Search results for: managerial%20cognition

Authors: Aya Maher, Pakinam Youssef

Abstract:

The objective of this theoretical study is to explore in depth the role of leaders in managing employees’ dysfunctional behavior at workplace in an effort to recommend strategies and solutions for these destructive behaviors that affect employees’ performance. The significance of the study lies in the fact that dysfunctional behavior has been widely spread in almost all organizations, public and private, with its very destructive manifestations. Dysfunctional behavior may be classified into thefts, sabotage, sexual harassment, jealousy, envy, revenge, vulgarity all of which affect employees’ moral, self-esteem and satisfaction level drastically which will be reflected negatively on their performance and productivity. The main research question will focus on the role of leaders in managing employees’ dysfunctional behavior effectively at the workplace through the different strategies and control measures. In this study, the data will be collected from different academic literature and through some primary data by conducting interviews with some public and private employees from different managerial levels and fields.

Keywords: Dysfunctional behavior, employees’ deviant behavior, employees moral, leaders’ role.

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Authors: Gia Surguladze, Lily Petriashvili, Nino Topuria, Giorgi Surguladze

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Modelling of building processes of a multimodal freight transportation support information system is discussed based on modern CASE technologies. Functional efficiencies of ports in the eastern part of the Black Sea are analyzed taking into account their ecological, seasonal, resource usage parameters. By resources, we mean capacities of berths, cranes, automotive transport, as well as work crews and neighbouring airports. For the purpose of designing database of computer support system for Managerial (Logistics) function, using Object-Role Modeling (ORM) tool (NORMA–Natural ORM Architecture) is proposed, after which Entity Relationship Model (ERM) is generated in automated process. Software is developed based on Process-Oriented and Service-Oriented architecture, in Visual Studio.NET environment.

Keywords: Seaport resources, business-processes, multimodal transportation, CASE technology, object-role model, entity relationship model, SOA.

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Authors: Hamed Rafiei, Masoud Rabbani

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This paper deals with the project selection problem. Project selection problem is one of the problems arose firstly in the field of operations research following some production concepts from primary product mix problem. Afterward, introduction of managerial considerations into the project selection problem have emerged qualitative factors and criteria to be regarded as well as quantitative ones. To overcome both kinds of criteria, an analytic network process is developed in this paper enhanced with fuzzy sets theory to tackle the vagueness of experts- comments to evaluate the alternatives. Additionally, a modified version of Least-Square method through a non-linear programming model is augmented to the developed group decision making structure in order to elicit the final weights from comparison matrices. Finally, a case study is considered by which developed structure in this paper is validated. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is performed to validate the response of the model with respect to the condition alteration.

Keywords: Analytic network process, Fuzzy sets theory, Nonlinear programming, Project selection.

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Authors: S. P. Singh

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This paper measures technical and scale efficiencies of 40 Indian sugar companies for the period from 2004-05 to 2013-14. The efficiencies are estimated through input-oriented DEA models using one output variable—value of output (VOP) and five input variables—capital cost (CA), employee cost (EMP), raw material (RW), energy & fuel (E&F) and other manufacturing expenses (OME). The sugar companies are classified into integrated and non-integrated categories to know which one achieves higher level of efficiency. Sources of inefficiency in the industry are identified through decomposing the overall technical efficiency (TE) into pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE). The paper also estimates input-reduction targets for relatively inefficient companies and suggests measures to improve their efficiency level. The findings reveal that the TE does not evince any trend rather it shows fluctuations across years, largely due to erratic and cyclical pattern of sugar production. Further, technical inefficiency in the industry seems to be driven more by the managerial inefficiency than the scale inefficiency, which implies that TE can be improved through better conversion of inputs into output.

Keywords: Sugar industry, companies, technical efficiency, data envelopment analysis, targets.

