Role of online education in building brand image of educational institutions

In this article we try to present the general impression that online learning/real time virtual learning conveys. The myriad interpretations of online education are depicted elaborately along with its advantages and influence on various stakeholders. The disadvantages of online education reveal their apparently potent drawbacks, which are then trailed by «opposing views». These views give concrete justifications against the so-called shortcomings of online learning and enlist the techniques used to tackle them. Besides of what online education does for students, learners and tutors at large, it also confers some potential by-products, such as helping build a strong brand image of educational institutions that offer it. Although educational institutions worldwide are employing online learning resources to create a brand image for themselves, a well-worn discussion has to be mooted to understand the implications of their usage.

Effects of Activist shareholding on corporate social responsibility reporting Practices: An empirical study in spain

New business practices are mainly characteristic of large firms, especially those quoted on the stock market. Listed companies show a higher commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices because capital markets allow activists to become a firm’s socially oriented shareholders. These actors, although small in number, have a significant influence over other larger block-holders. Recent decades have witnessed a significant increase in societal pressure to control the behavior of companies owing to the risks deriving from the economic, social and environmental effects of their business activity. The aim of this work is to test the effect that CSR activist shareholders have on the decision to disclose corporate social responsibility information in the Spanish context, controlling for the rest of the dimensions in Ullmann’s theoretical framework.

El peso mexicano: la gestión de cobertura del riesgo cambiario mediante la teoría de los efectos olvidados

This paper is about developing a nonlinear model to predict the behavior of future exchange rate based on the opinion of the economic agents participating in the dollar/peso market. Such views are treated with Fuzzy Logic and a variant of it, known as the Theory of Forgotten Effects. The aim is to find a mechanism for making coverage decisions that allow us an optimal exchange rate risk management at a lower cost than that which involves operations with traditional hedging instruments. For the period of investigation and applying this model, the results support that the collective opinions of economic experts involved in the decision making risk management of exchange rate provide better results than those using traditional methods in the future markets.

Consideraciones para calcular el ratio precio-utilidad de la bolsa de valores de Lima: metodología y aplicaciones

In this paper we construct a methodology to calculate the price-earnings ratio (PER) of the General Index of the Lima Stock Exchange (IGBVL) for the period 1995-2011 following Shiller (2005). Results show that equity prices, in the analyzed period, basically responded to the expected evolution of earnings of the companies, even during the period of the equity prices boom that preceded the financial crisis of 2008. This conclusion is reinforced when we calculate, following Hayford y Malliaris (2004), the implicit equity premia expected for stock investors. We find high values of equity premia during the period of stock prices boom, which would justify the high PER values registered in that period.

Case Discussion Responsabilidad Social Interna en J-V Resguardo

J&V Resguardo es una empresa peruana dedicada a brindar servicios de vigilancia privada, seguridad personal y guardianía, con 23 años en el mercado nacional. Cuando se inició en 1989, la empresa contaba con cuatro vigilantes y dos clientes. En el año 2006, J&V Resguardo incursionó en el mercado latinoamericano al abrir una oficina en Ecuador. Para el 2010 era una organización con seis mil vigilantes en Perú, y más de mil en Ecuador. Además, contaba con más de cien vehículos de supervisión y un centro de entrenamiento de diez mil metros cuadrados en Lurín (distrito de la Provincia de Lima). En octubre de ese año sus ventas ascendieron a más de treinta y cuatro millones de dólares.

Human resource Management Practices Aimed at seeking the commitment of employees on Financial and Non-Financial (subjective) Performance in spanish Firms: An empirical contribution

The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and organizational performance in Spanish firms from a financial and non-financial perspective (subjective). The empirical study was conducted with a sample of 102 firms in the region of Andalucía (Spain). The results of statistical analysis have shown the fundamental role of establishing HRM practices aimed at seeking the employees’ commitment and its positive influence on organizational performance. Results also showed that the subjective measures for organizational performance better explained this phenomenon of study.

