June 2010
Rethinking development and sustainability of African economy: The roles of science education
It is an understatement that of all the continents in the world Africa is seriously lagging behind in the area of development and sustainability. Trend studies of vital indices revealed a slow pace of development, which portends a great danger for the continent coupled with it being bedeviled by political instability. This study offers a rethink of these situations and the roles science education could play...
June 2010
Strategic positioning analysis of Ghana’s national wood export sector
Export-led strategies are very crucial to achieving growth and goals of developing and transition economies such as Ghana. As a result, export strategies are being adopted in many developing countries. Although such export strategies might be in place, the deployment of public resources and funds warrant periodic programmatic evaluation. The objective of the study was to assess Ghana’s wood...
June 2010
Youth unemployment: Entrepreneurship development programme as an intervention mechanism
Within the framework of potential efforts and strategies to boost employment and job creation for young people, entrepreneurship is increasingly accepted as an important means and a valuable additional strategy to create jobs and improve livelihoods and economic independence of young people. Regrettably, problems of unemployment as experienced by the educated youths and even the uneducated but skilled youths...
June 2010
The contribution of a Portuguese-Angolan Wiki for development promotion
At the present time, it is understood by almost everybody that either the technology or the entrepreneurial decisions are conditioned by the quantity and quality of information available. Angola is a very large country with great amount of natural resources of very good quality, and in the present state of Angola development, the value of the marginal productivity of information is very high in almost all...
June 2010
Mass customization in design of service delivery system: Review and prospects
The paper intends to present clear pictures of research evolution in two research domains based on a thorough literature review: The service system design and mass customization areas. It identifies a necessity for integrating these two areas, which adopted the concepts of mass customization to guide the service delivery system design to cope with the traditional operation dilemma. This could lead to a new...
June 2010
Gender differences in adolescents’ online shopping motivations
Few studies discuss gender differences in online shopping motivations among adolescents. This study was to investigate gender differences in adolescents' online shopping motivations based on utilitarian and hedonic motivations. Utilitarian motivations consist of convenience, choice, availability of information, lack of sociality, and cost saving, whereas, hedonic motivations comprise adventure,...
June 2010
Board independence and corporate performance: Evidence from Malaysia
One of the key provisions of the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance is the requirement for inclusion of outside or independent directors on the board. The recent corporate scandals that have rocked the nation provide evidence of the failure of this provision to prevent these scandals from occurring. Though the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance has been in place since 2000, it raises the question of...
June 2010
Impact of role ambiguity and role conflict on employee creativity
Exactly how role stress and various performances of individuals are related has received considerable attention, in which stress has been found to affect individual creativity. However, exactly how role stress and employee creativity are related has seldom been examined empirically. By extending the results of literature, this study proposes five hypotheses on how role ambiguity and role conflict (via...
June 2010
Benchmarking
Measuring performance against a recognized business excellence or quality framework can deliver a range of benefits for firms. It is pivotal to a firm to know one’s own standard and compare it against others in today's complex and competitive corporate environment. Benchmarking is a technique for assessing a firm’s performance against the performance of other firms. It is used to find the best...
June 2010
Gender differences in the experience of work burnout among university staff
This study examined gender differences as a factor in the experience of work-burnout among University Staff. It made use of 1040 respondents (549 male and 491 female). Maslach Burnout Inventory was used as an instrument to assess the level of differences in the emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment of staff of both sexes. Three hypotheses were posited and were tested...
June 2010
Key performance indicators in a joint-stock company
This paper presents a method of problem solving using Key Performance Indicators to measure, monitor and manage business results in a joint-stock company. A joint-stock company has a large number of functions, that work on the principle of several profit centers, which have mutual processes of management, marketing, development, sales, supply and logistics and have an established Quality Management System...
June 2010
Application of Fuzzy-neural networks in multi-ahead forecast of stock price
Today, investment by purchasing stock-share constitutes the greater part of economic exchanges of countries and a considerable amount of capital is exchanged through stock markets in the whole world. National economies are strongly influenced by the operation of stock markets; in addition, stock market as an available means for investment is of special importance for both investor and the receiver of...
