November 2012
Optimal bank interest margin under capital regulation: Equity return maximization vs. equity risk minimization
This paper examines the effects of capital regulation on the optimal bank interest margin with two related bank objectives of option-based equity return maximization and equity risk minimization. We find that an increase in the capital-to-deposits ratio decreases the optimal interest margin under the equity return maximization, but increases the margin under the equity risk minimization. The proposed Basel...
November 2012
The case for a technically safe environment to protect the identities of anonymous whistle-blowers: A conceptual paper
Whistle-blowing is one of the most important aspects in the fight against corruption. In most cases, it is impossible to commit a corrupt deed without at least one other person being involved in, or, knowing about it. Many businesses and public entities have a ‘crime lines’ in place to facilitate whistle-blowing but these facilities are mostly limited to a particular telephone number. Using a telephone...
November 2012
Gateway and hinterland dynamics: The case of the Southern African container seaport system
The Southern African container port system features a diverse range of different port types and sizes from five African countries. Collectively, ports in this region constituted a significant 40% market share of all container traffic through the African continent in 2005. One of the busiest container ports on the continent, the Port of Durban is located within the Southern African region. The region has seen strong port...
November 2012
Right product pricing: Application of activity-based costing (ABC)-and- economic value added (EVA) as an integrated tool
The traditional activity based costing (ABC) can be used as a more powerful and accurate pricing tool if integrated with economic value added (EVA), a value-based financial performance measure. The paper is targeted to discus the integrated ABC-and-EVA system that is considered as an engineering management tool used successfully to manage both cost and capital. It allows enterprise leaders to create...
November 2012
Biotechnology industry in India: Opportunities or challenges
Biotechnology have touched every corner of the world laying major stress on applications to the environment, drugs, vaccines including a range of biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, transgenic crops, improved tools for upgrading animal reproduction and quality, useful microbes and food ingredients. The term 'Biotechnology' is coined as amalgamation of biology with technology that includes disciplines...
November 2012
Study on E-commerce workforce demand of small and medium enterprises in Taiwan
In Taiwan, the small and medium enterprises account for over 97% of total enterprises, small and medium enterprises are the important force to support economic development of Taiwan. This study discusses the e-commerce workforce demand of small and medium enterprises in Taiwan and the e-commerce technology or ability that these enterprises need. This study regards the 71 relevant e-commerce workforces, and...
November 2012
Innovative education: A student approach
Education is an important part of human life. Education never dies, a person will die, but his or her valuable words, thoughts always remain in the through out the year. Today in India, there is tremendous change in education form bottom root to top. The pattern of education is also framed in new shape from kindergarten (KG) topost graduation (PG). The technology and development in the entire...
November 2012
Project reviews: The vehicle for learning in organisations
Project reviews are an essential process of learning new things and capturing what has been learned in a project. This is done in order for future projects to benefit from this knowledge. A study conducted revealed that four out of five organisations did not conduct post-project reviews. However, if they do conduct project reviews, there are no guidelines on how to do it. The aim of this article is to...
November 2012
A comparative study of cooperative relationships in family and non-family businesses
The aim of the present article is to find out differences and similarities in inter-firm cooperative relationships among family and non-family businesses, in order to contribute to an integrated theory on strategic alliances and family businesses within the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) context. We found important divergences between both types of businesses, namely in the perceived difficulties...
November 2012
The influence of hospital organizational culture on organizational commitment among nursing executives
That hospital organizational culture influences organizational commitment is an assumption implicitly held by many researchers; however, relatively few empirical studies have provided detailed insight into organizational performance by hospital executives. The purpose of this study aims to examine the impact of hospital organizational culture on organizational commitment among hospital nursing executives in...
