The Business Review

Marketing Vineyards and their Regions

Dr. Stacy M. P. Schmidt, California State University, Bakersfield, CA

Dr. David L. Ralph, Pepperdine University, CA

ABSTRACT

Vineyards provide wine to restaurants, liquor stores, and grocery stores. Vineyards also have opened their vineyards to the public for wine testing. Thus, it has become vital for vineyards to have marketing strategies to market their vineyards. A region can also use the vineyard as a marketing tool to encourage and entice tourism to the area. Marketing can be utilized to increase brand recognition, boost wine consumption, and increase revenues. The vineyards can target a variety of markets. Wine consumption is important to know as well as knowing the pairing of the wines with specific markets. One market is the new generation of the Millenials. The Millenials is a generation that represents one-fourth of the US population and is also known as the “online generation”. The special characteristics and behaviors of this generation requires a variety of marketing tools. Wine consumption plays an important role in the marketing of a vineyard. Thus, it is important for a vineyard to be knowledgeable in consumption data and trends. Understanding the trends in wine consumption provides valuable information on not only who to market the wine to but also what to market. Vineyards provide wine to restaurants, liquor stores, and grocery stores. Vineyards also have opened their vineyards to the public for wine testing.

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Creighton University Student Managed Investment Fund

Dr. John Richard Wingender, Jr., Creighton University, Omaha, NE

ABSTRACT

The Creighton University student managed investment fund was started in 1992 by Dr. Robert Johnson with $100,000. Over the past 22 years the fund has grown in assets under management through reinvestments and additional contributions to about $5 million. Although the investment philosophy has changed over the years, the main aim of the course called the Portfolio Practicum has remained the same – to educate undergraduate students through hands-on, real-world investment management. The Portfolio Practicum has consistently outperformed the S&P 500 Index both on a total return and on a risk-adjusted rate of return basis. Former practicum students have gone on to jobs as financial analysts on Wall Street at many of the leading investment banking firms, portfolio managers at mutual funds, presidents of banks, partners at accounting firms, as well as doctors, dentists, lawyers and pharmacists. The Portfolio Practicum class is an experiential learning course in the Creighton University Heider College of Business curriculum. The course is designed for a select group of undergraduate students to manage the investment of real money into an equity fund. The main objective of the course is education with the outcome of improving job placement opportunities of graduates as they enter the first phase of their professional careers. In this regard the course has been incredibly successful. While there is no portfolio performance requirement, the students’ success has been phenomenal.

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Gold and Sovereign Credit Risk

Dr. Chih-Chieh (Jason) Chiu, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ

Dr. Mitchell Ratner, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ

ABSTRACT

This study tests gold as a hedge and safe haven asset against sovereign credit risk in 24 countries around the world from 2005-2012. GARCH dynamic conditional correlation analysis indicates that gold provides a safe haven in times of extreme market volatility and during periods of credit downgrades in most countries. However, gold does not serve as an effective hedge against sovereign credit risk. Investors have long regarded gold as a hedge and safe haven asset against economic instability. In this paper, we examine the role of gold in protecting investors against sovereign credit risk. We address the following question: Is gold a hedge and safe haven against sovereign credit risk? Using return data from 24 countries, we find that gold is a safe haven against sovereign credit risk in most, but not all countries, especially during periods of sovereign credit downgrades. However, we find little evidence of gold as a hedge against sovereign credit risk. We study the association between gold prices and sovereign credit risk. We use sovereign credit default swap (CDS) returns as a proxy for sovereign credit risk. Specifically, we measure the sovereign credit risk by using the CDS indices for the 24 countries in our sample. Credit default swaps (CDS) protect against the risk of a “credit event” such as a bond restructuring or default.

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Why Do Some IT Firms Dispense with Executive Stock Option Award?

Dr. Philemon Rakoto, HEC Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the determinants of CEO stock option award in listed Canadian IT firms from 2010 to 2012. A non-negligible proportion of Canadian IT firms do not award stock options to their CEOs even though it is firms in this sector that popularized executive stock option award. The study was conducted on a sample of 122 unique firms. The results suggest that IT firms award stock options to retain highly skilled CEOs. The findings also suggest that the presence of an important block holder in a firm’s share ownership allows the firm to dispense with awarding stock options to the CEO because it has other means of monitoring executives’ actions. This result is consistent with agency theory. Overall, the findings provide evidence to support several theoretical predictions, adding to our understanding of executive incentives. Employee stock option plans were popularized by successful IT firms like Microsoft and Cisco Systems. The implementation of stock option plans created considerable personal wealth for the early employees of these businesses. Executive stock option award can be explained by agency theory. This theory states that the interests of executives and shareholders should be aligned to reduce conflicts of interest between them. The holding of stock options by corporate managers thus helps resolve agency conflicts by aligning the firm’s managerial decisions with shareholders’ interests. However, today many IT firms do not award stock options to their executives.

