Search results for: social aspects.

Authors: Nwobu Obiamaka, Owolabi Akintola

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This study examined the extent of statistical significant difference between the economic, environmental, governance and social aspects of sustainability reporting as a result of board committee on sustainability and time (year) of reporting for business organizations in the Nigerian banking sector. The years of reporting under consideration were 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Content analysis methodology was employed through a reporting index used to score the amount of economic, environmental, governance and social indicators of sustainability reporting. The results of this study indicated that business organizations with board committee on sustainability had more indicators of sustainability reporting than those without board committees on sustainability issues. Also, sustainability reporting in 2013 was higher than that of prior years (2012, 2011 and 2010) for the economic, environmental and social indicators. The governance indicators of 2012 was highest compared to the other years (2013, 2011 and 2010) under consideration in this study. The implication of this finding is that business organizations that have board committees on sustainability are monitored by such boards to report more to their stakeholders. On the other hand, business organizations are appreciating the need to engage in sustainability reporting with each passing year. This could be due to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Sustainability Reporting framework that business organizations in the banking sector have to adhere to. When sustainability issues are monitored from the board of directors, business organizations are likely to increase and improve on their sustainability reporting.

Keywords: Governance, organizations, reporting, sustainability.

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Authors: Charita Jashi

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The aim of the paper is to explore the role of social marketing in changing the behavior of consumers on road safety, identify critical aspects and priority needs which impede the implementation of road safety program in Georgia. Given the goals of the study, a quantitative method was used to carry out interviews for primary data collection. This research identified the awareness level of road safety, legislation base, and marketing interventions to change behavior of drivers and pedestrians. During several years the non-governmental sector together with the local authorities and media have been very intensively working on the road safety issue in Georgia, but only seat-belts campaign should be considered rather successful. Despite achievements in this field, efficiency of road safety programs far from fulfillment and needs strong empowering.

Keywords: Road safety, social marketing interventions, behavior change, well-being.

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Authors: Mohsen Noroozi, Maryam Khalili

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Creating cities, objects and spaces that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable and which meet the challenge of social interaction and generation change will be one of the biggest tasks of designers. Social sustainability is about how individuals, communities and societies live with each other and set out to achieve the objectives of development model which they have chosen for themselves. Urban lightning as one of the most important elements of urban furniture that people constantly interact with it in public spaces; can be a significant object for designers. Using intelligence by internet of things for urban lighting makes it more interactive in public environments. It can encourage individuals to carry out appropriate behaviors and provides them the social awareness through new interactions. The greatest strength of this technology is its strong impact on many aspects of everyday life and users' behaviors. The analytical phase of the research is based on a multiple method survey strategy. Smart lighting proposed in this paper is an urban lighting designed on results obtained from a collective point of view about the social sustainability. In this paper, referring to behavioral design methods, the social behaviors of the people has been studied. Data show that people demands for a deeper experience of social participation, safety perception and energy saving with the meaningful use of interactive and colourful lighting effects. By using intelligent technology, some suggestions are provided in the field of future lighting to consider the new forms of social sustainability.

Keywords: Behavior model, internet of things, social sustainability, urban lighting.

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Authors: Nardine El Bardisy, Wolf Reuter, Ayat Ismail

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In Egypt, there is continuous housing demand as a result of rapid population growth. In 1979, this forced the government to establish new urban communities in order to decrease stress around delta. New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) was formulated to take the responsibly of this new policy. These communities suffer from social life deficiency due to their typology, which is separated island with barriers. New urban communities’ typology results from the influence of neoliberalism movement and modern city planning forms. The lack of social interaction in these communities at present should be enhanced in the future. On a global perspective, sustainable development calls for creating more sustainable communities which include social, economic and environmental aspects. From 1960, planners were highly focusing on the promotion of the social dimension in urban development plans. The research hypothesis states: “It is possible to promote social interaction in new urban communities through a set of socio-spatial recommended strategies that are tailored for Greater Cairo Region context”. In order to test this hypothesis, the case of El-Sherouk city is selected, which represents the typical NUCA development plans. Social interaction indicators were derived from literature and used to explore different social dynamics in the selected case. The tools used for exploring case study are online questionnaires, face to face questionnaires, interviews, and observations. These investigations were analyzed, conclusions and recommendations were set to improve social interaction.