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Authors: Kawpong Polyorat, Nathamon Buaprommee

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Because of the outbreak of mad cow disease and bird flu, consumers have become more concerned with quality and safety of meat and poultry. As a consequence, meat traceability has been implemented as a tool to raise the standard in the meat production industry. In Thailand, while traceability is relatively common among the manufacturer-wholesaler-retailers cycle, it is rarely used as a marketing tool specifically designed to persuade consumers who are the actual meat endusers. Therefore, the present study attempts to understand what influences consumers to spread their words-of-mouth (WOM) regarding meat with traceability by conducting a study in Thailand where research in this area is rather scant. Data were collected from one hundred and sixty-seven consumers in the northeastern region and analyzed with SEM. The study results reveal that perceived usefulness of traceability system, social norms, and product class knowledge are significant antecedents where consumers spread positive words regarding meat with traceability system. A number of theoretical and managerial implications as well as future study directions are offered at the end of this study report.

Keywords: Perceived usefulness, product knowledge, social norms, traceability, word-of-mouth,

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Authors: Mohamed Moustafa Soliman, Mohamed Abd Elsalam

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Recent financial international scandals around the world have led to a number of investigations into the effectiveness of corporate governance practices and audit quality. Although evidence of corporate governance practices and audit quality exists from developed economies, very scanty studies have been conducted in Egypt where corporate governance is just evolving. Therefore, this study provides evidence on the effectiveness of corporate governance practices and audit quality from a developing country. The data for analysis are gathered from the top 50 most active companies in the Egyptian Stock Exchange, covering the three year period 2007-2009. Logistic regression was used in investigating the questions that were raised in the study. Findings from the study show that board independence; CEO duality and audit committees significantly have relationship with audit quality. The results also, indicate that institutional investor and managerial ownership have no significantly relationship with audit quality. Evidence also exist that size of the company; complexity and business leverage are important factors in audit quality for companies quoted on the Egypt Stock Exchange.

Keywords: Corporate governance, Boards of directors, corporate ownership, Audit Committees, Audit quality, and Egypt.

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Authors: Zhaoyu Chen

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In this study, an attempt was made to find reasons why tourists go to particular attractions. Tourists may be either motivated by the attractions or simply make the choice to satisfy their needs and desires. Based on the attractions in Hong Kong, this research was conducted to explore the attraction-related concepts to discuss how the attraction system works. Due to the limited studies on exploring the attractiveness of attractions through tourist movement patterns, the study aims to evaluate such indicators to determine whether tourists are motivated by attractiveness or their own needs. The investigation is conducted through the comparison of different source markets - Mainland China, short haul markets (excluding Mainland China) and long haul markets. The latest finding of Departing Visitor Survey (DVS) implemented by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is employed for the analysis. Various tourist movement patterns are drawn from the practical data. The managerial implication to destination management organizations (DMOs) is suggested to better allocate attractions according to the needs of tourists.

Keywords: Attractions, attraction system, Hong Kong, tourist movement patterns.

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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: Bobbie Green, James A. Nelson

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Innovations in technology have created new ethical challenges. Essential use of electronic communication in the workplace has escalated at an astronomical rate over the past decade. As such, legal and ethical dilemmas confronted by both the employer and the employee concerning managerial control and ownership of einformation have increased dramatically in the USA. From the employer-s perspective, ownership and control of all information created for the workplace is an undeniable source of economic advantage and must be monitored zealously. From the perspective of the employee, individual rights, such as privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, continue to be stalwart legal guarantees that employers are not legally or ethically entitled to abridge in the workplace. These issues have been the source of great debate and the catalyst for legal reform. The fine line between ethical and legal has been complicated by emerging technologies. This manuscript will identify and discuss a number of specific legal and ethical issues raised by the dynamic electronic workplace and conclude with suggestions that employers should follow to respect the delicate balance between employees- legal rights to privacy and the employer's right to protect its knowledge systems and infrastructure.

