Challenges to the efficient use of point of sale (POS) terminals in Nigeria
July 2013
The relevance of efficient payment systems is a subject of interest to all stakeholders. This study analyzed the challenges to the efficient use of point of sale (POS) terminals in Nigeria. Socio economic characteristics of users and non users were also examined. Cross sectional data were collected from 650 randomly sampled respondents from 20 local government areas of Lagos State, Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed...
The South African risk-free rate anomaly
July 2013
International tests of the suitability of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) found that the minimum return required by investors implied by the model exceeded the risk-free proxy yield. In contrast, similar tests in South Africa found that the minimum required return was not significantly different from the risk-free proxy return. This study sought to resolve this apparent anomaly by employing direct and indirect...
E-government and e-governance concepts and constructs in the context of service delivery
July 2013
The Malaysian Vision 2020 of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) has gone through a rapid change in information and communication technology (ICT). The government will eventually enhance the service delivery and quality of the development process which will allow the government to be more responsive to the needs of the citizens. The Malaysian government has developed e-government and e-governance that have come into...
Using Facebook for event promotion - implementing change
July 2013
Facebook is currently the largest social network site, with over 800 million users worldwide- and over half of its users are in a Facebook group with the average user connected to over 80 community, group, pages, or events. Facebook has made many changes throughout its inception and while this should be viewed as progress and improvements to the system, those who rely heavily on Facebook as a communication tool for...
Austerity, Structural Adjustment Programme and family crises in Nigeria
July 2013
Since the 1980s, the peace and unity that characterized traditional Nigerian families have been challenged by the multiplier effects of Austerity, and its handmaiden the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). Nigerian families have come under severe threat as a result of the persistent austere economic conditions and its corollary, erosion of African family values. The paper interrogates the nexus between pervasive...
Moderating effects of organizational culture on human resource management and employee’s performance
July 2013
The study examined the impact of moderating effects of organizational culture on HRM and employee’s performance in an attempt to contribute to the pool of knowledge and practice. Researchers and authors have suggested that culture is a stable and critical phenomenon. Sun (2008) and Brown (1995) argued that, there are organizations that are relatively stable, with stable environment; but risk-taking and innovation...
Construction analysis based on total quality management and six sigma methodologies
July 2013
This paper focuses on comprehensive study that analyses the total quality management (TQM) practices in connection with the relationship between organization strategy and its performance. By analyzing TQM in the context of organization strategy around a number of important factors, this paper seeks to advance the understanding of TQM and six sigma in general context which highlights the causes of quality problem and...
Exploring the corporate social responsibility reporting: A case study in Thai listed companies
July 2013
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) pertains to the idea that business activities can affect the environment, society, and economy. The environment and social performance is an important driver of long-term sustainability and growth. The concept of CSR has become increasingly popular for sustainable development. There are calls for CSR information. However, Thai listed companies rarely published CSR reports because of...
Quality assurance and economical feasibility of an innovative product obtained from a byproduct of the meat industry in Brazil
July 2013
The Brazilian beef industry generates various wastes that are underutilized and often discarded without proper treatment, thereby polluting the environment. Among these tailings are the feet of chicken. The most popular and used is the gelatin of mammals (pigs and cattle) that is subjected to greater restrictions and skepticism among consumers due...
Quality of life management at work: A strategic program for improved performance in micro and small companies in the Jundiaà Region, Brazil
July 2013
This paper investigates the human resources management practices focused on internal stakeholders, namely employees, in a context of small business. Numerous studies have addressed the economic significance and effects of small business but contributions to Human Resources within small businesses have remained relatively unexplored in contemporary quality of work life (QWL). Qualitative-quantitative approach method...
Effect of budget deficit and corruption on private investment in developing countries: A panel data analysis
July 2013
The prime objective of this paper was to empirically quantify the effect of interaction between budget deficits and corruption on private investment in developing countries over the period 1984 to 2010. Using a panel data methodology, a large sample size of 70 developing countries and system-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation applied to dynamic panel data to address the problem of endogeneity, this...
Overcoming obstacles to learning: Guidelines for teaching, learning and support in open distance learning
July 2013
Whilst open distance learning (ODL) has undertaken many initiatives to address the problems associated with low pass rates, student performance remains poor. The research reported in this article was aimed at the provision of teaching and learning support services to overcome obstacles faced by students. A mixed-methods research approach was used to obtain data. The analyses of the data led to the development of a set...