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Can Stand-Alone Increases in Instruction Expenditures Influence Native Hawaiian Public School Completion?

Dr. Larson Ng, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i

ABSTRACT

The following study attempted to analyze whether higher numbers of public high school completers can alone be achieved through increases of instruction expenditures among Native Hawaiians students. Using the high schools that comprise the predominately populated Native Hawaiian Leeward District, a correlation and bivariate regression procedure were employed to determine the nature and econometric relationship between instruction expenditures and high school completion from 2000 to 2007. Although instruction expenditures had predominately increased for all high schools, increases in completion were not observed for all schools. Moreover, with the exception of Kapolei High School, there was no conclusive econometric evidence to substantiate the idea that more expenditure in instruction leads to higher levels of high school completion during 2000 to 2007. In the case of Native Hawaiian education, although Hawaii’s Department of Education (DOE) has historically allocated millions of dollars to further the advancement of Native Hawaiian students, Native Hawaiian’s are still the least likely ethnic group to graduate high school (Kanaiaupuni, Malone, & Ishibashi, 2005). Given the population density of Native Hawaiians living on the Leeward Coast of Hawaii’s Island of Oahu (Hawaii Department of Business, n.d.), this study will attempt to test whether stand-alone increases in instruction expenditures result in higher numbers of high school completion by analyzing the DOE’s high school instruction expenditures (i.e., teacher salaries and benefits, substitutes, instructional paraprofessionals, pupil-use technology, software and instructional materials, trips, and supplies) and its econometric relationship with high school completers (Hawaii Department of Education, n.d.a).

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Business Performance Factors, Elements of Employee Satisfaction and Company Value -

Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Evidence

Dr. Josef Neuert, Professor, Fulda University, Fulda, Germany

Hans-Jurgen Brenninger, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia, Freilassing, Germany

ABSTRACT

Human capital and human resources management have been in the focus of business administration and economic research ever since, both from a professional and academic angle (i.e. von Rosenstiel L. 2003, Malik F. 2006). In particular, many research studies and management theories have dealt with the development and the implementation of personnel management concepts, emphasizing the role of leadership, motivation, incentives, employee satisfaction etc. i.e. Malik 2006, Freeman 1978 and Herzberg 1957). But still, from the authors` point of view, there is a lack of research studies into the cause-effect relation between business performance, employee satisfaction and company value. This research paper tries to contribute to the fulfillment of this fairly “empty research space”. The main hypothesis claims that employee satisfaction has an impact on business performance. This proposition is outlined theoretically and being subject to an empirical and quantitative analysis. The question, which factors determine business performance and company success has been heavily disputed in business practice and management research. (Heskett, J.L., Jones, T.O., Loveman, G.W., Sasser, W.E. Jr and Schlesinger 1994, Hurley Robert F. and Estelami Hooman, 2007). Numerous studies have been conducted in order to discover the influencing variables, especially focusing on factors like product portfolio, marketing strategy, state of technology, intensity of competition, degree of innovation, customer relationship etc. (Rubera G., Kirca A. H. 2012; Henard, D. Szymanski D. 2001). In this context very frequently, and in particular, employee motivation and employee satisfaction have played a preeminent role in many works, claiming that there is an obvious relationship between employee satisfaction and company value e.g. (Smithey Fulmer I., Gerhard B., Scott K. S., 2003).

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The Value of Health Care Sustainability

Dr. Dennis F. X. Mathaisel, Professor of Management Science, Babson College, Babson Park, MA

Dr. Clare L. Comm, Professor of Marketing, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA

ABSTRACT

The sustainability of the U.S. Healthcare industry has been in question for decades. Industry analysts have focused on assigning blame among the various industry players: Federal and State governments, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, direct care providers (hospitals, general physicians, outpatient facilities, etc.), and medical insurers. However, until recently the conversation has been limited primarily to cost accounting. In actuality, healthcare system sustainability is the ability to remain productive long term while minimizing waste and creating value. To be resilient, the health care enterprise must possess five “abilities”: availability; dependability; capability; affordability; and marketability. This paper presents a strategy for health care sustainability based on the value of these five abilities. In ecology, sustainability describes how biological species survive. For the environment, it is assessing whether or not project outputs can be produced without permanent and unacceptable changes in the natural equilibrium. For humans, it is our long-term physical and cultural well-being. For mechanical systems and structures, it is maximizing reliability while conserving required resources and reducing waste. For the U.S. Healthcare System, it is the ability of the system, its products and services, its functional systems to remain competitive and productive, and efficient long term, without failure, while minimizing waste. Sustainability and sustainable development have become popular goals.