Keywords: Information, ethics, legal, privacy

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Authors: E. A. Tkachenko, E. M. Rogova, V. V. Klimov

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One of the basic issues of development management is connected with performance measurement as a prerequisite for identifying the achievement of development objectives. The aim of our research is to develop an improved model of assessing a company’s development results. The model should take into account the cyclical nature of development and the high degree of uncertainty in dealing with numerous management tasks. Our hypotheses may be formulated as follows: Hypothesis 1. The cycle of a company’s development may be studied from the standpoint of a project cycle. To do that, methods and tools of project analysis are to be used. Hypothesis 2. The problem of the uncertainty when justifying managerial decisions within the framework of a company’s development cycle can be solved through the use of the mathematical apparatus of fuzzy logic. The reasoned justification of the validity of the hypotheses made is given in the suggested article. The fuzzy logic toolkit applies to the case of technology shift within an enterprise. It is proven that some restrictions in performance measurement that are incurred to conventional methods could be eliminated by implementation of the fuzzy logic apparatus in performance measurement models.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic, fuzzy sets, performance measurement, project analysis.

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Authors: Harri Jalonen

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Faced with social and health system capacity constraints and rising and changing demand for welfare services, governments and welfare providers are increasingly relying on innovation to help support and enhance services. However, the evidence reported by several studies indicates that the realization of that potential is not an easy task. Innovations can be deemed inherently complex to implement and operate, because many of them involve a combination of technological and organizational renewal within an environment featuring a diversity of stakeholders. Many public welfare service innovations are markedly systemic in their nature, which means that they emerge from, and must address, the complex interplay between political, administrative, technological, institutional and legal issues. This paper suggests that stakeholders dealing with systemic innovation in welfare services must deal with ambiguous and incomplete information in circumstances of uncertainty. Employing a literature review methodology and case study, this paper identifies, categorizes and discusses different aspects of the uncertainty of systemic innovation in public welfare services, and argues that uncertainty can be classified into eight categories: technological uncertainty, market uncertainty, regulatory/institutional uncertainty, social/political uncertainty, acceptance/legitimacy uncertainty, managerial uncertainty, timing uncertainty and consequence uncertainty.

Keywords: Systemic innovation, uncertainty, welfare services

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Authors: Y. R. Li, Y. Y. Wang

Abstract:

After allowing direct flights from Mainland China to Taiwan, Chinese tourists increased according to Tourism Bureaustatistics. There are from 0.19 to 2 million tourists from 2008 to 2011. Mainland China has become the main source of Taiwan developing tourism industry. Taiwanese government should know more about comments from Chinese tourists to Taiwan in order toproperly market Taiwan tourism and enhance the overall quality of tourism. In order to understand Chinese visitors’ comments, this study adopts content analysis to analyze electronic word-of-mouth on Web. This study collects 375 blog articles of Chinese tourists from Ctrip.com as a database during 2009 to 2011. Through the qualitative data analysis the traveling destination imagesis divided into seven dimensions, such as senic spots, shopping, food and beverages, accommodations, transportation, festivals and recreation activities. Finally, this study proposes some practical managerial implication to know both positive and negative images of the seven dimensions from Chinese tourists, providing marketing strategies and suggestions to traveling agency industry.

Keywords: Destination Image, Content Analysis, Electronic Word-of-Mouth.

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Authors: Ivana Bulog

Abstract:

Decision making is a vital part of the business world and any other field of human endeavor. Which way a business organization will take, and where that way will lead it, depends on broad range of decisions made by managers in the managerial structure. Strategic decisions are of the greatest importance for organizational success. Although much empirical research has been done trying to describe and explain its nature and effectiveness, knowledge about strategic decision making is still incomplete. This paper explores the nature of strategic decision making in particular setting - in Croatian companies. The main focus of this research is on the style that decision makers on strategic management level are following when making decisions of life importance for their companies. Two main decision making style that explain the way decision maker collects and processes available information and performs all the activities in strategic decision making process were empirical tested: rational and intuitive one. Besides analyzing their existence on strategic management level in Croatian companies, their effectiveness is analyzed as well. Results showed that decision makers at strategic management level are following both styles somewhat equally in order to function effectively, and that intuitive style is more effective when considering decisions outcomes.