Unnecessary execution of tax audit from the view of tax officers
July 2013
Official accountants know they are right according to law, and they know distrust can cause a kind of indifference to audit profession. This causes displeasure among taxpayers, because they incur expensive costs during provision of tax reports subject of article 272. However, tax officers certainly have special reasons for this decision. In this paper, we study the unnecessary execution of tax audit from the view of tax...
The importance of quality function deployment to organizational business
July 2013
Organizations management seeking world class status, the relationship betweenquality function deployment and managers is important. For this reason, this article used data collected in the year 2008 from studies in six official and industrial organizations in North- west of Iran. The main purpose was to examine the quality function deployment performance and...
Organizational departments and personnel structure positions model
July 2013
To increase the performance of industrial companies in today’s competitive world with various threats, necessary actions are required. As a result, after determining the places for manufacturing organizations to operate, looking for alternatives for their performance is very important. The performance of each organization is a function of total performance of relative departments and...
Selectivity and market timing skills in the hedge fund industry: Do they persist?
July 2013
This paper investigates the persistence of hedge fund managers’ skills during periods of boom and/or recession. We consider a data set of monthly investment strategy indices published by Hedge Fund Research group. The data set spans from January 1995 to June 2010. We divide this sample period into four overlapping sub-sample periods that contain different economic cycles. We define a skilled manager as a manager...
Effective methods for health care organizations: An evaluation of excellence models
July 2013
Health care has become important agenda for both public and private sector organizations throughout the world. Many models were developed to assess the effectiveness of the service delivery by health care organizations. As a result, researchers and health care experts have published numerous articles in search for an excellent health care performance model. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and compare about 32...
Application of Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) in grading of suppliers: A case study
July 2013
Research in market and selection of the best suppliers is the main task in organization. Lack of attention to supply of materials and items and lack of collaboration with suppliers increase purchase cost, quality control and quality assurance costs, leading to non- satisfaction of products and services. The suppliers should be graded and selected based on criteria in order to collaborate with the supply of the...
Common items in the companies’ information flow from the organizational structure and management of ideas through the perspective of the global cognitive theory
July 2013
Companies have to adapt their structures to environmental continuous changes. In crisis time is important to identify and appreciate what people can bring to businesses (ideas, knowledge, innovation, etc.) in order to survive by creating competitive advantages and exploiting what the environment offers. In addition, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have a deep impact on organizations; ICT are often...
A critical commentary on the business education debate in South Africa: The Master of Business Administration Degree (MBA) versus the Master of Arts Degree in Philosophy (MA)
July 2013
This opinion is written in narrative style and does not follow the classical research approach. The opinion attempts to comment on the Philosophy of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree, with special reference to MBA degrees offered by universities and business schools in Africa and South Africa and, similar management institutions on the continent, and makes certain salient comments on the MBA...
A diagnosis of knowledge management measuring incubated companies’ performance: A study case
July 2013
This study is aimed at recognizing how knowledge is captured, created, stored and used in two incubated companies. The survey was conducted at the “Intecponta Incubator”, located at the city of Ponta Grossa - PR, South - Brazil. The Knowledge Management Diagnostic (KMD) proposed by Bukowitz and Williams (2002) was applied. The efforts made were in regard to understand if the method could be used in...
The effect of profit incentive of ICT industry on the relationship between ownership and corporate performance
July 2013
ICT industry dominated the global economic development in recent years, and Taiwan ICT industry was an important center for the global ICT development. This study analyzed the relationship between the ownership structure and performance of ICT firms in Taiwan. The subjects in the study were 199 ICT firms from 1994~2004. The empirical results showed that the effect of profit incentive on directors and managers was...
Key success paths theory: Navigator of new product development strategy
July 2013
Rapid changes in high technology and amid global competition shorten life cycles of product and highlight the important role of new product development (NPD). Many studies explore key success factors (KSFs) and how they affect outcomes of NPD, but do not present recipes or combinations of KSFs for successful outcomes of NPD. The purposes of this paper are to explore the key success paths (KSPs) theory by creating and...
Education is essential for economic growth in Pakistan
July 2013
The role of enhanced schooling, a fundamental part of most development strategies, has become contentious because spreading out of school achievement has not assured improved economic setting. This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic interests that spotlight the role of educational eminence. Much evidence from developing countries suggests that education has strapping persuasion on economic...
Designing a model for “Business process-orientation†using interpretive structural modeling approach (ISM)
July 2013
In today’s business world, organizations are continually striving to streamline their operations, increase their ability to respond to the market conditions and find new opportunities to differentiate themselves from their competitors; these conditions have caused them to focus more on business process and customer. There is extensive literature regarding the focus on business process and process orientation in...