June 2010
Identification and prioritization of critical success factors of knowledge management in Iranian SMEs: An experts’ view
This paper aims to identify and prioritize the importance of critical success factors (CSFs), which have been proposed in the form of empirical and theoretical studies by different authors and scholars. Through an in-depth and comparative study twelve CSFs along with their related elements were identified and an instrument then was developed to collect the views of knowledge management (KM) experts on the...
June 2010
Fuzzy-logic and Neural network Fuzzy forecasting of Iran GDP growth
Investigating the effective factors which effect economic growth is important for most economists. Although lots of studies have been done on economic growth in the world, it gets little attentions in Iran. In this article, by estimating GDP growth, we try to investigate the supply side economic growth of Iran. Then we compare the predictive results of Fuzzy-logic and Neural-Fuzzy methods. And also...
June 2010
A South African perspective on the multiples of choice in the valuation of ordinary shareholders’ equity: From theory to practice
It is imperative that academic theory regarding investment and finance, and the application thereof in practice, are well aligned. If there is a gap between what academia advocates in their lecture halls and what investment practitioners apply in practice, this may suggest that there is a need to converge academic thinking regarding the use of multiples per se; and to narrow the gap between academia and...
June 2010
The relationship between perceived organisational support and turnover intentions in a developing country: The mediating role of organisational commitment
This study investigates the role played by organisational commitment in the relationship between perceived organisational support and turnover intentions. The study sample comprised 297 postgraduate students at Uganda Management Institute employed in private, public and NGO sectors in Uganda. Mediated regression and path analysis were used to test the direct and mediated relationships among the variables....
June 2010
Health care service quality: A comparison of public and private hospitals
The aim of this paper is threefold: to test the dimensionality of the SERVQUAL instrument in the Northern Cyprus health care industry, to assess the service quality provided in public and private hospitals in Northern Cyprus and to identify the service quality dimensions that play important role on patient satisfaction. Data were collected in two phases from the same sample, which consisted of 806...
June 2010
An empirical analysis of currency crises, fundamentals and speculative pressure
The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the linkage between economic fundamentals and currency crises for four different group of countries that experience very different growth path or crises from 1991 to 2006. For this purpose, logit model was used in identifying the determinants of the currency crises’...
June 2010
Impacts of common processes in multistage production system under machine breakdown and quality uncertainties
The work desires to determine the optimum level of batch size in bottleneck facility and to analyze the effect of common processes on throughput and cycle time in a production system under uncertain situations created by machine breakdown and quality variation. Few simulation models are developed based on a live case from a company. The models are verified and validated with the historical data from the...
June 2010
Strategy selection for product service systems using case-based reasoning
A product service system integrates products and services in order to lower environmental impact. It can achieve good eco-efficiency and has received increase in the last decade. This study focuses on strategy selection for product service system design. Case-based reasoning is utilized to provide suggestions for finding an appropriate strategy. To build a case database, successful PSS cases from the...
June 2010
Understanding the impact of human resource management practices on municipal service delivery in South Africa: An organizational justice approach
Municipal service delivery is a major concern in South Africa. Proper management of employees is crucial for service organisations like municipalities precisely because employees interface directly with customers who make evaluative judgement of the quality of service delivered by employees. Therefore, it is extremely important for municipalities to comprehend specific organisational factors that influence...
June 2010
Ethical codes expected of school administrators
The aim of this study was to evaluate ethical codes used by school administrators in Turkey. The study assessed the perceptions and doubts of school administrators about the ethical codes they are expected to obey. The study used the qualitative research model. The study group was comprised of school administrators working in primary schools and high schools in Elazığ and Şanlıurfa provinces of Turkey...
June 2010
Assessing the link between service quality dimensions and knowledge sharing: Student perspective
The purpose of this study is to examine the link between service quality dimensions and knowledge sharing. Data were collected through a survey in a faculty of business of a private university in Malaysia. The SERVQUAL model was used to evaluate the service quality dimensions in association of knowledge sharing in which the study conducted with data gathered from 300 students which constitute an overall...