Keywords: Decision making style, decision making effectiveness, strategic decisions.

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Authors: Syed Kamarul Bakri Syed Ahmad Bokharey, Kalaikumar Vallyutham, Narayanan Sambu Potty, Nabilah Abu Bakar

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Infrastructure investments are important in developing countries, it will not only help to foster the economic growth of a nation, but it will also act as a platform in which new forms of partnership and collaboration can be developed mainly in East Asian countries. Since the last two decades, many infrastructure projects had been completed through build-operate-transfer (BOT) type of procurement. The developments of BOT have attracted participation of local and foreign private sector investor to secure funding and to deliver projects on time, within the budget and to the required specifications. Private sectors are preferred by the government in East Asia to participate in BOT projects due to lack of public funding. The finding has resulted that the private sector or promoter of the BOT projects is exposed to multiple risks which have been discussed in this paper. Effective risk management methods and good managerial skills are required in ensuring the success of the project. The review indicated that mitigation measures should be employed by the promoter throughout the concession period and support from the host government is also required in ensuring the success of the BOT project.

Keywords: BOT project, risks management, concessionaire, consortium.

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Authors: Hamide Özyürek, Metin Yılmaz

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Standard processes, similar and limited production lines, the production of high direct costs will be more accurate than the use of parts of the traditional cost systems in the literature. However, direct costs, overhead expenses, in turn, decrease the burden of increasingly sophisticated production facilities, a situation that led the researchers to look for the cost of traditional systems of alternative techniques. Variety cost management approaches for example Total quality management (TQM), just-in-time (JIT), benchmarking, kaizen costing, targeting cost, life cycle costs (LLC), activity-based costing (ABC) value engineering have been introduced. Management and cost applications have changed over the past decade and will continue to change. Modern cost systems can provide relevant and accurate cost information. These methods provide the decisions about customer, product and process improvement. The aim of study is to describe and explain the adoption and application of costing systems in SME. This purpose reports on a survey conducted during 2014 small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in Ankara. The survey results were evaluated using SPSS18 package program.

Keywords: Cost Accounting, Costing, Modern Costing Systems, Managerial Accounting.

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Authors: S. H. R. Sadeghi, A. Sadoddin, A. Najafinejad

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Expansionism and ever-increasing population menace all different resources worldwide. The issue, hence, is critical in developing countries like Iran where new technologies are rapidly luxuriated and unguardedly applied, resulting in unexpected outcomes. However, uncommon and comprehensive approaches are introduced to take all the different aspects involved into consideration. In the last decade, few approaches such as community-based, stakeholders-oriented, adaptive and ultimately integrated management, have emerged and are developing for efficient, Co-management or best management, economic and sustainable development and management of watershed resources in Iran. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to focus on state-of-the-art approaches for the management of watershed resources applied in Iran. The study has been then supported by reports of some case studies conducted throughout the country involving previously mentioned approaches. Scrutinizing results of the researches verified a progressive tendency of the managerial approaches in watershed management strategies leading to a general approaching balance situation. The approaches are firmly rooted in educational, research, executive, legal and policy-making sectors leading to some recuperation at different levels. However, there is a long way ahead to naturalize detrimental effects of unscientific, illegal and over exploitation of the watershed resources in Iran.

Keywords: Comprehensive management, ecosystem balance, integrated watershed management, land resources optimization.

