Effect of Personal Characteristics on Social Accounting Initiatives: Evidence from Pakistan

The research works with two separate but closely connected themes of individual employee behaviour and organisation-wide initiatives that are further broken down into two dimensions of Social Entrepreneurship Profile and Social Accounting (SA). This research study seeks to identify the social entrepreneurship profile that highlights the specific personal characteristics of employees working in an organisation; secondly, it attempts to understand how the broader initiatives that help today’s organisations become more socially responsible. Factors covered in Personal Characteristics included 1. Sociality, 2. Innovativeness, 3. Market-orientation, and 4. The ability of Identifying New Opportunities (INO). Social Accounting Initiatives included Internal Attitude (IA), and Subjective norms (SN), each is classified as1.Pragmatic, 2. Moral, and 3. Cognitive, as well as Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC). For this purpose, A survey was conducted of 75 firms, and their decision-makers 306. were surveyed about their characteristics as well as the social accounting initiatives in their firms, usinga close-ended questionnaire. Total of306 decision-makers was surveyedabout four employees per organisation. Dataset was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modelling. The results suggested that innovativenessand INO seem to have a positive and significant impact on pragmatic and moralIA. As well as moral SN. Similarly, sociality and innovativeness positively affecting moral IA. Sociality also seems to be affecting moral IA, pragmatic SN, and PBC, however, it has a negative impact on cognitive SN. Market orientation also has a significant positive impact on cognitive IA and SN. Lastly, INO seems to affect Perceived Behavioural Control. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

The Role of Brand Loyalty & Image Development Integrated with Brand Awareness, Service Quality, Product Strategy & Price Strategy: An Persfective Asia

Loyalty consumers of a brand are a central part of sales, and it has forced a company in the form of goods & services to evaluate its performance. Thus, a company strives to always have customers who have high brand loyalty in order to remain excess in the competition. However, the implementation is not as easy as the implementation, the competition is very hard, still, sudden and unexpected at this time does not automatically leave the old pattern of service to consumers can be abandoned. This shows that most goods and service companies are internally slow in implementing sales theory which results in loyal customers still far from expectations. This study aims to examine how factors such as brand awareness, service quality, product strategy and price strategy affect corporate image and brand loyalty of corporate organizations in the form of goods & services located in developing countries. The findings from the structural equation model analysis tested by end users consisting of 187 (one hundred and eighty seven) selected consumers in Eastern Indonesia prove that the application of sales theory in terms of brand awareness, service quality, product strategy and price strategy has a significant & positive impact on image, company and brand loyalty. This research underlies the importance of having a customer base that has high brand loyalty which can increase trade, attract new customers and the company quickly responds to competitors' movements for other evaluations and for future competitive advantages.

Awareness and Determinants of Telemedicine Adoption at Ga West District of Ghana

The need to have regular visitation to the hospital or be in the physical presence of healthcare professionals for treatment is gradually reducing. By the advancement in technology, an individual can receive treatment from the doctor or other health information through telemedicine. Telemedicine has gain ground in developed nations with many developing countries trying the adoption in practice. This study is a quantitative study that uses the question to collect data from respondents within the Ga West District in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. A total of 226 respondents were involved in the study. The study aimed to measure the level of awareness about telemedicine among people living in the district, factors that influence the adoption of telemedicine and barriers preventing adoption. The findings indicated that there was a high level of awareness about telemedicine among the respondents with most of them knowing what telemedicine is. Adoption was also influenced by a reduction in treatment when use telemedicine, prevention of overcrowding at hospitals and the taken away of time wasted at the hospital. It was also determined that poor internet connectivity and high cost of data were the significant barriers impeding the adoption of telemedicine among the district dwellers.

Business Continuity in the Telecom Sector During Turbulence Time in the Republic of Yemen (Case Study: TeleYemen Corporation)

Business continuity at any circumstances is the most important practice to be done by companies and organizations in order to survive, especially when a disaster event suddenly occurs. Today, almost every sector uses information technology and telecom services to run and advance their business and compete in the 21st century’s environment. The dependency of the telecom sector makes it very important sector since all sectors run their business based on the telecom sector during this interconnected and global business world. Although turbulence times and wars affect all sectors, its effects on the telecom sector is more severe. Since 2014, the Republic of Yemen is going through a civil and regional war which it consequently effects all companies in the country. The war effects were more sever on TeleYemen, the company chosen for this case study. The company needed to overcome these effects challenges by adopting business continuity management best practices and standards. TeleYemen is the most critical telecom service provider in Yemen as it is the main international gateway for telecom and Internet services in Yemen. Therefore, any disruption in TeleYemen will affect not just any company but the whole country, including all governmental and non-governmental sectors since they use TeleYemen services locally and globally. To evaluate the current business continuity situation in TeleYemen during turbulence times, this study evaluates the readiness of business continuity in IT departments. The main objective of the study is to find to what extent BC implementation meets the international standard’s requirements and offers appropriate recommendations to management. A single embedded case study used, with a combination of descriptive quantitative and descriptive qualitative approaches.

IKTINOS a New Freight and Construction Standard to Evolve Concrete Beton Preparation from a Chaotic Contractor Site to a Container Box Mover International Industry

A local West Macedonia company sells a transportable beton concrete unit with a capacity of 60 tn every hour. The next step of this machine is to be fed with cement, aggregates, water and chemicals from standard containers. Our research focus on how to connect the various containers, topology layout, type of bus and cleaning. The results did not encourage us to continue our research temporary due to inability to attract research and development funds. We currently will be satisfied to sell a hand-full of “assembly line” contracts instead of a beton unit.

