scholarly journals What they really think: Resolving methodological issues in supply chain ethics research

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Chipp ◽  
M. Goldman ◽  
N. Kleyn
Keyword(s):  
Sampling Methods ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
High Response Rate ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Sampling Frame ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Ethics Research

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to further the theory and strengthen methodological approaches to the role of ethics in buyer-seller relationships. The paper explores opportunities to enhance response rates, validity and reliability in the research context of organisations seeking to understand the ethical beliefs their suppliers hold of their buying organisations. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research universe is a select business group, all of which are technologically literate and online. Innovative research sampling methods were selected to great effect. The method selected was saturation surveying, a process whereby all identifiable target respondents are surveyed. Instead of selecting between sampling techniques, the option of saturation surveying, cheaply available electronically, removes the focus from the decision to either sample probabilistically or not. Instead, as the entire universe can be contacted in a cost effective manner, the sampling frame becomes of paramount importance. Thus, the focus then shifts from accurately selecting respondents from the sampling frame towards enhancing the sampling frame itself. The sampling frame was improved through guidance from the literature. Findings: The paper demonstrates that this research approach was successful in that it generated a high response rate, suggesting great involvement amongst the supplier population in the topic at hand. It also indicates a lessening of non-response bias, as the response rate is more than double that of previous research into the area. Implications: This paper presents a comprehensive approach to researching ethics in buyer-seller relations. It further promotes the effective use of new sampling methods enabled by the Internet when directed towards selective populations. Originality/Value: The novel approach of sampling frame enhancement twined with saturation surveying has exciting implications for business research. The expansion of the sampling frame to a wider audience of suppliers has long been noted as necessary although not actioned. Furthermore, in terms of the little-studied nature of buyer-seller relations, the verification of the scale developed by Bendixon and Abratt (2007) affirms the robustness of this measure for ethics research. 

scholarly journals The effect of a web-push survey on physician survey response rates: a randomized experiment.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristine D. Delnevo ◽  
Binu Singh
Keyword(s):  
Survey Methodology ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Response Rates ◽  
National Sample ◽  
High Response Rate ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
The Web

Abstract Background: Achieving a high response rate for physicians has been challenging and with response rates declining in recent years, innovative methods are needed to increase rates. An emerging concept in survey methodology has been web-push survey delivery. In this delivery method, contact is made by mail to request a response by web. This study explored the feasibility of a web-push survey on a national sample of physicians. Methods: 1000 physicians across six specialties were randomly assigned to a mail only or web-push survey delivery. Each mode consisted of four contacts including an initial mailing, reminder postcard, and two additional follow-ups. Response rates were calculated using AAPOR’s response rate 3 calculation. Data collection occurred between Febuary – April 2018 and analyzed March 2019. Results: Overall reponse rates for the mail only vs. web-push survey delivery were comparable (51.2% vs. 52.8%). Higher response rates across all demographics were seen in the web-push delivery with the exception of pulmonary/critical care and physicians over the age of 65. The web-push survey yielded a greater response after the first mailing requiring fewer follow-up contacts resulting in a more cost-effective delivery. Conclusions: A web-push mail survey is effective in achieveing a comparable response rate to traditional mail only delivery for physicians. The web-push survey was more efficient in terms of cost and in receiving responses in a more timely manner. Future research should explore the efficiency of a web-push survey delivery across various health care provider populations.

scholarly journals Utilisation of digital central supplier database in enabling electronic procurement in the Limpopo provincial departments

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zwelibanzi Mpehle ◽  
Robert M. Mudogwa
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Electronic Procurement ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Compliance Requirements ◽  
Procurement System

Background: The establishment of a digital central supplier database (CSD) in the Limpopo provincial departments was envisaged not only to eliminate the duplication of service provider compliance requirements during procurement processes and payment processing but also to level the playing field amongst service providers so that small and upcoming businesses can have equal competitive bidding opportunities like any other business. This therefore meant that the CSD was to ensure that all registered suppliers have an equal and fair prospect of providing goods and services to government, and that acquiring of goods and services is done in a cost-effective manner. However, the Limpopo provincial departments are persistently underspending their allocated budgets at the end of each financial year.Aim: The aim of this study was to assess whether CSD as an electronic procurement (e-procurement) system adopted by the provincial departments in Limpopo is efficient and cost-effective in enhancing the provisioning of goods and services.Setting: The study focused on the Limpopo provincial departments, South Africa.Methods: The study used a qualitative research approach to assess the use of CSD in enabling e-procurement processes. Purposive sampling was employed to sample 14 participants from 12 provincial departments.Results: The outcome revealed that the technological innovation of centralising the suppliers’ records on the CSD increased transparency and accountability in the process of selecting suppliers who qualify to do business with government, and the system has the potential, if rightly used, to eliminate corrupt activities such as favouritism and collusion.Conclusion: The article concludes that the successful implementation of CSD by provincial departments and public entities may, amongst other things, improve supply chain management performance, particularly in the selection of suppliers, and may also promote economic development of small, medium and micro-enterprises.

