NOTES FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The Global Financial Crisis: Daunting Tasks Ahead The global financial and economic crisis started in 2007 as an aftermath of the housing sector bubble coupled with aggressive lending practices in the US sub-prime mortgage market and lax regulation of the financial sector. To start with, these developments affected the companies holding mortgage-backed securities and credit derivatives. The early signs of the crisis were evident in 2007; but the financial crisis developed into a full blown global recession in late 2008 battered by continuous deepening and widening of the crisis. The recession created shockwaves though the global financial system and the global economy, and the advanced economies were affected most. The governments in these countries are bracing their financial sector and the real economy by stepping up various policy measures including injecting huge sums of money for bailing out the ailing financial institutions and other industries. What is worst is that the recession appears to hang on throughout 2014.
Corporate Social Responsibility: Good for Business and Society
Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is no longer to assess only any business organization in context of contribution to the society. Perhaps, it has gained popularity among the corporations due to its prospects of yielding better business performance in the long range. The purpose of this paper is to sketch out an overview of CSR based on the acclamation and criticism from diverse perspective. Looking over through the extant literatures, this paper reviews the present status of CSR among the scholars, practitioners, development organizations, and governments. This paper reveals the supportive arguments for the notion that CSR is „giving back‟ to society by the business entities. In the business context, CSR found to be more effective and significant in the financial sector of a country. Considering the diminishing role of the state economic activity and limitation of generating public funds by the state, raise the dependency and expectation on the business sector, which would possibly eradicate the critical and severe issues of the society in developing countries. However, this paper opens up new thought towards CSR, which is more, an apt paradigm for returning back to the society.
Investigating the Impact of Various Social Ties during Egypt’s Governmental Transition
Abstract Tie strength is fundamental to the examination of interpersonal forces (Solomon, 2013). Social ties enable collaborative creation and sharing of ideas, which provides diverse communication power (Granovetter, 1973). In this study, the researcher assumed that: strong ties and weak ties are positive in the effective socialization process regarding political topics in Egypt. This study was considered conclusive research, with a cross-sectional design and a descriptive purpose. Each of the variables was measured using a 5-point Likert scale. 384 questionnaires were used in this study. The SPSS analysis showed that the hypotheses were supported. Both strong and weak interpersonal relations were able to impact significantly the socialization process. Though, strong ties had a more statistically significance than weak ties. This study contributes on the theoretical level by adding to the field of political socialization and social influence in the Middle East context and by demonstrating the validity of the scales of in the Egyptian context. It contributes on the practical level by defining the impact of interpersonal ties during social dealings.
A Glance on Service Innovation Scenario: Case of Leading Telecommunication Companies in Malaysia
Abstract: Malaysia has emerged as Asian dragon in context of overall economic development, where telecommunication sector is playing pivotal role. The main purpose of this paper is to review the state of innovation of the two top innovative telecommunication companies in Malaysia. With the attempt to explore and understand the innovation scenario of these two companies, the paper mainly sketches out the activities with regard to service offerings for the dynamic environment and customers. Thorough literature review has been conducted along with accruing information from the company‟s annual reports and website. The paper stands alone as comprehensive review of service innovation of the two most innovative companies. It is however, indeed for the companies to understand the diverse paths of service innovation, which may facilitate to attain competitive advantageous position.
Success Factors for Clean Development Mechanism Implementation in Malaysia
Abstract The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established under the Kyoto Protocol, is one of the market-based mechanisms developed to assist industrialized countries mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, achieve emission reduction targets, and at the same time promote sustainable development in developing countries. The CDM, which provides flexibility and cost-effectiveness in meeting GHG emission reduction targets, has captured interest globally. CDM implementation is expected to generate benefits, give developing countries a sense of ownership, and share the global load in tackling global warming and climate change. However, CDM implementation faces several complications. The successful participation of developing countries in emission reduction projects presents ongoing challenges, which inhibit their drive towards sustainable development goals. Through a comprehensive review of the literature and theoretical analysis, several factors have been identified as significant to successful CDM implementation in Malaysia. These success factors, which include regulation and a legal framework, competitive advantage, green supply chain, ethical values, financial benefits, and technology transfer, are presented and the importance of each factor is discussed.
