvement of available indices.

Keywords: Building construction cost indices, challenges, usage, Ghana.

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Authors: Kyoko Tominaga

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Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs), Social Enterprises and other actors play an important role in political decisions in governments at the international levels. Especially, such organizations’ and activists’ network in civil society is quite important to effect to the global politics. To solve the complex social problems in global era, diverse actors should corporate each other. Moreover, network of protesters is also contributes to diffuse tactics, information and other resources of social movements.

Based on the findings from the study of International Trade Fairs (ITFs), the author analyzes the network of activists in anti-globalism movement. This research focuses the transition of 54 activists’ whole network in the “protest event” against 2008 G8 summit in Japan. Their network is examined at the three periods: Before protest event phase, during protest event phase and after event phase. A mixed method is used in this study: the author shows the hypothesis from social network analysis and evaluates that with interview data analysis. This analysis gives the two results. Firstly, the more protesters participate to the various events during the protest event, the more they build the network. After that, active protesters keep their network as well. From interview data, we can understand that the active protesters can build their network and diffuse the information because they communicate with other participants and understand that diverse issues are related. This paper comes to same conclusion with previous researches: protest events activate the network among the political activists. However, some participants succeed to build their network, others do not. “Networked” activists are participated in the various events for short period of time and encourage the diffusion of information and tactics of social movements.

Keywords: Social Movement, Global Justice Movement, Tactics, Diffusion.

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Authors: Manouchehre Ansari, Mahmoud Dehghan Nayeri, Reza Yousefi Zenouz

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In order to develop any strategy, it is essential to first identify opportunities, threats, weak and strong points. Assessment of technology level provides the possibility of concentrating on weak and strong points. The results of technology assessment have a direct effect on decision making process in the field of technology transfer or expansion of internal research capabilities so it has a critical role in technology management. This paper presents a conceptual model to analyze the technology capability of a company as a whole and in four main aspects of technology. This model was tested on 10 automotive parts manufacturers in IRAN. Using this model, capability level of manufacturers was investigated in four fields of managing aspects, hard aspects, human aspects, and information and knowledge aspects. Results show that these firms concentrate on hard aspect of technology while others aspects are poor and need to be supported more. So this industry should develop other aspects of technology as well as hard aspect to have effective and efficient use of its technology. These paper findings are useful for the technology planning and management in automotive part manufactures in IRAN and other Industries which are technology followers and transport their needed technologies.

Keywords: Technology, Technological evaluation, TechnologyMaturity

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Authors: Ming Ling Lai, Zalilawati Yaacob, Normah Omar, Norashikin Abdul Aziz, Bee Wah Yap

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This paper aims to (1) analyze the profiles of transgressors (detected evaders); (2) examine reason(s) that triggered a tax audit, causes of tax evasion, audit timeframe and tax penalty charged; and (3) to assess if tax auditors followed the guidelines as stated in the 'Tax Audit Framework' when conducting tax audits. In 2011, the Inland Revenue Board Malaysia (IRBM) had audited and finalized 557 company cases. With official permission, data of all the 557 cases were obtained from the IRBM. Of these, a total of 421 cases with complete information were analyzed. About 58.1% was small and medium corporations and from the construction industry (32.8%). The selection for tax audit was based on risk analysis (66.8%), information from third party (11.1%), and firm with low profitability or fluctuating profit pattern (7.8%). The three persistent causes of tax evasion by firms were over claimed expenses (46.8%), fraudulent reporting of income (38.5%) and overstating purchases (10.5%). These findings are consistent with past literature. Results showed that tax auditors took six to 18 months to close audit cases. More than half of tax evaders were fined 45% on additional tax raised during audit for the first offence. The study found tax auditors did follow the guidelines in the 'Tax Audit Framework' in audit selection, settlement and penalty imposition.

Keywords: Corporate tax fraud, tax non-compliance, tax evasion, tax audit, fraudulent reporting.