Applied Ecology: An Integrative Paradigm for the 1980s

1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary W. Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Science ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Applied Ecology ◽  
Integrative Research ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
New Research

There currently exists an environmental spectrum ranging from ecology (i.e. a basic, theoretical research approach) to environmental science (i.e. an applied, problem-solving testing approach). It is suggested that applied ecology be recognized as an integrative paradigm which encompasses the principles, concepts, and procedures, of both ecology and environmental science in an attempt (a) to unite reductionist and holistic research approaches and educational philosophies, (b) to generate a new synthesis for addressing important ecological topics such as biotic diversity and ecosystem regulation, (c) to educate personnel across the total environmental spectrum, and (d) to develop transdisciplinary ‘centres of excellence’ which serve as vital industrial-academic-governmental focal-points for long-term, integrative research endeavours.At present there is a dire need to develop unifying theory and coherent principles regarding the patterns, processes, and interactions, of both the natural and man-made environment. There also exists an urgent need to help solve problems related to world food production, energy resource management, genetic diversity, and environmental contamination, among many others. Further, the progress of emerging fields of study, such as landscape ecology and systems communications, will be likely to be impeded if such fields are not recognized as the synthetic interactions of numerous related disciplines. These fields of study hold great research potential for systematically addressing the above-mentioned problem-areas, but require the flexibility to merge new research approaches, technologies, and scientific theories, in an efficient, cost-effective manner. It is suggested that applied ecology serve as an integrative paradigm for these new and vital interdisciplinary fields of knowledge.

scholarly journals In-house reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for detection of SARS-CoV-2 with increased sensitivity

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manash Jyoti Kalita ◽  
Kalpajit Dutta ◽  
Gautam Hazarika ◽  
Ridip Dutta ◽  
Simanta Kalita ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multiplex Pcr ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Real Time Pcr ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Sybr Green ◽  
Green Approach ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Thermal Cycler

AbstractAs the COVID-19 infection continues to ravage the world, the advent of an efficient as well as the economization of the existing RT-PCR based detection assay essentially can become a blessing in these testing times and significantly help in the management of the pandemic. This study demonstrated an innovative and rapid corroboration of COVID-19 test based on innovative multiplex PCR. An assessment of optimal PCR conditions to simultaneously amplify the SARS-CoV-2 genes E, S and RdRp has been made by fast-conventional and HRM coupled multiplex real-time PCR using the same sets of primers. All variables of practical value were studied by amplifying known target-sequences from ten-fold dilutions of archived positive samples of COVID-19 disease. The multiplexing with newly designed E, S and RdRp primers have shown an efficient amplification of the target region of SARS-CoV-2. A distinct amplification was observed in 37 min using thermal cycler while it took 96 min in HRM coupled real time detection using SYBR green over a wide range of template concentrations. Our findings revealed decent concordance with other commercially available detection kits. This fast HRM coupled multiplex real-time PCR with SYBR green approach offers rapid and sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 in a cost-effective manner apart from the added advantage of primer compatibility for use in conventional multiplex PCR. The highly reproducible novel approach can propel extended applicability for developing sustainable commercial product besides providing relief to a resource limited setting.

scholarly journals A Chemistry-Oriented Cost-Effective Expert Team Formation in Social Networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Yashar Najaflou
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Communication Cost ◽  
Team Formation ◽  
Personnel Cost ◽  
Effective Teams ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Expertise Level