The shamans of wall street: a real conundrum in finance. Why systematically poor performing asset managers survive?

In this paper we propose a behavioral explanation for the survival of poorly performing asset managers. We argue that, in general, asset managers make use of copious amounts of correct but useless information to convince investors about their supposed superior ability to interpret the market. Their marketing skills and motivational speeches seem to be enough to maintain asset managers in business regardless of the results. We present data that show how bad a number of asset managers can be. We also show how prevalent asset managers’ underperformance is. We argue that some Wall Street professionals are able to fool almost all of their clients most of the time into believing that they add value in the services they provide while the data show that this is not true. What we cannot show with this data is whether managers actually believe they are as good as they claim they are, or are not just shamans, albeit shameless as well.

Effect of Public Educational Spending and Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Schooling Outcomes: Evidence from Nigeria

This study examines the effect of government educational spending and macroeconomic uncertainty on schooling outcomes in Nigeria using the econometric methods of cointegration and error correction mechanism together with the vector autoregression methodology. The results indicate that schooling outcome cointegrated with all the identified explanatory variables. The study found that public educational spending impacts positively on schooling outcome while macroeconomic instability impacts negatively. The variance decomposition analysis shows that “own shocks” constitute the predominant source of variation in schooling outcome. The impulse response analysis shows that any unanticipated increase in the macroeconomic uncertainty rate will have a contractionary impact on literacy rate. The policy implication of this study is that government should pay attention to policies that enhance educational attainment through adequate public social investment under stable macroeconomic environment.

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions and Tourist Behaviors: A Review and Conceptual Framework

This paper develops a conceptual framework for analyzing tourist behaviors and identifies three categories of behaviors based on the applications of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the processes underlying these influences. Our findings indicate that tourist behaviors in the Before-Travel, During-Travel, and After-Travel stages differ significantly in terms of the applicability and process through which Hofstede’s cultural dimensions operate. The results of our analysis suggest three categories of behavioral patterns, namely, “Social Interaction Driven Travel Behaviors,” (SID), “Risk Tendencies Driven Travel Behaviors,” (RTD), and “Collectivity Orientation Driven Travel Behaviors,” (COD). SID relates to the evaluation of travel experiences in the after-travel stage. The dominant cultural values associated with SID are Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, and Power Distance. These three values act either independently or in pairs or all three together. RTD relates to the consumption of travel products in the during-travel stage, and COD relates to the formation of travel preferences in the before-travel stage. Individualism/Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance are associated with both RTD and COD. However, the underlying processes differ for these two categories of travel behaviors. In addition to their independent influences on travel behaviors, these two values associated with RTD and COD also have an interactive effect. For RTD, the Uncertainty Avoidance motive determines the Individualism/Collectivism outcome, whereas, for COD, the opposite is true: the Individualism/Collectivism determines the Uncertainty Avoidance outcome. The paper also discusses the application of a fifth cultural dimension, Confucian Dynamism (short-term versus long-term orientation), for the study of tourists’ behaviors.

Análisis de comportamiento caótico en variables de la cadena de suministro

In this article we develop a supply chain model of four levels through the utilization of system dynamics with Ithink® and Mathlab® softwares to analyze data. The supply chain is studied from the chaos theory perspective, which helps identifying the sensitive variables that can lead to a state of chaos. A generic structure model that comprehends factory links, distribution, wholesale, retail and the client is constructed. The difficulty of operations and logistics managers to decide how much to order and when to do it is simulated accordingly to what occurs in the links of the preceding and subsequent levels with two decision parameters: The first parameter denominated A indicates the participation (between 0 and 1) of the number of product units that are taken into account in the actual stock and the pending orders at the moment of performing an order. The second parameter, denominated B, is the participation (between 0 and 1) of the number of units in the supply line (in transit) at the moment of performing orders of each of the links of the supply chain.