September 2012
Harmony search algorithms for inventory management problems
In recent years, harmony search (HS) algorithms have gained significant attentions for their abilities to solve difficult problems in engineering. This paper introduces the applications of HS in inventory management problems. Four specific inventory problems in certain and uncertain environments are considered: constraint multi-product newsboy problem with fuzzy demand, economic order quantity problem with advanced...
September 2012
Nominal interest rate: Zero or non-zero?
This paper aims to study zero nominal interest rates and why they are good, and the division of our economy into two, that Is, non-monetary and monetary economies. In order to achieve this, we consider one-sector neoclassical growth model. In this model, we first consider economies that have no money. We suppose that the consumption and capital stock paths in this environment are Pareto optimal. Then we enter the...
September 2012
The Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and role of internal auditors in the ERM implementation: A review of related literature on measurement instruments
The primary objective of this study is to comprehensively review the literature concerning existing instruments on the measures of the ERM implementation and roles of internal auditing (IA) in the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) implementation. The study involves review of existing ERM instruments from 2001 to 2011. The present instrument were critically reviewed in which the contributions and limitations of each is...
September 2012
Constrictive vs. distinctive familiness and the culturing of familiness capital (FamCap)
The special capacity of family firms to perform competently is termed ‘familiness’. The construct familiness refers to strategic processes in family firms, based on the unique capabilities and involvement of the family firm owners that enhance business performance. However, the culture of familiness has to be observed cautiously with both its positive (distinctive) and negative (constrictive) attributes....
September 2012
A survey on change management ability among Iranian super leagues coaches
The purpose of this research was to study coach’s change management ability among Iran super leagues. Statistical population consisted of 369 players who haveplayed in 5 super league (Volleyball, Basketball, Wrestling, Badminton and Karate). From among them 328 players, were chosen randomly based on Morgan table. Ultimately, 228 players participated in this research. All participants completed the...
September 2012
Recovery strategies in Serbian mature companies
The main purpose of this study was to assess the impact of key influencing factors on four different recovery strategies such as management changes, financial restructuring, internal and external strategies. The research sample comprised 48 mature companies in Serbia. The Empirical results show that top management would select financial restructuring if inadequate financial control and policy caused acute crisis in...
September 2012
Principals’ leadership in school administration: A study of principal effectiveness in Turkish public schools
The purpose of this study was to investigate the opinions of teachers about the administrative behaviour of all the principals working in Pazaryeri, one of the towns in the city of Bilecik, Turkey. The sufficiency of principals have been investigated in terms of administration of instructional processes and curriculum, assesment of students and instructional processes, motivation and improvement of teachers, creation of...
September 2012
Analysis of capacity building indicators and their influences on the viability of farming small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa
Farming small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) have been marked as a key strategic priority for food security, job creation and agrarian development in South Africa. Most of these farming enterprises are formed as results of government initiated land reform. The recent studies points out that these SMMEs lack capacity to operate as business entities. Their capacity profiles have not been documented either by...
September 2012
Offshore outsourcing in large companies: Motivations and risks perceived
When companies opt for information systems (IS) outsourcing, within the set of contracted services, they can contract their entire service needs to onshore suppliers or to offshore companies, or part of these services can be contracted to onshore suppliers and the other part to offshore suppliers. The offshore outsourcing reveals itself nowadays as an important strategic option to IS management optimization. This paper...
September 2012
Perceived export barrier differences among exporters: Less developed economy evidence
This study aims to identify some of the barriers that may hinder potential exporters in a developing nation. It is hypothesized that firms with high export experience will perceive a lower level of export barriers than those with low export experience (H1), and firms with high export commitment will perceive a lower level of export barriers than those with low export commitment (H2). The analysis was carried...
September 2012
Monetary policy analysis in Romania: A Bayesian VAR approach
In this study we use the Bayesian VAR framework to provide an analysis of the transmission mechanism of the monetary policy. We develop a bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) model for the Romanian economy in order to identify the major shock in Romania for the last 10 years and to provide information concerning the evolution of the economy response to these shocks. That’s why, we have included in the...