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Issues in the Health Care System in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea

Dr. Murray Prideaux, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

ABSTRACT

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has one of the most underperforming health systems in the Asia-Pacific region, despite several incentives undertaken in the past decade. This paper explores non-clinical leadership and management context, barriers and issues of health delivery in Madang Province, PNG. Health services are decentralised with leadership and management roles, finance and service delivery devolved to provincial and district governments. Provincial authorities retain significant autonomy and compelled to follow national policy directives. Findings point to important leadership and management barriers including ineffective leadership and management competencies and weak political and institutional capacity. There is the paucity of research in health services leadership and management in developing nations in the Asia-Pacific region. This research engages a qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with health leaders and managers in Madang Province. Interviews were recorded, subject to discourse analysis then findings were evaluated against extant literature. This study contributes to the literature by exploring health leadership and management at provincial and district levels in one of PNG’s twenty provinces. The findings help to better understand the complex interplay of factors in health delivery in a developing country. Leadership, supported by competent management are intuitively recognised as important drivers of change and innovation and often cited as critical elements in achieving successful health outcomes (Buttigieg & West, 2013). Much of the extant leadership and management literature attempts to identify how leaders and managers influence organisational outcomes primarily Western corporate business life.

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Antecedents of Lifestyle Innovation Product Adoption and Post Adoption Behaviors

Dr. Somkiat Eiamkanchanalai, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Dr. Nuttapol Assarut, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

ABSTRACT

Recent growth of personal mobile devices leads to a rise in innovation products where lifestyle and social interest of adaptors is important in decision-making process. Digital magazine is one of these innovation products. Adoption of the lifestyle innovation product is different from the adoption of typical innovation, which makes the technology acceptance model (TAM) can no longer explain the adoption behavior of the innovation. This research extends the TAM by incorporating innovation characteristics into the model to evaluate adoption and post adoption behaviors of the lifestyle innovation product. Social value, compatibility, communicability, perceived quality and observability factors are significant in the adoption behavior. However, compatibility, social value, perceived quality, communicability and complexity factors play important role in the post adoption behavior. The observability is important only in the initial adoption model while the complexity is crucial only in the post adoption one. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed. Progress in information and communication technology (ICT) continually leads to changes in consumer lifestyle and also incessantly creates new opportunities for new lifestyle products. The electronic book (e-book) is one of such products that emerged from the advancement of the ICT. However, during the emerging stage when the technology was in its infancy, the e-book was adopted only by small groups of readers in educational and research areas (Connaway, 2003).

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An Analysis of the Relationship Between Socio-Demographic and Economic Statuses of the Employees of

Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics and Their Purchasing Decision Criteria

Dr. Anıl Degermen Erenkol, Istanbul University, Istanbul

Burcay Yasar Akcalı, Istanbul University, Istanbul

ABSTRACT

Influencing consumer behavior in the desired direction and changing it as required makes it possible for businesses to increase their profitability by selling in the market and, consequently, to survive. That is because consumer behavior affects the purchasing process and the sales. Businesses should be knowledgeable about the consumer behavior in order to be able to influence it. Therefore, consumer behavior is one of the main topics in the marketing science. However, despite the fact that consumer behavior and the impact of these forms of behavior on sales are extremely important, consumer behavior analysis has become a phenomenon that has gained importance particularly with the adoption of the marketing concept in businesses in the last 30-40 years. The concept of marketing manifests as a discipline which places consumers above all other interest groups and it has a customer-oriented structure. This understanding brings the consumers into the focus of the company's efforts and advocates that the desires and needs of customers should be effectively identified - before the production stage - and met accordingly. Consumer behavior covers purchasing behavior and shopping behavior in a broader sense. Specifically, purchasing behavior focuses on product and brand selection process of consumers. Understanding the criteria that are considered significant in the purchasing decision process is quite an important issue. That is because understanding these criteria provides useful information for both businesses and consumers. Depending on various factors such as consumer income, lifestyles, different roles they have in society, education levels, and so on in particular, the emerging heterogeneous market structure results in great difference among the criteria taken into account by consumers while they make purchasing decisions for a good or service.

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Price Drivers and Investment Strategies of Gold

Dr. Mahmoud Arayssi, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon

ABSTRACT

The price determinants of gold are explained in this paper. Benefits from holding gold as an investment class asset in several forms, including ETFs are explored. Disadvantages of holding various gold investments are described, particularly in Contango markets. The gold prices are examined in the past two decades, focusing on the relationship with the S&P 500 and Dow index and various currencies, producer and consumer indices. We conclude with advice to potential individual investors in gold and an overview of some variables that affect the future trend of gold. Gold has never quite lost its shine as a proxy for value even though it has very little practical utility from an industrial or economic stance. It is the most popular precious metal in which people invest. It is a safe-haven against any economic, political, social or currency-based crises, such as: investment market declines, currency failure, inflation, war and social unrest. It can be held indefinitely without fear of insolvency or being margin called and it has historically played a central role in the creation of the world’s monetary systems. While the trading in gold by institutional investors has been increasing in the past decade, this precious metal has also witnessed much interest by various central banks around the world. Because gold is non-correlated with other asset prices, and because it lacks all counterparty risk, gold is a highly attractive alternative to include in a well-diversified portfolio. If the reason for this renewed interest was purely speculative we probably would have witnessed, as in classic bubbles, a crash in the price of gold by now.