Research of personnel selection methods in the Greek private bank sector
July 2013
This research aims to estimate the extent to which the Human Resource Management sector of a private bank is influenced by external candidate parameters such as gender, age, appearance, social status, family planning, and medical or criminal records. The sampling method which was used was the method of cluster sampling and the statistical analysis included factor analysis and Chi-square statistic tests....
Analysis of gender discrimination using the Gini index multiple decomposition method
July 2013
Income inequality is a frequent research theme in economical literature, due to its importance in rendering the condition of economical cohesion within society. Income inequality has multiple causes: resource endowment, skills, competences, attitude towards risk, chances etc. Problems appear when income inequalities are casued by various forms of discrimination. A consecrated instrument used for analysing income...
The riba conundrum: The ethical appeal of Islamic banking
July 2013
The rule of Islam is simple: if you advance a loan, you are entitled to receive your capital only and nothing more. If you wish to secure profit, you should enter into a partnership and become a shareholder. Prohibitions against interest are not peculiar to Islam. If we were to trace back through history, a number of examples of such prohibitions can be found in the early Greek, Roman and Rabinnical thought. ...
Demographic dividend and literate life expectancy: The case of Pakistan
July 2013
During the demographic transition from high mortality and fertility to low mortality and fertility, the age structure of a country changes, so that for a period the proportion of the population (which is of working ages) rises and then falls. This period during which the working-age population is relatively large is often termed the ‘demographic dividend’, a phenomenon which may be...
Nokia and strategic agility
July 2013
The high-tech industry is the competitive strength as well as major profit source for countries in the world. However, these companies face a lot of uncertainties including market demands, technology progress and new competitors that bring new strategies and technology into the market. Because of self-owned operating system, Nokia is facing patent issues with Apple and the increasing number of competitors. Nokia faces...
Price discovery in the South African White maize futures market
July 2013
This study examined the price discovery process in the South African futures and spot markets for white maize. Engle-Granger and Johansen tests of cointegration were performed after which an Error Correction Model, Vector Error Correction Model and Impulse Response functions were formulated representing the long-run relationship between spot and futures prices for white maize. It was found that spot and futures prices...
An empirical study into the impact of the executive development programme on individual level within a paramilitary organisation in South Africa
July 2013
The objective of this research study was to determine the impact that the Executive Development Programme (EDP) had on employees of a paramilitary organisation in South Africa, who had successfully completed the programme. A stratified sample was used from the Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape provinces. A random sample was used for the Head Office Divisions. The participants were divided into groups, namely those...
Analysis of mergers and acquisitions in Brazilian companies
July 2013
This article sheds light on how synergies arise through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and how best to evaluate them in Brazil. Through a review of the literature, it was analysed how generated synergies are assessed across different methodologies. This article analysed the synergy gains in Brazilian mergers and acquisitions between 2000 and 2007. The study employed three of the four techniques identified:...
Evaluation method of product configuration design integrated customer requirements and application
July 2013
Mass customization is an important production mode for the modern enterprise. Product configuration design is the core of mass customization. In the process of product configuration design, there are maybe many optional configuration schemes, but it needs the reasonable evaluation so as to scientifically and effectively select the optimal result from them. This paper takes the clear customer requirements as a part of...
The income tax deductibility of indirect empowerment measures relating to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) in South Africa
July 2013
When an entity incurs expenditure relating to indirect empowerment measures of broad-based black economic empowerment (‘BEE’) (that is the preferential procurement, enterprise development, skills development and socio-economic development categories on the BEE scorecard), there are differing opinions on whether or not these expenditure will be deductible in terms of the South African Income Tax Act. The...
Willingness to pay for protecting natural environments in Pulau Redang Marine Park, Malaysia
July 2013
Although marine parks, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserves are established to conserve biodiversity and enhance ecotourism, some of the country’s protected areas are under threat whether at varying degree. The biggest threat arises from human encroachment. To rescue these resources, appropriate conservation strategy must be put in place. This requires proper valuation of the environment. Taking Pulau...
The relationship among certain youths’ demographic variables and their social media browsing behaviour
July 2013
The increased use of social media particularly amongst youths has placed greater importance of social media as a marketing and communication tool. Based on this, this work is an exploratory study conducted among a convenience sample of 150 youths (university students); the relationship amongst their age, gender, social media browsing and purchasing behaviour was examined. It was ascertained through both multiple...