Examining Mobile Banking Adaptation among College Students Using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Students are becoming more engaged in technology in general and with mobile technology in particular. Banks try to get the most of that knowledge by offering new services to attract that market segment. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of mobile banking (m-banking) services by college of business students at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) in Kuwait. The theoretical framework for this study is based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) – TAM for mobile services is used to explore the factors that influence users’ adaptation of m-banking. The model uses the number of times student uses their mobile banking application per week as the dependent variable while the usefulness of the application, the security the application provides for the user and how easy it is to use the application as independent variables. Results obtained from this research showed that the usefulness of the mobile banking application was the most important factor affecting the adaptation of the application followed by ease in using the application and the safety variable came as the least important.

Seeking Happiness through Materialism, Gratitude and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from Pakistani Employees, with the Mediatory Role of Feeling Experiences

This research paper proposed a theoretical framework that focused on the link between materialism and dissatisfaction with life. Through modifying J. A. Roberts (2015) model, we proposed that Seeking Happiness through Materialism is associated with positive or negative feeling experiences, and these experiences produce an effect on one’s life satisfaction. Furthermore, we also explored bi-directional impact of gratitude and materialism in two models. In first model, the effect of materialism and life satisfaction was explored with the mediating role of gratitude and feeling experiences, whereas, in second model, the impact of gratitude on life satisfaction was analyzed with the mediation of materialism and experiences. The link was empirically established by collecting the data on 205 employees working in different sectors and professions in Pakistan. Data was collected by means of close ended questionnaire and was analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structure Equation Modeling. The results showed a significant effect of materialism in employee’s life satisfaction and gratitude plays a mediating role. The negative relationship between materialism and life satisfaction among employees indicated as materialism increased satisfaction with life decrease. This was experience directly and through the mediation of feeling experiences. Moreover, Materialism negatively affected gratitude. In the second model, Employees having either high gratitude shows less materialism and positive feeling effect, whereas, employees having low gratitude shows high negative feeling effect because they are seeking happiness through material things. Additionally, those employees who are able to appreciate what they have, are happier and enjoying their life. Thus, feelings, gratitude, and materialism are crucial factors influencing employee’s life satisfaction either positively or negatively.

Resource Allocation and Management Innovation among Entrepreneurs in South Sudan: A Case Study of Small and Medium Enterprises in Juba City

Management innovation among SMEs in South Sudan has been termed as low despite the high failure rate of the enterprises. This is despite the argument that management innovation enhances survival rate of enterprises and creates competitive advantage. This therefore triggered an investigation to find out if allocation of resources influences management innovation. The study population consisted of all the small and medium enterprises operating in Juba City which were 12,654 in total. The study adopted descriptive research design. A sample size of 96 SMEs was determined using Cochran formula. Primary data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was structured, having only closed-ended questions. The collected data was analysed through quantitative methods of descriptive and inferential statistics such as correlation and univariate regression model. The tool used was Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 24. The study established that resource allocation has a positive and significant effect on management innovation of SMEs in Juba City. The recommendations of the study were that SMEs in Juba City should enhance their resource allocation practices such as encouraging innovative behavior to promote management innovation, measuring performance against subjective strategic criteria such as progress on product innovations and investing in technological resources such as IT infrastructure in order to enhance the rate of management innovation.

The Influence of University Teachers' Scientific Research Pressure on Scientific Research Performance, Job Satisfaction, Mediation and Adjustment of Emotional Intelligence

How the research pressure of university teachers affects scientific research performance is an important issue in the current development of university teachers and scientific research management. On the basis of literature research, the relationship between job satisfaction and emotional intelligence as intermediaries and adjustment variables was introduced into the relationship between scientific research pressure and scientific research performance, and empirical research was conducted in the form of questionnaires. The following conclusions were drawn: Higher research pressure; scientific research pressure will have a certain negative impact on scientific research performance; scientific research pressure affects scientific research performance through job satisfaction intermediary; emotional intelligence can effectively positively regulate the impact of scientific research pressure on scientific research performance. On this basis, it puts forward some countermeasures to reduce stress sources, optimize scientific research and assessment system, improve salary and treatment, and cultivate emotional intelligence.

Vision 2030 of Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (CERPS) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Saudi businesses rely on effective data management to trade along their internal and external supply (value) chains and must continually monitor and upgrade legacy data systems. To understand these processes, this study explores the experiences of six diverse Saudi firms as case studies: an air transport data system, vertical integration of global firms' subsidiaries, a value chain system, and entrepreneurs taking advantage of cloud opportunities. Rather than following the literature in focusing on the decision making steps to upgrade organizational data-based resources, this research considers how the firms integrated cloud technologies with their existing or new business models. The case studies were conducted post-implementation of cloud data projects to qualitatively assess the expectations of owners and executives of firms from their initiatives.Overall, the findings were that firms' experiences when online resulted in better integration with upstream international suppliers, greater cost control, and adapted and new business model advantages. Of the cases, two retailers and an intermediary/retail stationer used their new cloud-based data resources by expanding to online sales platforms. The largest firm was able to use its industry leadership to develop online data integration with firms through its value chains. The remaining firms were more circumspect. The data infrastructure firm merely formed a cloud sibling company to enhance its core business. The airline's industry data provider moved all its clients to cloud services, and the wholesaler similarly agreed to contract with its value chain's digital provider.This paper is presented as an introduction including the purpose of the study, a short literature review, methodology, results, comparative analysis, and conclusions. There was insufficient opportunity to provide a detailed discussion placing the cases into previous findings, although this empirical study is focussed on cloud migration outcomes rather than change factors.