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Claiming To Be A Marketing Manager: The Case of the Real-Estate Sector in the

Eastern Provence of Saudi Arabia

Dr. Hussein Abdullah El-Omari, King Talal School of Business & Technology, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Amman, Jordan

ABSTRACT

Marketing Managers are responsible for a wide variety of tasks within the complex and competitive modern business environments. A marketing manager will be responsible for everything from planning strategies to promoting a product or service to as wide an audience as possible by means of events, websites and advertising. Skilled marketing managers play an important role in the life of their business organizations. They usually specialize in a particular product or market, such as financial services, fashion or ‘fast moving consumer goods’. As part of the job, Marketing Managers are required to undertake tasks which range from the identification of target markets and the promotion of products and services. However, a Marketing Manager will have to carry out all these tasks whilst bearing in mind the budget and time scales available to the company. The real-estate sector in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia was selected to be the setting for this study. Based on a convenience sampling procedure, 600 companies were selected and of the 600 distributed questions, 126 completed/usable questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 26.0% The results of this study have shown that Saudi marketing managers have a small role to play in the marketing management process of their organizations and, therefore, those managers could not be considered more than “sales managers” performing some “sales tasks”. Underestimating the importance of having real “marketing managers” performing all function of the marketing management process, will result in a negative impact on the competitiveness of the concerned companies.

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Strategic Management Accounting as a Determinant of Quality Management Success

Dr. Andrijana Rogosic, Faculty of Economics, University of Split, Croatia

ABSTRACT

The conflicting results of prior studies leave open the question of how quality management practices affect financial performance of the companies. The aim of this research is to determine the impact of the implementation level of management by fact, as one of the main quality management principles, on financial indicators. In this context, the role of the strategic management accounting as a tool of management by fact is argued. Management activities and functions involved in determination of quality policies and its implementation through three fundamental managerial processes: quality planning, quality control and quality improvement are known as quality management (QM). These processes are called „Juran trilogy“ after the one of the most influential quality management „guru“ – Joseph M. Juran. The importance of quality management has considerably increased over the last few decades, on both a practical and theoretical level. Various forms of quality management systems such as statistical process quality control (SPC), quality assurance, ISO 9000 quality standards and total quality management (TQM) are being pursued for business improvement and to achieve the goal of customer satisfaction. Quality management and the market-oriented approach to doing business, both anchored in the notion of customer satisfaction, are increasingly embraced by many firms as the key to gaining a competitive edge (Lai, 2003: 18). Quality management has been developed around a number of critical factors which vary from one author to another, although the core factors are leadership, quality planning, human resources management (training, work teams, employee involvement, etc.), process management, cooperation with customers and suppliers, and continuous improvement. According to the literature, the elements of TQM may be grouped into two dimensions: the management system (leadership, planning, human resources, etc.) and the technical system (TQM tools and techniques (Tarí and Sabater, 2004: 267).

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Country Image and Its Effects on Purchase Intention Applied to Egypt

Dr. Amira Fouad Ahmed Mahran, Cairo University, Egypt

Dr. David Louis Nasser, Georgia State University, GA

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to conceptualize and measure Egypt’s image in the American market, and to identify the affective and cognitive impacts of country on purchase intent with respect to Egyptian products. A cluster sample of 331 American graduate students was selected. (SEM) was applied to test the conceptual model. The findings demonstrated that cognitive country image affects both affective country image and purchase intention. But we detected no influence of affective country image directly or as a mediator on purchase intention .The model explained 56% of the variation in affective country image and 21% in purchase intention. These findings might help marketers and public policy makers in Egypt to formulate strategies that build a positive country image especially with respect to the cognitive dimension. For over five decades country image has been considered an important and popular topic in international marketing (Wang et al., 2012). Previous studies have shown that country image affects consumer preferences when choosing between similar products that come from different countries. (Maher and Carter, 2011), and its effect is similar to other extrinsic cues such as brand name and price (Wall et al., 1991). Consumers form images of countries that in turn influence their beliefs (Erickson et al., 1984), and their willingness to buy a country’s products (Knight and Calantone, 2000). A country’s image might not only affect the evaluation of its products, but also other outcomes such as investments, visits and ties with a country (Brijs et al.,2011 ;Heslop et al.,2004;Laroch et al.,2005). Nevertheless, according to previous research there is a lack of agreement on the definition of the country image construct. Country image may be viewed as a halo or a summary construct (Han, 1989). Also there are many differences in the dimensions and specific items per dimension that have been used to measure this construct.