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Authors: Xuling Zhang, Yong Wang, Xingyun Liu, Shuangxue Xu

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Based on positive psychology, this study presented a mediated moderation model in which character strengths moderated the relationship between interpersonal relationship, job satisfaction and subjective well-being, with job satisfaction taking the mediation role among them. A total of 912 teachers participated in four surveys, which include the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, job satisfaction questionnaire, and the interpersonal relationship questionnaire. The results indicated that: (1) Taking interpersonal relationship as a typical work environmental variable, the result shows that it is significantly correlated to subjective well-being. (2) The character strengths of "kindness", “authenticity” moderated the effect of the teachers’ interpersonal relationship on subjective well-being. (3) The teachers’ job satisfaction mediated the above mentioned moderation effects. In general, this study shows that the teachers’ interpersonal relationship affects their subjective well-being, with their job satisfaction as mediation and character strengths of “kindness” and “authenticity” as moderation. The managerial implications were also discussed.

Keywords: Character strength, subjective well-being, job satisfaction, interpersonal relationship.

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Authors: K. N. Penna, E. J. Hoffman, T. R. Carter

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This paper suggests that cultural landscape management plans in an Indigenous context are more effective if designed by taking into consideration context-related social and cultural aspects, adopting people-centred and cultural-based approaches for instance. In relation to working in Indigenous and mining contexts, we draw upon and contribute to international policies on human rights that promote the development of management plans that are co-designed through genuine engagement processes. We suggest that the production of management plans that are built upon culturally relevant frameworks leads to more inclusive economic development, a greater sense of trust, and shared managerial responsibilities. In this paper, three issues related to Indigenous engagement and cultural landscape management plans will be addressed: (1) the need for effective communication channels between proponents and Traditional Owners (Australian original Aboriginal peoples who inhabited specific regions), (2) the use of a culturally sensitive approach to engage local representatives in the decision-making processes, and (3) how design of new management plans can help in establishing shared management.

Keywords: Culture-Centred Approach, Holons’ Hierarchy, Inclusive Economic Development, Indigenous Engagement.

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Authors: Daniel E. Gberevbie, Adewale O. Osibanjo, Anthonia A. Adeniji, Olumuyiwa A. Oludayo

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Research has shown that a recruitment policy devoid of gender discrimination enhances employee performance in an organization. Previous studies in Nigeria show that gender discrimination against men and women based on their ethnic, religious and geographical identity is common. This survey, however, focuses on discrimination against women on the basis of gender and performance in government universities in Lagos State, Nigeria. The model used for this study was developed and tested in which one hundred and eighty seven copies of the questionnaire that were administered to respondents as completed by the academic staff of government universities in Lagos State were retrieved. Pearson correlation and regression were utilized for the analysis of the study, and the result showed that managerial roles based on gender discrimination against women in government universities in Lagos State have affected employee job performance negatively. The study concludes that for as long as gender discrimination rather than merit remains the basis for staff employment into positions of authority in Nigerian Universities, enhanced performance is more likely to elude employees and the educational sector in general. 

Keywords: Academic staff, Employee performance, Gender discrimination, Nigeria, Universities.

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Authors: Rogayah A. Majid, Nor Laila Md. Noor, Wan Adilah Wan Adnan

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User-Centered Design (UCD), Usability Engineering (UE) and Participatory Design (PD) are the common Human- Computer Interaction (HCI) approaches that are practiced in the software development process, focusing towards issues and matters concerning user involvement. It overlooks the organizational perspective of HCI integration within the software development organization. The Management Information Systems (MIS) perspective of HCI takes a managerial and organizational context to view the effectiveness of integrating HCI in the software development process. The Human-Centered Design (HCD) which encompasses all of the human aspects including aesthetic and ergonomic, is claimed as to provide a better approach in strengthening the HCI approaches to strengthen the software development process. In determining the effectiveness of HCD in the software development process, this paper presents the findings of a content analysis of HCI approaches by viewing those approaches as a technology which integrates user requirements, ranging from the top management to other stake holder in the software development process. The findings obtained show that HCD approach is a technology that emphasizes on human, tools and knowledge in strengthening the HCI approaches to strengthen the software development process in the quest to produce a sustainable, usable and useful software product.