<p>The growth of social networks in modern information systems has enabled the collaboration of experts at an unprecedented scale. Given a social network and a task consisting of a set of required skills, Team Formation (TF) aims at finding a team of experts who can cover the required skills and can communicate in an effective manner. However, this definition has been interpreted as the problem of finding teams with minimum communication cost which neglects two aspect of team formation in real life. The first is that in reality experts are multi-skilled, hence communication cost cannot be a fixed value and should vary according to the channels employed. The second ignored aspect is disregarding teams with high expertise level who can still satisfy the required communication level.  To tackle above mentioned issues, I introduce a dynamic formof communication for multi-facet relationships and use it to devise a novel approach called Chemistry Oriented Team Formation (ChemoTF) based on two new metrics; Chemistry Level and Expertise Level. Chemistry Level measures scale of communication required by the task andExpertise Level measures the overall expertise among potential teams filtered by Chemistry Level. Moreover, I adopt a personnel cost metric to filter costly teams. The experimental results on the corpus compiled for this purpose suggests that ChemoTF returns communicative and cost-effective teams with the highest expertise level compared to state-of-the-art algorithms. The corpus itself is a valuable output which contains comprehensive scholarly information in the field of computer science.</p>

scholarly journals A Chemistry-Oriented Cost-Effective Expert Team Formation in Social Networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Yashar Najaflou
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Communication Cost ◽  
Team Formation ◽  
Personnel Cost ◽  
Effective Teams ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Expertise Level

<p>The growth of social networks in modern information systems has enabled the collaboration of experts at an unprecedented scale. Given a social network and a task consisting of a set of required skills, Team Formation (TF) aims at finding a team of experts who can cover the required skills and can communicate in an effective manner. However, this definition has been interpreted as the problem of finding teams with minimum communication cost which neglects two aspect of team formation in real life. The first is that in reality experts are multi-skilled, hence communication cost cannot be a fixed value and should vary according to the channels employed. The second ignored aspect is disregarding teams with high expertise level who can still satisfy the required communication level.  To tackle above mentioned issues, I introduce a dynamic formof communication for multi-facet relationships and use it to devise a novel approach called Chemistry Oriented Team Formation (ChemoTF) based on two new metrics; Chemistry Level and Expertise Level. Chemistry Level measures scale of communication required by the task andExpertise Level measures the overall expertise among potential teams filtered by Chemistry Level. Moreover, I adopt a personnel cost metric to filter costly teams. The experimental results on the corpus compiled for this purpose suggests that ChemoTF returns communicative and cost-effective teams with the highest expertise level compared to state-of-the-art algorithms. The corpus itself is a valuable output which contains comprehensive scholarly information in the field of computer science.</p>

PENGARUH KOMPETENSI, MOTIVASI, DAN KOMUNIKASI TERHADAP KINERJA PEGAWAI PADA DINAS PEKERJAAN UMUM DAN PENATAAN RUANG KABUPATEN BANDUNG BARAT

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Lydia Novi Yanti
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
T Test ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Quantitative Approach ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
F Test ◽  
Simultaneous Test

This research is conducted in order to assess the effect of competency, motivation, and communication on employee’s performance (case studies at Dinas Pekerjaan Umum dan Penataan Ruang West Bandung Regency) partially and simultaneously. There are many factors that affect the employee’s performance, but this research is only limited to the factors of competency, motivation, and communication. The researcher used primary and secondary data. The research approach used is quantitative approach which the samples are 55 civil servants which is assessed by 5 Heads of Fields and 2 Heads Sub-Division. Before analyzing, all research validity and reliability instruments are examined. After the data are valid and reliable then analyzed by using classical assumption test, partial test (t test), and simultaneous test (F test) helping by IBM SPSS version 23 software. The result of analysis showed that competency, motivation, and communication variables are affected positively significantly and partially to the employee’s performance. Competency, motivation, and communication variables simultaneously affected positively and significantly about 54,3% and the rest is about 45,7% affected by other variable that is not observed in this research.  

Strategic planning in grassland farming: Principles andapplications

1997 ◽  
pp. 191-197
Author(s):  
W.J. Parker ◽  
N.M. Shadbolt ◽  
D.I. Gray
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Key Performance Indicators ◽  
Strategic Plans ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Farm Business ◽  
Pastoral Farming ◽  
Financial Environment

Three levels of planning can be distinguished in grassland farming: strategic, tactical and operational. The purpose of strategic planning is to achieve a sustainable long-term fit of the farm business with its physical, social and financial environment. In pastoral farming, this essentially means developing plans that maximise and best match pasture growth with animal demand, while generating sufficient income to maintain or enhance farm resources and improvements, and attain personal and financial goals. Strategic plans relate to the whole farm business and are focused on the means to achieve future needs. They should be routinely (at least annually) reviewed and monitored for effectiveness through key performance indicators (e.g., Economic Farm Surplus) that enable progress toward goals to be measured in a timely and cost-effective manner. Failure to link strategy with control is likely to result in unfulfilled plans. Keywords: management, performance

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