June 2010
The effects of service quality and lifestyle on consumer choice of channel types: The health food industry as an example
Nowadays, many people have to live a bustling life, more and more of them choose to eat out and eat fast food. The health food industry is developing in a rapid pace. All kinds of marketing channels are dedicated to the sale of health foods, resulting from a significant reform of the structure of the health food marketing channels. As competitions are intense and multiple channels are available for consumers,...
June 2010
Determinants of customer loyalty in the banking sector: The case of Pakistan
The concept of customer loyalty has received much consideration and attention from both academics and practitioners in different industries. In increasingly competitive markets, being able to build consumer loyalty is seen as the key factor in winning market share and developing a sustainable competitive advantage. Banking industry is no exception as it has high interaction with the customers, so...
June 2010
Monetary anchor for East Asia: Japan or United States?
In this paper we apply the optimum currency area (OCA) criteria to assess the suitability of whether the United States or Japan would best serve as monetary anchor country for East Asian countries. The criteria used are trade openness, business cycle synchronisation, exchange rate volatility, inflation convergence, and interest rate cycle synchronisation. The ‘performance’ of these two potential...
June 2010
Implementations of geographical indications at brand management of traditional foods in the European Union
Due to the increasing competition in the world market, it has become more difficult for firms to continue to exist in the market. Relatively larger firms enjoy a greater pool of advantages, such as cost minimization, use of modern technology, qualified personnel as well as customer oriented marketing strategies. Geographical indications are used worldwide as an instrument for brand management and diversifying...
June 2010
Interferences between work and family among male and female executives in Nigeria
This paper examines two aspects of work family interfaces: work interference with family and family interference with work in Nigerian context. Survey data from business executives in Nigeria confirmed that job related factors (such as career salience, hours of work, work involvement) were largely associated with work interference with family for both male and female executives. Only one family related factor...
June 2010
Developing a retention strategy for qualified staff at the Polytechnic of Namibia
Tertiary educational institutions depend on their employees’ skills, knowledge, and abilities for efficient and effective delivery of services in order to stay abreast with new changes and to achieve the vision of the institution. Therefore, attracting and retaining skilled, employees have become an important aspect for institutions. Where there are no clear retention strategies to retain employees...
June 2010
Justification for skills transfer and validating a specific developed measuring instrument
The dire skills shortage exacerbated by the “brain-drain” experienced in South Africa brought the debate around the importance of training across industries at the centre stage. South Africa as one of the strong emerging economies is arguably not performing as well as it should. Investment in human capital in the form of skills transfer has never been as critical as it is today. It is a known fact...
June 2010
The diagnosis and improvement of TQM implementation in semiconductor industries
Total quality management (TQM) improves product/service quality, increases customer satisfaction and improves competitiveness. However, experience shows that there is low successful rate. Few enterprises agree that they have successfully implemented TQM. An inadequate understanding of the techniques and suitable objectives of the TQM implementation not only causes problems or sub-par performance but also...
June 2010
Students' perceptions of academic and institutional service quality at the Faculty of Agriculture: The case of Suleyman Demirel University, Turkey
The aim of this study was to determine the academic and institutional service quality perception levels of students at the Faculty of Agriculture. This research was conducted with 343 students by using questionnaires in the faculty of agriculture at Suleyman Demirel University. For this purpose, 35 statements were given to students and the degree of agreement for each statement was determined by a likert...
June 2010
The market structure, conduct and performance paradigm re-applied to the international tourist hotel industry
This paper presents a market structure, conduct, performance model (SCP) of industrial economics to estimate causes and effects among the international tourist hotel industry. Previous literature could not confirm the causality of the hotel industry, therefore, this paper develops a comprehensive model, based on realistic data of hotels, which allows the analysis of the system through three simultaneous...
June 2010
Demand for inputs in milk production: The case of Tokat province
The purpose of this study was to determine the gross margin and price, cross and morishima technical substitution elasticities for the cost inputs which play a key role in the milk produced in enterprises making animal insurance (Group I) and not making animal insurance (Group II), such as labour, feed, health and energy in Turhal district of Tokat province in Turkey. Model solutions were performed with...