Keywords: Human-Centered Design (HCD), Management Information Systems (MIS), Participatory Design (PD), User- Centered Design (UCD), Usability Engineering (UE)

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Authors: Golnaz Rezai, Zainalabidin Mohamed, Mad Nasir Shamsudin

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The Malaysian government is promoting entrepreneurship development skills amongst farmers through informal courses. These courses will concentrate on teaching managerial skills as inevitable means for small farms to succeed by making farmers more creative and innovative. Therefore it is important to assess the effect of informal agri-entrepreneurial training in developing entrepreneurship among the farmers in Malaysia. Seven hundred and ninety six farmers (796) farmers were interviewed via structured questionnaire to define their opinion on whether the current informal educational and training establishments are sufficient to teach and develop entrepreneurial skills. Factor analysis and logic regression analysis were used to determine the motivating factors and predict their impact on the development of entrepreneurial skills. The result from the factor analysis led us to investigate the association between these factors and farmers- opinions about the development of entrepreneurial skills and traits through participating in informal entrepreneurship training or education. The outcome has shown us that the importance of informal training to promote entrepreneurship among farmers is crucial. The training should be intensified to encourage farmers to not only focus on the modern technologies but also on the fundamental changes in their attitude towards agriculture as a business. DOA: KMO: Kaiser- Meyer- Olkin Test MOA: Ministry of Agriculture NMP: Ninth Malaysia Plan NAP: Third National Agricultural Policy (2000-2010)

Keywords: Entrepreneurial skills, farmers, informal education, Malaysia

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Authors: Julinda Keçi

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In many countries, governments have been promoting the involvement of private sector entities to enter into long-term agreements for the development and delivery of large infrastructure projects, with a focus on overcoming the limitations upon public fund of the traditional approach. The involvement of private sector through public private partnerships (PPP) brings in new capital investments, value for money and additional risks to handle. Worldwide research studies have shown that an objective, systematic, reliable and useroriented risk assessment process and an optimal allocation mechanism among different stakeholders is crucial to the successful completion. In this framework, this paper, which is the first stage of a research study, aims to identify the main risks for the delivery of PPP projects. A review of cross-countries research projects and case studies was performed to map the key risks affecting PPP infrastructure delivery. The matrix of mapping offers a summary of the frequency of factors, clustered in eleven categories: construction, design, economic, legal, market, natural, operation, political, project finance, project selection and relationship. Results will highlight the most critical risk factors, and will hopefully assist the project managers in directing the managerial attention in the further stages of risk allocation.

Keywords: Construction, infrastructure, public private partnerships, risks.

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Authors: A. Alseiari, P. Farrell

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Maintenance has evolved into an imperative function, and contributes significantly to efficient and effective equipment performance. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is an ideal approach to support the development and implementation of operation performance improvement. It systematically aims to understand the function of equipment, the service quality relationship with equipment and the probable critical equipment failure conditions. Implementation of TPM programmes need strategic planning and there has been little research applied in this area within Middle-East power plants. In the power sector of Abu Dhabi, technologically and strategically, the power industry is extremely important, and it thus needs effective and efficient equipment management support. The aim of this paper is to investigate barriers to successful TPM implementation in the Abu Dhabi power industry. The study has been conducted in the context of a leading power company in the UAE. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 employees, including maintenance and operation staff, and senior managers. The findings of this research identified seven key barriers, thus: managerial; organisational; cultural; financial; educational; communications; and auditing. With respect to the understanding of these barriers and obstacles in TPM implementation, the findings can contribute towards improved equipment operations and maintenance in power organisations.

Keywords: Abu Dhabi power industry, TPM implementation, key barriers, organisational culture, critical success factors.