Mathematical Exploration of B2C Electronic Commerce architecture via Back propagation Network Learning Algorithm
Abstract The present study assesses the technique of back propagation neural networks to appraise the average response time of a B2C Electronic Commerce architecture. In order to delineate the response time, diverse array of user requests were engaged per unit time. Furthermore, engagement of Back Propagation Network Learning (BPNL) algorithm is used to summarize the average response time and augment the enactment of the system. The comprehensive study does the comparative investigation to express the average response time for ANN enabled and without-ANN-enabled algorithm. The objective was to plaid whether ANN enabled algorithm had any bearing on the overall performance of the system. For BPNL algorithm, learning of the responses for the user requests were steered for 7 repetitions and then thorough phases were accomplished to assess the response time. After each iteration, error rates were dogged and then feed forward and back propagation algorithm were used to improve the performance. The experimentation will find its prominence in imminent B2C Electronic Commerce system project and employment and will convey the outline for such investigation. Finally, the study expands the meticulous inferences of the study.
Effects of corporate economic intelligence on the international competitiveness of Tunisian firms
Abstract The purpose of our paper is to analyze rigorously one of the significant factors of the international competitiveness of the firms that relating to the corporate economic intelligence. The originality of this research lies in the assimilation of the shares relating to the identification and the exploitation of the opportunities, and thus, the entrepreneurial orientation, as an integral part of the corporate economic intelligence able to stimulate the international competitiveness of the Tunisians firms. The results of our analysis applied to a sample of 120 Tunisian firms show the positive and significant effects of the various devices of the corporate economic intelligence relating to the collection, the diffusion of information and the entrepreneurial orientation on the international competitiveness. In addition, our results show that the effects of the devices relating to the analysis and the processing as well as the protection of the information on the international competitiveness are done indirectly via their effects on the entrepreneurial orientation.
The Influence of Marital Status and Age on the Perception of Fast Food Consumer in an Emerging Market
Abstract Fast food restaurants, due to its fast and quality services, attract consumers. But do all consumers have similar perception on services and quality related variables? This study examines the influence of marital status and age on product, price, service quality, environment and satisfaction on consumers patronizing fast food restaurants. The result shows that there is a significant difference in the perception of service quality of fast food restaurant between single and married consumers. In addition to that, customers from different age group have a significant difference in perception of satisfaction and price of the food bought from the fast food restaurant.
Crucial Aspects of History and Evolution of Banking System in India with Timeline
Key words: Banking, Evolution economy, Trade and commerce, Committee Paper type: Review Paper
Achieving Balance in Work-Family Conflict through the Influences of Family Supportive HRM: A Conceptual Framework for the Organizations of Bangladesh
Abstract The inclusion of a female in the workforce has brought the issue of work-family conflict (WFC) within the research paradigm. Most studies on WFC have been conducted on Western countries. Recently researchers of Asian developing countries are also showing their interest in studying WFC, its predictors and outcomes. However, In Bangladesh, study on WFC is very limited. The present paper reviews extant literatures on WFC to give a broader view on WFC through accumulating the scattered research findings so that employers and employees of Bangladesh can have a better idea of addressing WFC with possible strategies. The paper contributes to the existing literatures by proposing a new dimension of research area: managing WFC through family supportive Human Resource Management (HRM) among organizations in Bangladesh. A proposed Family Supportive HRM (FSHRM) Model is presented and related hypotheses are formed to support WFC policy making for the organizations of Bangladesh. Future empirical study on this area is thereby sought from the local researchers to incorporate local characteristics in addressing WFC. Thus, WFC from the developing country perspective is added.