November 2012
The impact of adopting International Accounting Standards 1 (IAS 1) in Ghana: The extent of disclosures, and their relationship to corporate characteristics
This paper investigates the extent of disclosure by firms complying with IAS 1. The key relationships examined are between extent of disclosure and company size, profitability, liquidity, leverage and auditor size. The results of the disclosure level, mean of 60.9%, indicate that most of the firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange did not overwhelmingly comply with the IAS 1 disclosure requirements. ...
November 2012
Impact of employer brand-equity promotion for effective talent recruitment of fresh graduates in Pakistan
The current study was an attempt to investigate the impact of employer brand equity towards effective talent recruitment in telecommunication companies of Pakistan. As suggested by Ting and Paul (2011), the study also sought to test the mediating role of educational institutions. Two types of survey questionnaires, adapted (with slight modifications) from the study of Collins and Stevens, were...
November 2012
Survey on the effectiveness of promotional and communication strategies adopted by financial services
High volume domestic and international trade and business and their risks, force companies and business people to use financial services such as banks and insurance companies much more than ever. However, heavy competition in this industry impels financial service managers to work hard on their marketing strategies and plans. Promotion and communication tools are one of the most important parts of each...
November 2012
The success of intranet usage on managerial performance: The effect of task and technology antecedents on usage
Using the extended model of task-technology fit, this article examines the impact of task interdependent, task complexity, immediacy of communication, physical interface, and task-technology fit on Intranet usage as well as on manager’s performance in Malaysia maritime industry. The structural equation modelling (SEM) results indicate that task interdependent, task complexity, immediacy of communication...
November 2012
The factors influencing corrugated board supply and demand In Iran: Simultaneous equations models
Corrugated board is considered as a valuable commodity for packaging at both international and domestic markets. Therefore, for the development of corrugated board production industry in Iran and understanding the variation in demand and supply for this product, it is necessary to identify the consumption and production patterns as well as the most important and effective variables on its status. Based on...
November 2012
Will it be the Euro or the US Dollar?
This study investigates the impact of the world’s two dominating exchange rates on the exchange rates of selected countries over the last twenty years. Multivariate and recursive co-integration methods are used for the data which includes daily exchange rates for the selected countries from 1990 to 2010. The findings indicate that (a) the Euro has had a significant long term relationship with the...
November 2012
Innovative instructional strategies: A business and management perspective
This empirical study investigated the use of innovative instructional strategies by the business schools in the present era of globalization where information and knowledge have become the main sources of competitive advantage for the business world. The challenge of the management schools is to develop more permanent skills and knowledge through implementing innovative instructional strategies to...
November 2012
Attitude of the youth and entertainment in Coimbatore City
The spending pattern, attitudes and lifestyles of Indian ‘young consumers’ have great impact on marketers. These young people populate the future markets and have a tremendous amount of discretionary spending power today. Youth are occupying pivotal positions in the marketing sector duly compensated by higher style of living. The lifestyles and attitudes have brought about a distinct...
November 2012
Hiding solution for internet-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system threats management
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems are real-time process control systems that monitor and control local or geographically remote devices. They are in wide use throughout a variety of critical infrastructure sectors, and are a critical component of operations. The SCADA system also provides a managementway for important plant performance information to be obtained for use by managers...
November 2012
Change in the outside directors on the board affects strategy and performance of family Small and medium enterprise (SME)
We selected a sample of 187 family-controlled, small- and medium-sized Italian companies and gathered financial information about them. Then, we collected data on the strategic change and the recruitment of members to the boards of these family-owned firms. First of all, through multiple regression analysis of the data collected, we demonstrated that recruitment of new outside directors (in substitution or...
November 2012
Common causes of small businesses failure in the townships of West Rand district municipality in the Gauteng Province of South Africa
The study examined the high failure rate of the small business in the West Rand region of the Gauteng Province, South Africa. The purpose was to investigate reasons for lack of sustainability of the small businesses of this region. The study was qualitative, characterised by exploratory and descriptive modes. Fifteen small businesses were interviewed using an interview guide (at Appendix). The reasons for...