Keywords: New urban communities, modern planning, social Interaction, Social life.

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Authors: E. V. Veraszto, J. T. F. Camargo, D. Silva, N. A. Miranda, F. O. Simon, S. F. Amaral, L. V. Freitas

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The concept of technology as well as itself has evolved continuously over time, such that, nowadays, this concept is still marked by myths and realities. Even the concept of science is frequently misunderstood as technology. In this way, this paper presents different forms of interpretation of the concept of technology in the course of history, as well as the social and cultural aspects associated with it, through an analysis made by means of insights from sociological studies of science and technology and its multiple relations with society. Through the analysis of contents, the paper presents a classification of how technology is interpreted in the social sphere and search channel efforts to show how a broader understanding can contribute to better interpretations of how scientific and technological development influences the environment in which we operate. The text also presents a particular point of view for the interpretation of the concept from the analysis throughout the whole work.

Keywords: Technology, conceptions of technology, technological myths, definition of technology.

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Authors: Yogesh Gupta, Ashish Saini, A.K. Saxena

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Information retrieval has become an important field of study and research under computer science due to explosive growth of information available in the form of full text, hypertext, administrative text, directory, numeric or bibliographic text. The research work is going on various aspects of information retrieval systems so as to improve its efficiency and reliability. This paper presents a comprehensive study, which discusses not only emergence and evolution of information retrieval but also includes different information retrieval models and some important aspects such as document representation, similarity measure and query expansion.

Keywords: Information Retrieval, query expansion, similarity measure, query expansion, vector space model.

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Authors: Jehad Al Dallal

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Software engineers apply different measures to quantify the quality of software design. These measures consider artifacts developed at low or high level software design phases. The results are used to point to design weaknesses and to indicate design points that have to be restructured. Understanding the relationship among the quality measures and among the design quality aspects considered by these measures is important to interpreting the impact of a measure for a quality aspect on other potentially related aspects. In addition, exploring the relationship between quality measures helps to explain the impact of different quality measures on external quality aspects, such as reliability and maintainability. In this paper, we report a replication study that empirically explores the correlation between six well known and commonly applied design quality measures. These measures consider several quality aspects, including complexity, cohesion, coupling, and inheritance. The results indicate that inheritance measures are weakly correlated to other measures, whereas complexity, coupling, and cohesion measures are mostly strongly correlated.  

Keywords: Quality attribute, quality measure, software design quality, spearman correlation.

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Authors: Aimen Batool Bint-E-Rashid, Huma Irfan

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This research aims to investigate the role of social media (Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in our daily lives and its implication on our everyday routine in the form of stressors. The study has been validated by a social media survey with 150 social media users belonging to various age groups. The study explores how social media can make an individual anti-social in his or her life offline. To explain the phenomenon, we have proposed and evaluated a model based on social media usage and stressors including burnout and social overload. Results, through correlation and regression tests, have revealed that with increase in social media usage, social overload and burnout also increases. Evidence for the fact that excessive social media usage causes social overload and burnout has been provided in the study.

Keywords: Burnout, emotional exhaustion, fatigue, stressors, social networking, social media, social overload.

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Authors: J. M. Breed, E. Taylor

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In this paper challenges associated with a new generation of Computer Science students are examined. The mode of education in tertiary institutes has progressed slowly while the needs of students have changed rapidly in an increasingly technological world. The major learning paradigms and learning theories within these paradigms are studied to find a suitable strategy for educating modern students. These paradigms include Behaviourism, Constructivism, Humanism and Cogntivism. Social Learning theory and Elaboration theory are two theories that are further examined and a survey is done to determine how these strategies will be received by students. The results and findings are evaluated and indicate that students are fairly receptive to a method that incorporates both Social Learning theory and Elaboration theory, but that some aspects of all paradigms need to be implemented to create a balanced and effective strategy with technology as foundation.

Keywords: Computer Science, Education, Elaboration Theory, Learning Paradigms, Social Learning Theory.