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Authors: Boonlert Watjatrakul

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Mobile marketing through mobile messaging service has highly impressive growth as it enables e-business firms to communicate with their customers effectively. Educational institutions hence start using this service to enhance communication with their students. Previous studies, however, have limited understanding of applying mobile messaging service in education. This study proposes a theoretical model to understand the drivers of students- intentions to use the university-s mobile messaging service. The model indicates that social influence, perceived control and attitudes affect students- intention to use the university-s mobile messaging service. It also provides five antecedents of students- attitudes–perceived utility (information utility, entertainment utility, and social utility), innovativeness, information seeking, transaction specificity (content specificity, sender specificity, and time specificity) and privacy concern. The proposed model enables universities to understand what students concern about the use of a mobile messaging service in universities and handle the service more effectively. The paper discusses the model development and concludes with limitations and implications of the proposed model.

Keywords: education, intention, mobile marketing, mobile messaging.

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Authors: Nazli Akhlaghinia, Ali Rajabzadeh Ghatari

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In today's world, with increasing environmental awareness, firms are facing severe pressure from various stakeholders, including the government and customers, to reduce their harmful effects on the environment. Over the past few decades, the increasing effects of global warming, climate change, waste, and air pollution have increased the global attention of experts to the issue of the green supply chain and led them to the optimal solution for greenery. Green supply chain management (GSCM) plays an important role in motivating the sustainability of the organization. With increasing environmental concerns, the main objective of the research is to use system thinking methodology and Vensim software for designing a dynamic system model for green supply chain and observing behaviors. Using this methodology, we look for the effects of a green supply chain structure on the behavioral dynamics of output variables. We try to simulate the complexity of GSCM in a period of 30 months and observe the complexity of behaviors of variables including sustainability, providing green products, and reducing energy consumption, and consequently reducing sample pollution.

Keywords: Supply chain management, green supply chain management, system dynamics, energy consumption.

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Authors: Insaf Mehani, Bachir Bouchekima

Abstract:

The fight against climate change and the replacement of fossil energies nearing exhaustion gradually emerge as major societal and economic challenges. It is possible to develop common dates of low commercial value, and put on the local and international market a new generation of products with high added values such as bio ethanol. Besides its use in chemical synthesis, bio ethanol can be blended with gasoline to produce a clean fuel while improving the octane.

Keywords: Bio energy, waste dates, bio ethanol.

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Authors: Maha Hammami, Olfa Benouda Sioud

Abstract:

This study investigates the reliability of management earnings forecasts with reference to these two ingredients: verifiability and neutrality. Specifically, we examine the biasedness (or accuracy) of management earnings forecasts and company specific characteristics that can be associated with accuracy. Based on sample of 102 IPO prospectuses published for admission on NYSE Euronext Paris from 2002 to 2010, we found that these forecasts are on average optimistic and two of the five test variables, earnings variability and financial leverage are significant in explaining ex post bias. Acknowledging the possibility that the bias is the result of the managers’ forecasting behavior, we then examine whether managers decide to under-predict, over-predict or forecast accurately for self-serving purposes. Explicitly, we examine the role of financial distress, operating performance, ownership by insiders and the economy state in influencing managers’ forecasting preferences. We find that managers of distressed firms seem to over-predict future earnings. We also find that when managers are given more stock options, they tend to under-predict future earnings. Finally, we conclude that the management earnings forecasts are affected by an intentional bias due to managers’ forecasting preferences.

Keywords: Intentional bias, Management earnings forecasts, neutrality, verifiability.

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Authors: M. Hajduk-Stelmachowicz

Abstract:

This paper shows the results of empirical research. It presents experiences of Polish companies from the Podkarpackie voivodeship connected with implementing EMS according to the requirements of the ISO 14001 international standard. The incentives to introduce and certify organizational eco-innovation, which formal EMSs are treated as, are presented in this paper.

Keywords: Environmental Management System (EMS), ISO 14001, Podkarpackie voivodeship (Poland)

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Authors: Y. Bek-Ali, K. Gabdullin

Abstract:

This paper explores transformation of higher education system in Kazakhstan since 1991. The research unravels successful experience in the field and challenges. It covers issues of institutional change, faculty, research, university, funding, standards and leadership. The paper offers recommendations in improving state of art in higher educational institutions of Kazakhstan based on international approaches and local realities.

Keywords: higher educational institution, Kazakhstan, transformation

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