August 2012
Hesitant fuzzy prioritized operators and their application in multi-criteria group decision making
Hesitant fuzzy set is a very useful technique in the situations where there are some difficulties in determining the membership of an element to a set. Some aggregation methods have been developed for hesitant fuzzy information. Current aggregation methods are under the assumption that the criteria are at the same priority level. However, in real decision making problems, criteria have different priority level...
August 2012
Exploring the issues and new insights of global branding and strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR): A case of Pakistani organizations
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the concept of global branding, what it stands for being socially responsible, and what its link with leverage is. It also highlights the range of social responsibility issues with reference to Pakistani brands and explores the relevant issues and deep insights from strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature and global branding literature in the context of...
August 2012
Current account dynamics based on the present value model: Evidence from Saudi Arabia
The purpose of the paper is to investigate Saudi Arabia’s current account dynamic based on consumption theory using present value model. In this model, consumers are assumed to inter-temporally smooth their consumption and the current account was used as a buffer by borrowing and lending in the international capital markets in the face of shocks to output, investment and government expenditure. If this consumption...
August 2012
Study of influential authors, works and research network of advertising research: 1998 to 2007
Changes in citation patterns and in the advertising reflect the evolution of the field itself. This study utilized author co-citation analysis, a bibliometric methodology and social network analysis methodology, to highlight the most influential authors, analyze citation relationships, reveal correlations among publications, and show trends and patterns in the advertising field over two consecutive time periods, 1998 to...
August 2012
Aligning mentorship programmes to facilitate a learning organisation: A case study of the Grootvlei RTS Project in South Africa
The theoretical underpinnings of the learning organisation detect a void in the practical implementation of the concept. Hence, this research advocates a practical disposition for the principles of the learning organisation to foster a tangible outcome. Peter Senge’s systems approach towards the learning organisation was adopted. The Grootvlei RTS mentorship programme represents the learning medium that...
August 2012
The influence of human investment on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector of Harare, Zimbabwe
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of human investment on the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector of Harare, Zimbabwe. The target population for this study was 609 SMEs of which a sample of 241 SME owners or managers participated in the study. Data analysis was done using the Chi-square test to test for association. The results indicated that human...
August 2012
Comparing accuracy in predicting stock returns between using regression techniques and data mining approach
Size and volatility of the stock price of companies listed on the stock exchange is one of the most important factors influencing the financial markets. Predicting the influencing factors such as price and stock returns in the stock market is essential to the large number of users who are interested in entering the stock market as investors or as attract-business investors. This is because this investment might be a big...
August 2012
Critical success factors of new product development in technology based firms: A case study
In today’s advanced technological era, new products are emerging rapidly and market competition is increasing. It is important for Malaysian companies to invest more in research and development (R and D) and to develop their own design capabilities and innovative products. New product development (NPD) refers to the complete process of bringing a new product or service to the market. The quest has been going on...
August 2012
Activity-based learning: A business management case study
Many business management lecturers in higher education institutions conform to traditional teaching methods, such as lecturing, with the occasional questions-and-answers teaching method. This pedagogical approach often results in poor class attendance as well as business management students being utterly bored and negative towards the subject. In this research, the strategy for implementing activity-based learning in...
August 2012
Happiness as an effective factor in organizational commitment of managers
This study aimed to determine the effective factors in organizational commitment and the relationship between happiness and organizational commitment among managers of District Four of Islamic Azad University in Iran. The research methodology consisted of a descriptive survey and a correlation study, with data gathered through questionnaires and interviews. All the 590 senior, middle, and supervisory managers of...
August 2012
A study of China’s logistics network infrastructures and management
Logistics network infrastructures (LNIs) and management are in low growth in the developed countries, in this paper, the theory of LNIs is firstly overviewed. Then a new evaluation index system for LNIs evaluation is set up which contains factors that reflect the scale of logistics industry, economic development level, transportation accessibility and turnover volume of freight traffic. An empirical study is carried out...
August 2012
Is biodiesel a more social fuel than ethanol? A comparative analysis from public policies in Brazil
As a promising source of renewable energy, biodiesel has received incentivesthrough public policies in various countries. While some countries have adoptedpolicies based on economic incentives for production and consumption, political discourse in Brazil has placed emphasis on the social...
August 2012
Forecasting postage traffic using principal component analysis and artificial neural network
Predicting postage traffic and enhancing factors which affect postage traffic are some of the main concerns in postal services. In this paper, we present a combined approach based on principal component analysis (PCA) and artificial neural networks (ANN) for forecasting postage traffic. Due to the large available data set size, PCA is used to reduce the dimension and the required principal components (PCs) are selected...
August 2012
Poverty in a South African township: The case of Kwakwatsi
South Africa’s world revered democratic transition lies more than a decade in the past, a period long enough to evaluate past achievements and challenges. The study reported here provides a snapshot like view of poverty in a South African township. The results are based on a household survey using questionnaires. Two poverty lines (lower and upper bound) developed by Statistics South Africa were used to measure...
August 2012
Reaping the benefits of value innovation: Lessons for small agribusinesses in Africa
Small agribusinesses play a vital role in sustaining the gross domestic product (GDP) of numerous economies in Africa. The survival and continual growth of these businesses in the global economy is essential to poverty minimisation, sustaining the livelihoods of individuals and subsequently the growth of African economies as a whole. The strategy to stimulate agricultural development advocated by prominent African...
August 2012
Marketing budget allocation and marketing benefits of traditional media, online advertising, and electronic word-of-mouth
An in-depth interview was used to examine the budget allocation and operational benefit of three major corporate marketing tools. The results indicated that, apart from e-commerce and companies with online channels, most companies allocated their marketing budget primarily to traditional media, followed by online advertising and electronic word-of-mouth. However, the allocation of such budget percentages does not result...
August 2012
Leadership as a key element in the effective alignment between external and internal branding in organisations
This paper perceives leadership as the ‘key element’ in organisation’s brand to the outside world, which also influence how employees eventually perceive the external brand that has been portrayed by the organization. External company brands deal with certain attributes of the organisation, such as innovation, consumer concern, trustworthiness, a drive for quality and concern for the environment. The...
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