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Authors: C. Barreto Carvalho, C. da Motta, J. Pinto-Gouveia, E. B. Peixoto

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Auditory hallucinations among the most invalidating and distressing experiences reported by patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, leading to feelings of powerlessness and helplessness towards their illness. In more severe cases, these auditory hallucinations can take the form of commanding voices, which are often related to high suicidality rates in these patients. Several authors propose that the meanings attributed to the hallucinatory experience, rather than characteristics like form and content, can be determinant in patients’ reactions to hallucinatory activity, particularly in the case of voice-hearing experiences. In this study, 48 patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia presenting auditory hallucinations were studied. Multiple regression analyses were computed to study the influence of several developmental aspects, such as family and social dynamics, bullying, depression, and sociocognitive variables on the auditory hallucinations, on patients’ attributions and relationships with their voices, and on the resulting invalidation of hallucinatory experience. Overall, results showed how relationships with voices can mirror several aspects of interpersonal relationship with others, and how self-schemas, depression and actual social relationships help shaping the voice-hearing experience. Early experiences of victimization and submission help predict the attributions of omnipotence of the voices, and increased hostility from parents seems to increase the malevolence of the voices, suggesting that socio-cognitive factors can significantly contribute to the etiology and maintenance of auditory hallucinations. The understanding of the characteristics of auditory hallucinations and the relationships patients established with their voices can allow the development of more promising therapeutic interventions that can be more effective in decreasing invalidation caused by this devastating mental illness.

Keywords: Auditory hallucinations, beliefs, life events, schizophrenia.

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Authors: Ingu Kim, Shangmun Shin, Yongsun Choi, Nguyen Manh Thang, Edwin R. Ramos, Won-Joo Hwang

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Project selection problems on management information system (MIS) are often considered a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) for a solving method. These problems contain two aspects, such as interdependencies among criteria and candidate projects and qualitative and quantitative factors of projects. However, most existing methods reported in literature consider these aspects separately even though these two aspects are simultaneously incorporated. For this reason, we proposed a hybrid method using analytic network process (ANP) and fuzzy logic in order to represent both aspects. We then propose a goal programming model to conduct an optimization for the project selection problems interpreted by a hybrid concept. Finally, a numerical example is conducted as verification purposes.

Keywords: Analytic Network Process (ANP), Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM), Fuzzy Logic, Information System Project Selection, Goal Programming.

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Authors: Krisztina Szegedi, Gyula Fülöp, Ádám Bereczk

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The shared goal of social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and social innovation is the advancement of society. The business model of social enterprises is characterized by unique strategies based on the competencies of the entrepreneurs, and is not aimed primarily at the maximization of profits, but rather at carrying out goals for the benefit of society. Corporate social responsibility refers to the active behavior of a company, by which it can create new solutions to meet the needs of society, either on its own or in cooperation with other social stakeholders. The objectives of this article are to define concepts, describe and integrate relevant theoretical models, develop a model and introduce some examples of international practice that can inspire initiatives for social development.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, CSR, social innovation, social entrepreneurship.

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Authors: S. Halioui, I. Arikan, M. Schmidt

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Tourism sector in Tunisia faces several problems that range from economic challenges to environmental degradation and social instability. These problems have been intensified because of the increased competition in the tourism market, the political instability, financial crises, and recently terrorism problems have aggravated the situation. As a consequence, a new framework that promotes sustainable tourism in the country and increases its competitiveness is urgently needed. Planning for sustainable tourism sector requires the integration of complex interactions between economic, social and environmental aspects. Sustainable tourism principles can be implemented with the help of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process, which ensures the full integration of economic, social and environmental considerations while planning for the tourism sector in Tunisia. Results of the paper have broad implications for policy makers and tourism professionals.

Keywords: Sustainable tourism, strategic environmental assessment, tourism planning, policy.

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Authors: Hamid Mamani, Negin Sharifi, Nangkula Utaberta

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Social, culture and artistic status of a society in various historical eras is affected by numerous, and sometimes imposed, factors that better understanding requires analysis of such conditions. Throughout history Iran has been involved with determining and significant events that examining each of these events can improve the understanding of social conditions of this country in the intended time. Mongolian conquest of Iran is one of most significant events in the history of Iran with consequences that never left Iranian societies. During this tragic invasion and subsequent devastating wars, which led to establishment of Ilkhanate dynasty, numerous cultural and artistic changes occurred both in Mongolian conquerors and Iranian society. This study examines these changes with a glimpse towards art and architecture as important part of cultural aspects and social communication.