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Authors: Zohreh Soltani, Seyedmohammadhossein Hosseinian

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Reduction of energy consumption in built infrastructure, through the installation of energy-efficient technologies, is a major approach to achieving sustainability. In practice, the viability of energy efficiency projects strongly depends on the cost reimbursement and profitability. These projects are subject to failure if the actual cost savings do not reimburse the project cost promptly. In such cases, refinancing could be a solution to benefit from the long-term returns of the project, if implemented wisely. However, very little is still known about the effect of refinancing options on financial performance of energy efficiency projects. In order to fill this gap, the present study investigates the financial behavior of energy efficiency projects with focus on refinancing options, such as Leveraged Loans. A System Dynamics (SD) model is introduced, and the model application is presented using an actual case-study data. The case study results indicate that while high-interest start-ups make using Leveraged Loan inevitable, refinancing can rescue the project and bring about profitability. This paper also presents some managerial implications of refinancing energy efficiency projects based on the case-study analysis. Results of this study help to implement financially viable energy efficiency projects so that the community could benefit from their environmental advantages widely.

Keywords: Energy efficiency projects, leveraged loan, refinancing, sustainability.

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Authors: Eakong Atiptamvaree, Twittie Senivongse

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A new paradigm for software design and development models software by its business process, translates the model into a process execution language, and has it run by a supporting execution engine. This process-oriented paradigm promotes modeling of software by less technical users or business analysts as well as rapid development. Since business process models may be shared by different organizations and sometimes even by different business domains, it is interesting to apply a technique used in traditional software component technology to design reusable business processes. This paper discusses an approach to apply a technique for software component fabrication to the design of process-oriented software units, called process components. These process components result from decomposing a business process of a particular application domain into subprocesses with an aim that the process components can be reusable in different process-based software models. The approach is quantitative because the quality of process component design is measured from technical features of the process components. The approach is also strategic because the measured quality is determined against business-oriented component management goals. A software tool has been developed to measure how good a process component design is, according to the required managerial goals and comparing to other designs. We also discuss how we benefit from reusable process components.

Keywords: Business process model, process component, component management goals, measurement

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Authors: Petr Cernohorsky, Jan Voracek

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Well-developed strategic marketing planning is the essential prerequisite for establishment of the right and unique competitive advantage. Typical market, however, is a heterogeneous and decentralized structure with natural involvement of individual or group subjectivity and irrationality. These features cannot be fully expressed with one-shot rigorous formal models based on, e.g. mathematics, statistics or empirical formulas. We present an innovative solution, extending the domain of agent based computational economics towards the concept of hybrid modeling in service provider and consumer market such as telecommunications. The behavior of the market is described by two classes of agents - consumer and service provider agents - whose internal dynamics are fundamentally different. Customers are rather free multi-state structures, adjusting behavior and preferences quickly in accordance with time and changing environment. Producers, on the contrary, are traditionally structured companies with comparable internal processes and specific managerial policies. Their business momentum is higher and immediate reaction possibilities limited. This limitation underlines importance of proper strategic planning as the main process advising managers in time whether to continue with more or less the same business or whether to consider the need for future structural changes that would ensure retention of existing customers or acquisition of new ones.

Keywords: Agent-based computational economics, hybrid modeling, strategic marketing, system dynamics.

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Authors: S. Abed, S. O’Neill

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This research explored ward nurses’ views about the characteristics of effective nurse leaders in the context of Iraq as a developing country, where the delivery of health care continues to face disruption and change. It is well established that the provision of modern health care requires effective nurse leaders, but in countries such as Iraq the lack of effective nurse leaders is noted as a major challenge. In a descriptive quantitative study, a survey questionnaire was administered to 210 ward nurses working in two public hospitals in a major city in the north of Iraq. The participating nurses were of the opinion that the effectiveness of their nurse leaders was evident in their ability to demonstrate: good clinical knowledge, effective communication and managerial skills. They also viewed their leaders as needing to hold high-level nursing qualifications, though this was not necessarily the case in practice. Additionally, they viewed nurse leaders’ personal qualities as important, which included politeness, ethical behaviour, and trustworthiness. When considered against the issues raised in interviews with a smaller group (20) of senior nurse leaders, representative of the various occupational levels, implications identify the need for professional development that focuses on how the underpinning competencies relate to leadership and how transformational leadership is evidenced in practice.