November 2012
Supply chain management challenges in the South African public sector
This article articulates the challenges that restrain supply chain management implementation in the South African public sector. Supply chain management (SCM) promotes South Africa’s New Public Management model by means of improved financial management and is a strategic tool for management and enhancement of its procurement practices. Since its inception (2003), training and workshops have been ongoing...
November 2012
South African university entrepreneurship education
The aim of this article is to shed light on the entrepreneurship education currently offered at higher education institutions in South Africa (SA). The major questions addressed are: What is the state of entrepreneurship education in SA universities? And how should entrepreneurship be taught? The entrepreneurship programs offered at South African universities, both in terms of content and methods, do not...
November 2012
Developing a framework for supply chain value measurement based on value index system: Real case study of manufacturing company
Due to the fierce competition among supply chains in today’s market, creating more value for stakeholders (that is, customers, community. Shareholders, employees and suppliers) determines competitive advantage of a firm over its competitors. Since the satisfaction of all of the stakeholders affect the supply chain total value, every single stakeholder must be engaged in the value measurement process....
November 2012
Cross-cultural study of accounting students' perception of accounting ethics in Iran and United Kingdom
Accountants faces a lot of challenges because of their positions and if they want to achieve society trusts, should regard a series of ethical. Accountants would be able to play their role properly by recognizing some ethical rules and principles because of increasing globalization of economics in international scandal and not community ones. In this research, we compare accounting...
November 2012
The impact of globalization on African countries economic development
The term globalization captures the attention of everyone and especially economic development researchers. However, despite the prior prosperity promises of globalization and the benefits of an information accessing society, the afterwards benefits have not been universal and global inequality has increased instead. Some studies show that globalization has widened the gap between rich and poor countries in...
November 2012
Identifying qualified audit opinions by artificial neural networks
Data mining methods can be used in order to facilitate auditors to issue their opinion. This paper for the first time in Iran, applies four data mining classification techniques to develop models capable of identifying auditor’s opinion. Four type of techniques were utilized in this study including: Multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP), probabilistic neural network (PNN), radial basic functions...
November 2012
The importance of having mobile terminal samples for analyzing and verifying customer issues
It may be intuitive to assume that the quality of issue corrective actions (iCA) for customers with mobile terminal (MT) issues can be improved by collecting samples of the faulty products in question for verifying the issues reported from the field. This study was created to test this hypothesis using three different established statistical analysis methods: binary logistic regression, Kruskal-Wallis...
November 2012
A comparative analysis of current trade union trends in the European Union and South Africa
The primary objective of this study was to establish what factors currently influence trade unions as organisations in South Africa and the European Union and then to compare these factors. To conduct this study a pure literature examination was done. Firstly the levels of trade unionism were established and thereafter the factors contributing to the levels of trade unionism were identified. The difference...
November 2012
Evaluation of decision making criteria with special reference to quantitative and qualitative paradigms
A common problem these days in various organizations shows itself in excessive time spent dealing with short-term crises, namely ‘putting out fires’. This problem usually results from a lack of long-range planning, and, typically, the absence of a strategic plan. Individual employees and the organization as a whole live from day to day, never knowing what to expect. This may result in a loss of...
November 2012
Curtailing the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS through mandatory testing: A management perspective
HIV/AIDS continues to ravish society and yet legislators and health care practitioners overlook the impact the disease has on a social level. Advocating for mandatory HIV/AIDS testing as a means of curtailing stigma is a necessity. This paper proposes that mandatory HIV/AIDS testing be considered as a means of curtailing the spread of stigma. The paper discusses the causes of stigma, the ways in which stigma...
November 2012
The performance of employed and unemployed learners on learnership programmes in South Africa
Several critics have questioned the efficiency of learnerships in general in the South African education and human resources management environment. Concerns have been raised regarding the effective management within each sector education training authority (SETA), the management of finances within the respective SETA’s and whether the human resource development (HRD) strategy meets its targets. The main objective...
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