Keywords: Art and Architecture, Exchanging cultures, Ilkhanates, War

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Authors: Helene Eller

Abstract:

The aim of non-profit organizations (NPO) is to provide services and goods for its clientele, with profit being a minor objective. By having this definition as the basic purpose of doing business, it is obvious that the goal of an organisation is to serve several bottom lines and not only the financial one. This approach is underpinned by the non-distribution constraint which means that NPO are allowed to make profits to a certain extent, but not to distribute them. The advantage is that there are no single shareholders who might have an interest in the prosperity of the organisation: there is no pie to divide. The gained profits remain within the organisation and will be reinvested in purposeful projects. Good governance is mandatory to support the aim of NPOs. Looking for a measure of good governance the principals of corporate governance (CG) will come in mind. The purpose of CG is direction and control, and in the field of NPO, CG is enlarged to consider the relationship to all important stakeholders who have an impact on the organisation. The recognition of more relevant parties than the shareholder is the link to corporate social responsibility (CSR). It supports a broader view of the bottom line: It is no longer enough to know how profits are used but rather how they are made. Besides, CSR addresses the responsibility of organisations for their impact on society. When transferring the concept of CSR to the non-profit area it will become obvious that CSR with its distinctive features will match the aims of NPOs. As a consequence, NPOs who apply CG apply also CSR to a certain extent. The research is designed as a comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis. First, the investigation focuses on the theoretical basis of both concepts. Second, the similarities and differences are outlined and as a result the interconnection of both concepts will show up. The contribution of this research is manifold: The interconnection of both concepts when applied to NPOs has not got any attention in science yet. CSR and governance as integrated concept provides a lot of advantages for NPOs compared to for-profit organisations which are in a steady justification to show the impact they might have on the society. NPOs, however, integrate economic and social aspects as starting point. For NPOs CG is not a mere concept of compliance but rather an enhanced concept integrating a lot of aspects of CSR. There is no “either-nor” between the concepts for NPOs.

Keywords: Business ethics, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, non-profit organisations, stakeholder theory.

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Authors: Elnura Assyltayeva, Zhanar Aldubasheva, Zhengisbek Tolen

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An attempt has been made several times to identify and discuss the U.S. experience on the formation of political nation in political science. The purpose of this research paper is to identify the main aspects of the formation of civic identity in the United States and Kazakhstan, through the identification of similarities and differences that can get practical application in making decisions of national policy issues in the context of globalization, as well as to answer the questions “What should unite the citizens of Kazakhstan to the nation?" and “What should be the dominant identity: civil or ethnic (national) one?" Can Kazakhstan being multiethnic country like America, adopt its experience in the formation of a civic nation? Since it is believed that the “multi-ethnic state of the population is a characteristic feature of most modern countries in the world," it states that “inter-ethnic integration is one of the most important aspects of the problem of forming a new social community (metaetnic - Kazakh people, Kazakh nation" [1].

Keywords: nation, civic identity, nation building, globalization, interethnic relations, patriotism

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Authors: Maja Ruzic-Baf, Vedrana Keteles, Andrea Debeljuh

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Younger and younger children are now using a smartphone, a device which has become ‘a must have’ and the life of children would be almost ‘unthinkable’ without one. Devices are becoming lighter and lighter but offering an array of options and applications as well as the unavoidable access to the Internet, without which it would be almost unusable. Numerous features such as taking of photographs, listening to music, information search on the Internet, access to social networks, usage of some of the chatting and messaging services, are only some of the numerous features offered by ‘smart’ devices. They have replaced the alarm clock, home phone, camera, tablet and other devices. Their use and possession have become a part of the everyday image of young people. Apart from the positive aspects, the use of smartphones has also some downsides. For instance, free time was usually spent in nature, playing, doing sports or other activities enabling children an adequate psychophysiological growth and development. The greater usage of smartphones during classes to check statuses on social networks, message your friends, play online games, are just some of the possible negative aspects of their application. Considering that the age of the population using smartphones is decreasing and that smartphones are no longer ‘foreign’ to children of pre-school age (smartphones are used at home or in coffee shops or shopping centers while waiting for their parents, playing video games often inappropriate to their age), particular attention must be paid to a very sensitive group, the teenagers who almost never separate from their ‘pets’. This paper is divided into two sections, theoretical and empirical ones. The theoretical section gives an overview of the pros and cons of the usage of smartphones, while the empirical section presents the results of a research conducted in three elementary schools regarding the usage of smartphones and, specifically, their usage during classes, during breaks and to search information on the Internet, check status updates and 'likes’ on the Facebook social network.