Keywords: Health care, nurse education, nurse leadership, nursing in Iraq, transformational leadership.

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Authors: A. Kourou, A. Ioakeimidou, V. Avramea

Abstract:

Planning for natural disasters and emergencies is something every school or educational institution must consider, regardless of its size or location. Preparedness is the key to save lives if a disaster strikes. School disaster management mirrors individual and family disaster prevention, and wider community disaster prevention efforts. This paper presents the usage of E-PreS System as a helpful, managerial tool during the school earthquake drill, in order to support schools in developing effective disaster and emergency plans specific to their local needs. The project comes up with a holistic methodology using real-time evaluation involving different categories of actors, districts, steps and metrics. The main outcomes of E-PreS project are the development of E-PreS web platform that host the needed data of school emergency planning; the development of E-PreS System; the implementation of disaster drills using E-PreS System in educational premises and local schools; and the evaluation of E-PreS System. Taking into consideration that every disaster drill aims to test and valid school plan and procedures; clarify and train personnel in roles and responsibilities; improve interagency coordination; identify gaps in resources; improve individual performance; and identify opportunities for improvement, E-PreS Project was submitted and approved by the European Commission (EC).

Keywords: Disaster drills, earthquake preparedness, E-PreS system, school emergency plans.

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Authors: Mária Hudáková, Mária Lusková

Abstract:

This report is focused on widening the theoretical knowledge as well as controlling practical application from the risk management point of view, regarding to dynamic business changes that have occurred in Slovakia which recently has been considered to be an environment full of risk and uncertainty. The idea of the report is the proposal of the controlling operation model in the course of risk management process in an enterprise operating in Slovakia, by which the controller is able to identify early risk factors in suggested major areas of the business management upon appropriate business information integration, consecutive control and prognoses and to prepare in time full-value documents in order to suggest measures for reduction thereof. Dealing with risk factors, that can quickly limit the growth potential of the enterprise, is an essential part of managerial activities on each level. This is the reason why mutual unofficial, ergo collegial cooperation of individual departments is necessary for controlling application from the business risk management point of view. An important part of the report is elaborated survey of the most important risk factors existing in major management areas of enterprises operating in Slovakia. The outcome of the performed survey is a catalogue of the most important enterprise risk factors. The catalogue serves for better understanding risk factors affecting the Slovak enterprises, their importance and evaluation.

Keywords: Controlling, information system, risks management, risk factor, crisis of enterprise.

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Authors: George Yungchih Wang

Abstract:

Real options theory suggests that managerial flexibility embedded within irreversible investments can account for a significant value in project valuation. Although the argument has become the dominant focus of capital investment theory over decades, yet recent survey literature in capital budgeting indicates that corporate practitioners still do not explicitly apply real options in investment decisions. In this paper, we explore how real options decision criteria can be transformed into equivalent capital budgeting criteria under the consideration of uncertainty, assuming that underlying stochastic process follows a geometric Brownian motion (GBM), a mixed diffusion-jump (MX), or a mean-reverting process (MR). These equivalent valuation techniques can be readily decomposed into conventional investment rules and “option impacts", the latter of which describe the impacts on optimal investment rules with the option value considered. Based on numerical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation, three major findings are derived. First, it is shown that real options could be successfully integrated into the mindset of conventional capital budgeting. Second, the inclusion of option impacts tends to delay investment. It is indicated that the delay effect is the most significant under a GBM process and the least significant under a MR process. Third, it is optimal to adopt the new capital budgeting criteria in investment decision-making and adopting a suboptimal investment rule without considering real options could lead to a substantial loss in value.

Keywords: real options, capital budgeting, geometric Brownianmotion, mixed diffusion-jump, mean-reverting process

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