September 2012
Relationship between American popular culture and conspicuous consumption: A moderating effect of religiosity
This paper aimed to explain the impact of American popular culture on Malaysian adolescents’ behaviours and also tried to investigate the impact of popular music as the prominent source of American popular culture. This was done to understand the influence of American popular culture on Malaysian adolescents’ consumption patterns. The research included conspicuous consumption as the dependent variable and...
September 2012
The composing elements and development path of China logistics enterprise competitiveness from a life cycle point of view
The research about the composing elements and development path of logistics enterprise competitiveness (LEC) will improve the logistics services level. Based on the survey of China’s logistics enterprises, the enterprises are divided into four types included platform logistics companies, universal logistics companies, professional logistics companies and supply chain management companies. The paper analyzes the...
September 2012
The impact of organizational support on work spirituality, organizational citizenship behaviour and job performance: The case of Zimbabwe’s small and medium enterprises (SME) sector
Notwithstanding the increasing alertness of the importance of organizational support on employees’ job performance in large firms, research efforts on the same and the mediating influence of workplace spirituality and organizational citizenship behaviour focused on the SMEs sector context have largely been scarce particularly in developing countries of Southern Africa. Therefore, the principal objective of this...
September 2012
On the optimality of hedge fund investment strategies: A Bayesian skew t distribution model
This paper presents a forward looking model for selection of hedge fund investment strategies. Given excess skewness observed in hedge funds’ return distributions, we assume that the historical returns have a skew student t distribution. We implement a Bayesian framework to derive the parameters of the posterior return distribution. The predictive return distribution is easily obtained once the posterior...
September 2012
Corporate governance and firm performance and value in Saudi Arabia
This study investigates the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and firm performance and value of Saudi-listed firms using an index intended to capture the combined effect of firms’ corporate governance characteristics. Saudi Arabia's importance as an international market for investment is growing. Influenced by the recency of governance initiatives and large percentages of insider...
September 2012
Study on the approach of triangular fuzzy evaluation of logistics facility location based on supply chain management in China’s companies
Logistics facility location of supply chain (SC) is one of the important strategic problems in terms of systematic design of SC. Based on the needs of China’s companies supply chain management (SCM), this paper aims at the defect of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) location approach, and makes supplement and improvement based on it, in consideration of practical application. It brings in the concept of...
September 2012
Influential factors in lending and profitability in commercial Chinese banks
This paper examines the factors influencing the lending and profitability of Chinese banks. We especially consider the business cycle, financial market factors, and bank characteristics as influential factors. The analytic period used in this paper covers the years from 2006 to 2010 inclusive. We adopt the random effect model as the empirical model. The main test results are as follows: First, the changes in consumer...
September 2012
An analysis of the impact of disruptive technology on the success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a developing nation. A case of King Williams Town, South Africa
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially in developing nations, offer access to employment to the low income, semi-skilled and even non-skilled individuals. However, it is ascertained that lack of access to appropriate (up-to-date) technology is amongst the major challenges faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing nations. The aim of this research is to analyse disruptive technology...
September 2012
Ownership problems in establishing the routes of urban infrastructure facilities in Turkey: The case of Trabzon city passage tunnel
Modern Turkey has been experiencing rapid urbanization and together with increasing technological developments and there is a need to construct more infrastructure facilities in urban areas. In this process, the degree of restrictions to be applied on limited and valuable urban lands, gains more importance. In Turkey, the loss of ownership rights due to the impact of restrictions resulting from the direct or indirect...
September 2012
A survey on the relationship between trust, customer loyalty, commitment and repurchase intention
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of customer satisfaction, complaint handling and shared value on trust and test the effects of trust on customer loyalty, commitment and repurchase intention. To achieve this objective, data were collected through survey using a structured questionnaire administered to the general public. The only condition for the inclusion of respondents was that they must have...
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