Keywords: Education, smartphone, social networks, teenagers.

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Authors: Ali Soleymani, Zulkarnain Md Ali, Md Jan Nordin

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This paper is a review on the aspects and approaches of design an image cryptosystem. First a general introduction given for cryptography and images encryption and followed by different techniques in image encryption and related works for each technique surveyed. Finally, general security analysis methods for encrypted images are mentioned.

Keywords: Image, cryptography, encryption, security, analysis.

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Authors: Ákos Malatinszky, Szilvia Ádám

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Climate change causes severe effects on natural habitats, especially wetlands. These challenges require the adaptation of their management to probable effects of climate change. A compilation of necessary changes in land management was collected in a Hungarian area being both national park and Natura 2000 SAC and SCI site in favor of increasing the resilience and reducing vulnerability. Several factors, such as ecological aspects, nature conservation and climatic adaptation should be combined with social and economic factors during the process of developing climate change adapted management on vulnerable wetlands. Planning adaptive management should be determined by a priority order of conservation aims and evaluation of factors at the determined planning unit. Mowing techniques, frequency and exact date should be observed as well as grazing species and their breed, due to different grazing, group forming and trampling habits. Integrating landscape history and historical land development into the planning process is essential.

Keywords: Adaptation, climate change, management, wetland.

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Authors: Farida Buniatova

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Testamentary succession rules in the Russian Federation have been developing intensively since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The article analyzes specific aspects of the closed will in Russian civil law. It discusses advantages and drawbacks of the closed will. In addition to that, the paper focuses on the will drafting and attestation procedures. The research provides ways to improve and enhance Russian legislation governing the closed will.

Keywords: Closed will, testamentary succession, testator, will.

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Authors: Francisco Ben, Tracey Price, Chad Morrison, Victoria Warren, Willy Gollan, Robyn Dunbar, Frank Davies, Mark Sorrell

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This paper focuses particularly on the educational aspects that contribute to the overall educational satisfaction rated by Tabor School of Education students who participated in the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in 2010, 2012 and 2013. In all three years of participation, Tabor ranked first especially in the area of overall student satisfaction. By using a single level path analysis in relation to the AUSSE datasets collected using the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ) for Tabor School of Education, seven aspects that contribute to overall student satisfaction have been identified. There appears to be a direct causal link between aspects of the Supportive Learning Environment, Work Integrated Learning, Career Readiness, Academic Challenge, and overall educational satisfaction levels. A further three aspects, being Student and Staff Interactions, Active Learning, and Enriching Educational Experiences, indirectly influence overall educational satisfaction levels.

Keywords: Tertiary student satisfaction, tertiary educational experience, pre-service teacher education, path analysis.

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Authors: Elisa Pautasso, Matteo Castagno, Michele Osella

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In the last decade the emergence of new social needs as an effect of the economic crisis has stimulated the flourishing of business endeavours characterised by explicit social goals. Social start-ups, social enterprises or Corporate Social Responsibility operations carried out by traditional companies are quintessential examples in this regard. This paper analyses these kinds of initiatives in order to discover the main characteristics of social business models and to provide insights to social entrepreneurs for developing or improving their strategies. The research is conducted through the integration of literature review and case study analysis and, thanks to the recognition of the importance of both profits and social impacts as the key success factors for a social business model, proposes a framework for identifying indicators suitable for measuring the social impacts generated.

Keywords: Business model, case study, impacts, social business.