June 2010
Effect of job rewards on job satisfaction, moderating role of age differences: An empirical evidence from Pakistan
This study explores the relationship between work rewards and job satisfaction with moderating effect of age differences. It is an empirical study and a sample of 84 full time employees of FESCO (Faisalabad Electric Supply Company, Pakistan) was taken. The results of this study reveal that job rewards are proved to be strong determinant of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is more related to extrinsic...
June 2010
Chaotic processes of common stock index returns: An empirical examination on Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) market
The nonlinearity and accompanying concept, namely the chaos receive great attention from researchers. This study employs nonlinearity and chaos theories to examine the behavior of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) all share equity indices. The main purpose was to explore the existence or nonexistence of nonlinearity and chaotic behavior in the ISE market. Therefore, the efficient markets’...
June 2010
An analysis of the relationship between forward freight agreements and steel price index: An application of the vector ARMA model
The bulk shipping market, as a global business, depends on the development of emerging industrial countries, the exploration of new mining areas, the policies of countries importing raw materials and the international economic situation. Due to market participants being able to decide independently the timing for entering or exiting the market, the type of vessel to invest in, the locations of shipping...
June 2010
Integration of the environment in managerial strategy: Application of the resource-based theory of competitive advantage, dynamic capabilities and corporate social responsibilities
In an environment characterized by a global, dynamic and increasingly more competitive economy, businesses must identify advantages which enable them to achieve higher profits than their competitors. As such, the integration of an environmental variable in business strategy is being promoted as a potential source of competitive advantages. Most of the literature trying to explain this relationship has...
June 2010
Oil politics and the Niger Delta developmental conundrum
Oil has become a dominant element within the power capability profile of any nation. Nations enter into war because of oil. The Gulf War in 1991 is an example. In Nigeria the crisis is between the federal government and oil producing communities in the Niger Delta region. Despite the abundant oil wealth, there has been unimaginable mass poverty and negligible development in the region. Efforts by the federal...
June 2010
Doctrine of corporate governance and competition laws: The Malaysian perspectives
This study examines the issues of competition law in Malaysia. These issues had challenges not only in its goal towards a market economy, but also in its national re-engineering of the economy under Malaysia’s industrialization plan. Malaysia has reached now reached that goal. The main issues were the impediments as to whether or not to introduce a structured, broader competition law in Malaysia. Often,...
June 2010
An empirical investigation of Islamic banking in Pakistan based on perception of service quality
This study examines the perception of bank customers regarding service quality of the Islamic banks as well as conventional banks in Pakistan. In today's global and border less market, service quality is gaining importance for successful survival of banks. This study is important due to an emerging trend of Islamic banking practices in Pakistan besides conventional banking to replace Riba based products...
June 2010
Reconciling profit and social development in Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe’s business ethics
The idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerged to reconcile the apparent tension between the primary objective of business industry which is profit maximization and the essential goal of the economic system, of which corporations is a component, which includes sustainable economic growth and sustainable social development, interpreted as the enhancement of the wellbeing of members of society. This...
June 2010
Quest for a better operation system in education: Privatization and teacher educationalization or voucherilization glimpsing from consumer and product perspectives
Inevitably, education is considered as the main tool for development. Regardless of nationality, race, age and culture, everyone in this contemporary world believes that education is the commonest medicine that cures every disease hindering the development of a nation. Keeping this view, countries put endless efforts in the development of education. Major phenomena for the development process of education...
June 2010
A cross-cultural study on consumers’ level of acceptance toward marketing innovativeness
This research applied Hofstede’s five culture dimensions to examine the cross-cultural consumer differences in acceptance of marketing innovativeness. The participants of this study are consumers from various countries; namely, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Macao, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Taiwan. This research was conducted to provide evidence on the relationship between national cultures and...
June 2010
Cause related marketing campaigns and consumer purchase intentions: The mediating role of brand awareness and corporate image
The purpose of this research is to investigate the kind of relationship between Cause Related Marketing (CRM) campaigns, brand awareness and corporate image as possible antecedents of consumer purchase intentions in the less developed country of Pakistan. An initial conceptualization was developed from mainstream literature to be validated through empirical research. The conceptualization was then tested with...
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