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Data Mining Applications Framework for Business Organizations: Business Functions Approach

Dr. Jovana Zoroja, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb, Croatia

Dr. Mirjana Pejic Bach, Professor, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb, Croatia

Dr. Katarina Curko, Professor, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb, Croatia

ABSTRACT

High growth of data in databases created a need for technologies which can extract and uncover the hidden information in large amount of data which can be useful in decision making in business organizations. Data mining is a technology that could solve this problem with approach combining machine learning, statistics and database management that are used for finding useful and valid patterns in data. The goal of this paper is to present a review of published data mining applications in business organizations across business functions. Papers from the journals indexed in Web of Science that investigate data mining applications in business organizations were examined in order to compare the research on data mining applications in terms of: (1) journal, (2) title of the paper, (3) data collection approach, (4) methodology used for investigation of data mining applications and (5) keywords. We investigated 25 papers divided into five categories: finance, human resources, transport, marketing and sales and services. We found research papers for each mentioned category. By random choice method we have selected several research papers for each category in order to compare data mining applications, methods and data used in business organizations. Data mining methodology is used for analysing large amounts of data for secondary analysis by extracting information from operating application systems. It can be used for finding and identifying relationships among data (Wu et al., 2012). Data mining is one of the most popular processes of analysing huge amount of data to find relationships among them with the goal to gain knowledge and make decisions (Ngai et al., 2009).

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Financial Crisis and the Liquidity Effect on Market Risk

Bor Bricelj, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Dr. Sebastjan Strasek, Professor, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Dr. Timotej Jagric, Professor, University of Maribor, Slovenia

ABSTRACT

In this article we deal with the liquidity effect of the financial crisis. We introduce liquidity as a risk factor into the standard value-at-risk framework. We incorporate bid-ask spread information into the basic VaR models. In those models we calculate the volatility of returns with the use of GARCH methodology. We then test these models on four different markets: on three foreign and on a domestic one. We conclude that based on assumptions of our research, liquidity VaR models adequately measure market risk and even prove themselves superior to ordinary VaR models. Liquidity VaR methodology represents a step in the right direction in market risk analysis, but on the other hand those models are not yet robust enough to pass all backtests. About the comparison of results between markets we conclude that the results for the domestic market are comparable to those of foreign ones despite the domestic being smaller. Risk management is one of the most fundamental challenges facing financial institutions. To cope with risk these institutions use many analytical tools of which Value-at-Risk (VaR) models are the most prevalent. VaR models are useful for quantifying an institution's exposure to market risk. The exposure is calculated using closing prices for traded assets, or similar data, where the frequency of the data can be changed depending on the model. The problem is that this kind of data does not contain the information on liquidity of the traded asset and consequently VaR models using the data do not capture the full exposure to market risk. This is also addressed in the Basel III directive, which explicitly states the need to add liquidity into market risk analysis. In our research we implemented liquidity into VaR models. We tested and compared liquidity VaR (LVaR) models proposed by Bangia et al. (1998, 1999) and Ernst et al. (2009, 2012) with classical VaR models.

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Accounting System Analysis of Consulting Offices in Saudi Arabia

Dr. Abdulsalam Alsudairi, Professor, University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the accounting system used in the consulting offices in Dammam Metropolitan Area (DMA), Saudi Arabia. Forty two managers or senior engineers of those offices were interviewed. The interviews focused on the preparation and components of the three financial statements (balance sheet, Cash flow and Income statement). The study concluded that the current accounting system is still partial as there are many items that are either missing or applied incompletely. This is often practiced in small offices, where the less commonly used financial statement is the balance sheet and the most frequently used one is the cash flow statement. Yet, in large offices with partnerships with other offices, their accounting systems were well established and have reflected well on their professional performance. Money is one of the most important resources for any organization or project where careful utilization of this resource is crucial element for continuity and success. This is due to the direct link of money to the expenses and income of the organization and therefore to its profitability. In addition, money is one of the three elements (money, time, quality) that is used to measure and evaluate project performance (PMI, 2008). In fact, certain studies emphasized the importance of acquiring professional administrative and financial skills to architects and engineers. They considered skills related to budgetary and costs control to be on the top success factors of their enterprises, both in the design and construction sectors (Young and Duff, 1990 and Rahman et al., 2008).

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Success Factors for the Evaluation of An ERP System Investment Decision in SME’s.

Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Findings

Dr. Josef Neuert, University of Fulda, Germany

Claudia van der Vorst, University of Latvia, Riga, University of Applied Science Kufstein, Tirol, Austria

ABSTRACT

In the 1990s, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems became the state of the art tool to replace self-made legacy systems. While the market of ERP implementations for big global companies has reached almost saturation, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are at the beginning of this process. The decision for an ERP package and its implementation is an extensive, lengthy, and costly procedure which often creates problems or cost overruns. The acquisition process is one of the key challenges at the beginning of a longer decision making journey. This paper aims to present an outline of the key influencing characteristics that affect the decision-making process for ERP software at SME’s. The research was based on an analytical literature review and a quasi-field experiment. The main hypothesis that the subjectively perceived decision success is strongly dependent on a suggested selection procedure could be confirmed. Currently, according to experience and relevant literature, the selection process is mainly vendor-driven and not based on the customers’ requirements and values. In sum, the necessity for a clearly outlined decision making concept and a structured set of critical success factors are the main findings of this study. The selection, implementation, and maintenance of standard enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, like the high-end enterprise packages of, e.g., SAP®, Oracle and Microsoft is more and more a commodity part of big enterprise businesses. The information technology (IT) employees of their departments are well trained with years and years of experience. The consultancies supporting them are preparing in very professional competence centers, e.g., industry solution departments for the different branches.

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An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Board Structure on the Performance of Large Saudi Firms.

Dr. Murya Habbash, King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia

Dr. Mohammed Saleh Bajaher, King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia and Aden University, Yemen

ABSTRACT

In 2006 the Saudi Capital Market authority issued the Corporate Governance Code which proposed a variety of monitoring mechanisms that should improve corporate Governance; however, the impact of these mechanisms on the firm performance is still ambiguous. This study aims to examine the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on the performance of Saudi listed companies. Specifically, the composition, size and leadership style of boards is tested. The analysis is extended to investigate the moderating effect of family ownership. The study uses a sample of 338 large Saudi listed companies. We find that both duality and independence of the board affect a firm’s performance. However, we find that this is not the case in family controlled firms which suggests that family ownership and corporate governance could be a monitoring substitute for each other. The effect of corporate governance on firms’ performance has received extensive awareness in the accounting literature in recent years. This increased awareness has been motivated by the financial scandals that took place in the US economy in the early part of this decade such as WorldCom and Enron collapse. In spite of the proliferation of studies, there is still much debate regarding the relationship between firm performance and boards of directors (Shukeri, et al., 2012). According to Saad (2010), the board of directors is considered to be one of the two major components of corporate governance which provide an efficient regulatory and controlling mechanism to decrease agency problems.

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The Relationship between Capital Structure and Profitability: Causality and Characteristics

Irina Berzkalne, University of Latvia, Latvia

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the relationship between capital structure and profitability. The data set consists of 58 firms listed on the Baltic Stock Exchange and 150 non-listed companies in Latvia over the period from 2005 to 2012. The study analyses the short-term, long-term and total debt in relation to several profitability measures like return on sales (ROS), return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) using correlation and panel regression analyses. The empirical results indicate that a negative relationship between capital structure and profitability exists, and this relationship is more pronounced in the case of listed companies. Capital structure choice has been analyzed and discussed by both academics and managers for several decades. The starting point for the subject of capital structure is the irrelevance proposition of Modigliani and Miller (1958, 1963). Since then two capital structure theories prevail – the trade-off theory and the pecking order theory. Pecking order theory states that companies prioritize their sources of financing – at first they prefer to use internal funds, then to borrow, and to issue equity as a last resort (Myers and Majluf, 1984). Trade-off theory argues that companies choose the debt and equity mix by balancing the benefits and costs of debt. If a company increases its leverage, the tax benefits of debt increase, as well. At the same time, the costs of debt also rise (Kraus and Litzenberger, 1973). Profitability ratios show the ability of the company to generate profit, and these ratios are used by the company, financial institutions, etc. to determine the performance of the company.

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An Empirical Study of Factors Effecting Successful Implementation of Knowledge

Management in Saudi Private Industrial Sectors

Dr. Sami A. Albahussain, University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Increasing competition and globalization has forced organizations to look for ways and means to distinguish themselves from their peers. Organizations are adopting out of the box solutions and coming out with newer and innovative mechanisms to capture the customer attention. The subject of knowledge management has acquired a lot of importance in the recent times as organizations are looking out for measures to remain competitive. As the organizations are realizing the significance of adapting knowledge management, they are beginning to implement the same as well in their operations. However the successful implementation of the same in the organizations is dependent on various factors. The current study has attempted to determine such factors that have an influence on the successful implementation of knowledge management in the private industrial sector of Saudi Arabia. To achieve the objectives of this study, The investigation was carried out and a survey was conducted among 380 employees in medium and large size organizations in private industrial sector in Dammam, Saudi Arabia where knowledge management is implemented. The research established that business strategy, organizational structure, KM team, K-audit, and K-map are critical factors that determine the knowledge management in the organizations. On the whole it was established that the concept of knowledge management is given its due importance by the organizations and it is built into the various elements of the working. Knowledge has become a precious property and Knowledge Management (KM) has been widely practiced by many organisations as one of the most promising ways of achieving success in the information age (Soliman, and Spooner, 2000; Chen and Yen, 2010).