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Authors: Abbas Moshref Razavi, Rodina Ahmad

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Organizations are supposed to be systems and consequently require defining the notion of equilibrium within. However, organizations comprise people and unavoidably entail their irrational aspects. Then, the question is what is the organizational equilibrium and equilibrating mechanisms considering these aspects. Hence, some arguments are provided here to conceptualize human unconsciousness, irrationalities and consequent uncertainties within organizations in the form of a system of psychic dynamism. The assumption is this dynamism maintains the psychic balance of the organization through a psychodynamic point of view. The resultant conceptualization expected to promote the understanding of such aspects in different organizational settings by hypothesizing organizational equilibration from this perspective. As a result, the main expectation is, if it is known that how the organization equilibrates in this sense, we can explain and deal with such irrationalities and unconsciousness by rational and, of course conscious, planning and accomplishing.

Keywords: Equilibration, General System Theory, Organization, Psychodynamic.

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Authors: Feyzan Tuzkaya, Nihan S. Soylu, Çağlar Solak, Hilal Peker, Mehmet Peker, Kemal Özeralp, Ceren Mete, Ezgi Mehmetoğlu, Mehmet Karasu, Cihan Elçi, Ece Akca, Melek Göregenli

Abstract:

Perception, evaluation and representation of the environment have been the subject of many disciplines including psychology, geography and architecture. In environmental and social psychology literature there are several evidences which suggest that cognitive representations about a place consisted of not only geographic items but also social and cultural. Mental representations of residence area or a country are influenced and determined by social-demographics, the physical and social context. Thus, all mental representations of a given place are also social representations. Cognitive maps are the main and common instruments that are used to identify spatial images and the difference between physical and subjective environments. The aim of the current study is investigating the mental and social representations of Turkey in university students’ minds. Data was collected from 249 university students from different departments (i.e. psychology, geography, history, tourism departments) of Ege University. Participants were requested to reflect Turkey in their mind onto the paper drawing sketch maps. According to the results, cognitive maps showed geographic aspects of Turkey as well as the context of symbolic, cultural and political reality of Turkey. That is to say, these maps had many symbolic and verbal items related to critics on social and cultural problems, ongoing ethnic and political conflicts, and actual political agenda of Turkey. Additionally, one of main differentiations in these representations appeared in terms of the East and West side of the Turkey, and the representations of the East and West was varied correspondingly participants’ cultural background, their ethnic values, and where they have born. The results of the study were discussed in environmental and social psychological perspective considering cultural and social values of Turkey and current political circumstances of the country.

Keywords: Cognitive maps, East and West, politics, social representations, Turkey.

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Authors: R. Sudhesh Solomon, P. Y. K. L. Srinivas, Abhay Narayan, Amitava Das

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Users in social networks either unicast or broadcast their messages. At mention is the popular way of unicasting for Twitter whereas general tweeting could be considered as broadcasting method. Understanding the information flow and dynamics within a Social Network and modeling the same is a promising and an open research area called Information Diffusion. This paper seeks an answer to a fundamental question - understanding if the at-mention network or the unicasting pattern in social media is purely random in nature or is there any user specific selectional preference? To answer the question we present an empirical analysis to understand the sociological aspects of Twitter mentions network within a social network community. To understand the sociological behavior we analyze the values (Schwartz model: Achievement, Benevolence, Conformity, Hedonism, Power, Security, Self-Direction, Stimulation, Traditional and Universalism) of all the users. Empirical results suggest that values traits are indeed salient cue to understand how the mention-based communication network functions. For example, we notice that individuals possessing similar values unicast among themselves more often than with other value type people. We also observe that traditional and self-directed people do not maintain very close relationship in the network with the people of different values traits.

Keywords: Social network analysis, information diffusion, personality and values, Twitter Mentions Network.

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Authors: Mahmood Niroobakhsh

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This article deals with special structuralism approaches to explain a certain kind of social problem. Widespread presence of poverty is a reminder of deep-rooted unresolved problems of social relations. The expected role from an individual for the social system recognizes poverty derived from an interrelated social structure. By the time, enabled to act on his role in the course of social interaction, reintegration of the poor in society may take place. Poverty and housing type are reflections of the underlying social structure, primarily structure’s elements, systemic interrelations, and the overall strength or weakness of that structure. Poverty varies based on social structure in that the stronger structures are less likely to produce poverty.