Deregulation and privatization in Nigeria: The advantages and disadvantages so far
July 2013
The economic principles of deregulation and privatization were first introduced in Nigeria in the 1980s through the policy of structural adjustment programme (SAP). Since then, government monopolies had disappeared in many industries and over 85 public enterprises (PES) in mining, education, health, agriculture, transportation and telecommunication were transferred, either fully or partially to private owners. The...
Role of rate of return, inflation and deposits on loan supply: An empirical study of banking sector in Pakistan
July 2013
In Pakistan, banks are experiencing a significant increase in supply of loans. Trend of financing through banks increases with passage of time. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the major factors which have determining role in the supply of loans in local market of Pakistan. Statistical techniques have been used to relate the supply of loans with deposits, weighted average rate of returns on loans,...
Ownership structure and dividend policy evidence from the Tehran stock market
July 2013
The major purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the influence of concentrated ownership and institutional ownership on dividend policy for Chemical and Medical firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) from 2002 to 2008. We used multiple regressions to examine the influence of ownership structure on dividend per share (DPS). The ownership structure variables used in this study include concentrated...
The effects of coupon distribution program stocks on the stock exchange in Central and Eastern European countries
July 2013
n the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, all countries in East and Central Europe had to reform their economic, political and social bases. About economic reform, the first and the most important step was the privatization of state enterprises. Therefore, the distribution of shares of stock stamps was considered private advocates. This article attempts...
Return to education in China’s rural labor market
July 2013
The purpose of this study is to estimate the return to education in China’s rural labor market. We find that education increases off-farm employment participation and earnings. An additional year of schooling increases the earnings of a rural worker by 4.50%. Individuals with an education of senior middle school and above have significantly higher wages than those without. Furthermore, the type of education...
The biographical profiles correlates on the performance management system: A case of the university of technology
July 2013
The performance management system (PMS) has been topical in South African higher education institutions even though it is usually resisted by key stakeholders owing to poor consultation, inconsistencies and lack of knowledge and ownership of the entire process. This study aims to sheds light on biographial factors that hinder the processes of PMS from being as effective as it is supposed to be in the context of South...
Evaluation of the entrepreneurial success factors of small, micro and medium farming enterprises (SMMEs) in the peri-urban poor communities of George municipality, Western Cape Province, RSA
July 2013
The aim of the study was to determine the entrepreneurship capacity of farming enterprises focussed small business in poor communities of George Municipality. The study was conducted in four (n=4) townships around George metropolitan areas. Only 10% the sample population was considered during quantitative data collection processes. The quantitative data collected was randomly selected whilst the qualitative data...
Studying the role of using electronic commerce in development of handy-woven carpet exports compared to using the traditional methods
July 2013
This study examined the effect of using electronic commerce on development of Iran`s hand-woven carpet exports, compared to using the traditional methods. The study is a field study and the population consists of all of the Iranian hand woven carpet exporters. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents surveyed for this study, a total of 65 questionnaires were administered to respondents...
Will the knowledge economy signal the end of academic freedom?
June 2013
The emergent industrialisation of China and India has led to a fundamental rethink of policy in all Western industrialised nations and trading blocks including the UK and EU. This has led to the concept of a ‘knowledge economy’ (KE) in which the utilisation of knowledge capital will replace traditional methods of employment (a ‘brains versus braun’ market place). A large number of...
Job satisfaction level among university staff: Case study Iran
June 2013
This research is aimed at studying job satisfaction level among staff of Islamic Azad University, Naragh Branch and the prime objective for conducting the research is to study the effects of some material and non-material factors on the job satisfaction and motivation level of the university staff. To explore and study this issue, several items have been carefully considered and their relationships with job...
Can we apply Fibonacci retracement in the African market?
June 2013
Forecasting was one of the most important issues facing companies. Technical analysis was the use of trends and charts to understand and analyze investors' behavior and their effect on subsequent price action of financial instruments when the trend is so clear or support and resistance levels obtained through Fibonacci ratios. The applicability of Fibonacci trading in the stock market for the western...
Accounting reforms in the Middle East: A portfolio -returns approach
June 2013
This paper examines the value relevance of accounting information in selected Middle Eastern countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and UAE) for the per-period and post-period of accounting reforms, which could describe the effect of accounting standards reform in these countries. The result obtained from portfolio approach shows accounting information is value relevant to investor in all selected stock exchanges....
Economic miracle in China
June 2013
It has been 30 years since the reform and opening policy in 1978 in China. During the past 30 years, China has created an economic miracle with its rapidly developing economy, sharply expanding foreign trade and constantly improving living standard and all-time strong overall national strength. Key words: China, economic miracle, reform, opening policy.
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