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Religious Entrepreneurship and Economic Development of Nigeria

Azende Terungwa, Benue State University, Makurdi-Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Research on entrepreneurial activities has increased since its influence on economic and social development of a society has been acknowledged. Religious faithful move in mass from one location to another in response to calls for their gatherings. It takes skills for their leaders to secure such resolute followership of members which is herein referred as religious entrepreneurship. This study quest to emphasize the three dimensional benefits of religious entrepreneurship to the religious entrepreneurs, their target audience and most importantly the economy of Nigeria. The study surveyed 270 respondents adapting the community of inquiry instrument developed by Arbaugh et al (2008) alongside with Pearson’s correlation coefficient, ANOVA and regression. The statement of the problem is whether these religious entrepreneurial activities impacts positively (economically) on its stakeholders. The main objective is to ascertain the extent to which religious entrepreneurship benefits the economy of Nigeria with a view of encouraging it or otherwise. A major finding of the study was the collective predictive strength of RES, ESRE, and B & F for economic development of a society EDS. It is recommended that religious entrepreneurship be encouraged by any way possible to making Nigeria a better place economically. Entrepreneurial activities are central to economic growth in the modern economy. Such activities are numerous and as diverse as the societies themselves. It is therefore paramount for individuals to understand and appreciate these activities with a view to help societies unveil potential opportunities for growth and development.

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An Empirical Study of Factors Driving to M-shopping Usage

Dr. Mirsobit Mirusmonov, CCBA, Dhofar University, Sultanate of Oman

Dr. Changsu Kim, Professor, Yeungnam University, Republic of Korea

Dr. Jai Jin Jung, Dankook University, Korea

ABSTRACT

Advances in mobile technology have had considerable influence on the sustained involvement in shopping-shopping anywhere and anytime. M-shopping connects existing online and offline environments and enables consumers to engage in m-shopping anytime, anywhere, thereby providing them with new value. This study provides an empirical analysis of the relationships between m-shopping characteristics and use through the mediating effect of m-shopping value, and the results have important theoretical and practical implications. The results show that personalization, self-efficacy, intimacy, simplicity, mobility, and connectivity have considerable influence on m-shopping value and that the shopping value that users experience during m-shopping can be divided into utilitarian value and hedonic value. The wide popularity of mobile application use has led to growing interest in mobile shopping (m-shopping). Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets facilitate the use of m-shopping anytime, anywhere, and this has strengthened people’s expectations and interest in this new form of shopping. Unlike in the case of PC-based e-commerce and e-business, mobile devices play a critical role in m-shopping. Previous studies have found that, as a value-added service within m-commerce, m-shopping appears to be a new opportunity for increasing revenue through the use of mobile devices anytime, anywhere (Aldás-Manzano et al., 2009; Lu & Su, 2009; Lee & Park, 2006). This indicates a need for a better understanding of the reason behind the rapid growth of m-shopping. In term of shopping, many researchers have examined shopping value from both utilitarian and hedonic perspectives (e.g., Carpenter & Moore, 2009; Chang & Fang, 2012; Overby & Lee, 2006), mostly in conventional internet shopping environments.

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Measuring the Factors That Affect the Young Consumers' Attitudes Towards SMS Advertising and

Their Purchase Intention: The Case of Egypt

Hazem Rasheed, Arab Academy for Science &Technology & Maritime Transport, Egypt

Professor Farid El Sahn, Bahrain University

Dr. Eman Abd El Salam, Arab Academy for Science &Technology& Maritime Transport, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Today, the mobile phone penetration is increasing all over the world including Egypt. This high penetration has created an excellent opportunity for marketers who want to target Egyptians especially young consumers with their products and services through mobile advertising. This study investigated the attitudes of young Egyptian consumers towards SMS advertising which is considered the simplest and the most widely used type of mobile advertising in Egypt. It measured the factors that affect the consumers' attitudes towards SMS advertisements which consequently make the SMS advertisements effective. Also, it studied the relationship between the consumers' attitudes towards the brands that are advertised through SMS and their purchase intentions. The field study was done using a survey among young consumers. The results of the research show that Egyptian young consumers generally hold favorable attitudes towards SMS advertisements. Also, it proves that the lack of irritation of the SMS advertisements, incentives that are found in SMS advertisements, utilization of contextual information, attitudes towards advertisements in general, informativeness of SMS advertisements and personalization of SMS advertisements are important factors that affect the attitudes of young consumers towards SMS advertisements. In the recent years, the field of advertising has been subjected to dramatic changes. One of the main reasons of these changes was the rapid digitalization of media and the development of technology.