Keywords: Absolute poverty, relative poverty, social structure, urban poverty.

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Authors: O. V. Missioura

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MC (Management Control)& IC (Internal Control) – what is the relationship? (an empirical study into the definitions between MC and IC) based on the wider considerations of Internal Control and Management Control terms, attention is focused not only on the financial aspects but also more on the soft aspects of the business, such as culture, behaviour, standards and values. The limited considerations of Management Control are focused mainly in the hard, financial aspects of business operation. The definitions of Management Control and Internal Control are often used interchangeably and the results of this empirical study reveal that Management Control is part of Internal Control, there is no causal link between the two concepts. Based on the interpretation of the respondents, the term Management Control has moved from a broad term to a more limited term with the soft aspects of the influencing of behaviour, performance measurements, incentives and culture. This paper is an exploratory study based on qualitative research and on a qualitative matrix method analysis of the thematic definition of the terms Management Control and Internal Control.

Keywords: Management Control (MC), Internal Control (IC), definition, causal link, COSO 1992/2004, CoCo (Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants), Russian CG code (КОДЕКС) , limited and broad concepts MC and IC.

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Authors: Pelin Yildiz

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The term interactive education indicates the meaning related with multidisciplinary aspects of distance education following contemporary means around a common basis with different functional requirements. The aim of this paper is to reflect the new techniques in education with the new methods and inventions. These methods are better supplied by interactivity. The integration of interactive facilities in the discipline of education with distance learning is not a new concept but in addition the usage of these methods on design issue is newly being adapted to design education. In this paper the general approach of this method and after the analysis of different samples, the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches are being identified. The method of this paper is to evaluate the related samples and then analyzing the main hypothesis. The main focus is to mention the formation processes of this education. Technological developments in education should be filtered around the necessities of the design education and the structure of the system could then be formed or renewed. The conclusion indicates that interactive methods of education in design issue is a meaning capturing not only technical and computational intelligence aspects but also aesthetical and artistic approaches coming together around the same purpose.

Keywords: Interactive education, distance learning, designeducation, computational intelligence.

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Authors: Jeong Hoon Lee, Jin Hwan Yu

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The number of people using SNS with their mobile devices is soaring. This research focuses on the Twitter service that has the most third-party applications and delved into the fact that there were not sufficient studies on the UX design aspects of Twitter applications. Among social network services which have emerged as a major social topic lately, this research try to analyze the UX design of the Twitter application which is also called micro-blogging service. Therefore this research sets its goal to draw components of the UX design aspect of the Tweeter application on which there are not enough analysis yet. Moreover, this research suggests improvement of mobile application which will assure better users- experience. In order to analyze the UX design aspect of the mobile twitter application, with relevant document and user research, evaluating factors of the UX Design which would affect users- experience were organized. The subjects for cases were selected among six paid and free social networking applications that had been consistently ranked from 1st to 100th in the Korean application store during May, 2012 after closely monitoring the rank. From May 15th to May 11th in 2012, in accordance with the evaluating standard, surveys were conducted in a form of interviews with 20 subjects who have used the Twitter application to find out problems and solutions for the UX design of the mobile Twitter application.

Keywords: Social network service, twitter, user experience design, interface design.

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Authors: Linda Sau-ling LAI

Abstract:

This paper aims to address the new trend of social commerce as electronic commerce leverages Web 2.0 technologies and online social media. The infusions of new technologies on the World Wide Web connect users in their homes and workplaces, thus transforming social formations and business transactions. An in-depth study of the growth and success of a social commerce site, Facebook was conducted. The investigation is finalized with a triad relational model which reflects socioeconomic life in the Internet today. The following three concepts work jointly to form a global community that has already started to take the place of traditional commerce and socialization: Web 2.0 technology, E-commerce, and online social media. A discussion of the research findings indicates that social commerce networks are sustainable because of the various incentives given to users as they collaborate with others regardless of their identity and location. The focus of this article is to increase understanding on quickly developing Web 2.0 based social media and their subsequent effects on the emerging social commerce.

Keywords: Social Commerce, Web 2.0, ElectronicCommerce, Social Media

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