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FDI, Knowledge and Technological Spillovers, and Business Growth in Thailand

Dr. Sutana Boonlua, Mahasarakham Business School, Mahasarakham University, Thailan

Eakapoom Wongsahai, Mahasarakham Business School, Mahasarakham University, Thailan

ABSTRACT

This research examines the knowledge and technological spillover affects to the business growth of FDI in Thailand. The objectives of this research are 1) to examine the role of Thai manufacturing subsidiaries in knowledge and technology spillover in Thailand, 2) to determine the knowledge and technology spillover in manufacturing companies in Thailand impact to its business growth, and 3) to introduce the roles of university-industry linkages and government incentives as well as the quality of human capital in enabling or constraining knowledge and technology spillover. Questionnaires conducted in English were collected by in-depth interview to 400 CEOs of the FDI in Thailand. There are 24 independent variables and grouped into two groups as named as knowledge and technological spillover factors. The correlation matrix shows that the business growth of the FDI in Thailand has positive correlation to all independent variables at the 1% level of significant. In summary, there is only the knowledge spillover factor is positive and significant to the business growth of FDI in Thailand at the 1% level of significance. Among developing countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, the inward foreign direct investment (FDI) of transnational companies (TNCs) has become a major source of technology, knowledge and funds.

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On Corporate Governance Issues in Small Innovative Firms

Dr. Walid A. Nakara, Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier Business School

Montpellier Research in Management, France

ABSTRACT

The governance of small firms is at the heart of current debates on corporate governance. The present study sheds light on both the perception and the practice of governance in small innovative enterprise, with a particular attention to innovative biotech environments in France. Who are the key actors of governance? What governance are we talking about? What are the main expectations and obligations of the owner-managers? Are there any compromises and what is the stake? The answers to these questions and the lessons learned from the case of Biotech industry are beneficial to performance and both theory and practice of corporate governance and innovation management. According to the OECD (2004), biotechnology is defined as, “The application of science and technology on living organisms, parts or products thereof, to transform materials, of living or non-living origin, to produce new knowledge or develop new products or processes”. Some research institutes, such as Ernst and Young, suggest a broader definition, referring more generally to “technological applications from the life sciences”. Other studies rely on a more precise definition, focused on either genetic engineering or on fermentation techniques and their derivatives, depending on the industry and the applications that are envisaged. Apart from these differences, the criteria used to identify biotechnology firms are extremely diverse. In the present study we examined small innovative biotechnology firms. In France, these companies can be defined as small firms (fewer than 50 employees) with very strong growth and for which the main activity is to produce new (scientific) knowledge for the life science industries.

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Applying the Principle of Artificial Intelligence in E-Training System

Natcha Tiempitak, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Dr. Onjaree Natakuatoong, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Dr. Thitipong Nandhabiwat, Rangsit University, Bangkok, Thailand

ABSTRACT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that deals with the development of intelligence for the machines, especially with a computer system. The science of artificial intelligence is now applied to the educational management and the learning of each individual. This article proposed how to bring 3 principles of artificial intelligence to be a part of each module in E-training system in order to develop traditional E-training to become an intelligent E-training system. Its genius can be indicated 5 outcomes as follows 1. Intelligence feedback refers to what the system reflects learners to acknowledge their results and reasons of actions. It appears in “User Interface Module”. 2. Intelligence guidance refers to a guiding learner to follow what the system has made. This led learners to reach the highest cognitive competency level of Bloom’s taxonomy. The intelligence guidance is contained in the elements of “Learning Strategy Module”. 3. Diagnostic intelligence means specialization to compare the level of learners competency with cognitive criteria or create the conditions in advance. The intelligence diagnosis is packed in elements called “Diagnosis Module.” 4. Intelligence in making decision refers to the decision and selection of learning strategy suitable types of learners and make a decision to select the reinforcement lessons according to the knowledge level of learners. It is packed in the elements of “Data and Knowledge base Module”. 5. Interaction intelligence refers to the two-ways communication with learners. This genius will be packed in the elements of “Expert Module”.

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Bridging the Gap and Filling Workforce Needs in Connecticut: Applied Engineering and Business

Dr. Karen Coale Tracey, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT

Dr. Xiaobing Hou, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT

Dr. Shuju Wu, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the ongoing development of a new Bachelor of Science in Networking Information Technology (NIT) program as well as its curriculum and laboratories. As the only such program in the state of Connecticut, NIT offers students a broad yet solid background in the area of study. This paper focuses on the balanced curriculum and laboratory that not only provide students with foundation and principles of networking and information technology (IT) systems but also expose students extensively to new emerging technologies and equipment. The “management” component of the program is also described in the paper and students are encouraged to take advantage of it to better round out their degree program. In addition, this paper introduces the important role of industry in the program development and how the extensive collaboration with industry makes sure that the up-to-date curriculum offers the industry highly qualified workforce. The rapid growth of computer networking and information technology requires broader technical expertise at all levels to support applications, apply the new technologies and maintain the competitive edge required for success in the global environment. Having recognized these needs, the Computer Electronics and Graphics Technology (CEGT) Department at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) developed a new degree program in Networking Information Technology (NIT) which will continue to educate and train the necessary workforce for supporting these initiatives.

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