Book categories

Issues in Global Business and Management Research

Proceedings of the 2008 International Online Conference on Business and Management (IOCBM 2008)

by Mehran Nejati, Azadeh Shafaei, & Mostafa Nejati

2008

IOCBM 2008 is the second International Online Conference on Business and Management at a global scale, attracting business and management practitioners, students, professors, researchers, and activists from around the world to submit their research findings to the conference. It is an annual conference in the field of business and management which is held by ALA Excellence Consulting Group annually. More information about this conference can be found at http://www.ala.ir/iocbm2008.

Cybercrime

How to Avoid Becoming a Victim

by H. Thomas Milhorn, MD, PhD

2007

Cybercrime: How to Avoid Becoming a Victim is a nuts and bolts, how-to guide for the typical home-computer user. It addresses the various crimes being committed via the Internet and gives instructions on how to avoid becoming a victim of each. The chapters dealing with individual cybercrimes are laid out in a format consisting of a discussion of the basics of the crime, followed by real-life examples of the particular crime, and then things computer users can do to avoid becoming a victim of the crime. Also included in the book is a chapter on the role of organized crime in Internet fraud and another chapter on Internet hoaxes. In addition, an appendix gives information on where to report various cybercrimes and another appendix gives definitions of cybercrime terms. To illustrate specific...

Private Higher Education and the Labor Market in China

Institutional Management Efforts & Initial Employment Outcomes

by Yingxia Cao

2008

Private Higher Education and the Labor Market in China focuses on Chinese private higher education institutions and investigates their institutional management efforts in linking private higher education to the labor market. The dissertation firstly describes and analyzes how these mostly demand-absorbing institutions include elements aimed at meeting labor market demands in their mission statements, and how they improve student employability and bridge graduates and employers through job-oriented fields of study provision, educational delivery, career services, as well as networking and partnerships. It then examines graduate surveys on initial employment outcomes about employment status, starting salary, job and education match, and job satisfaction, while exploring the associations of t...

Nigeria - U.S. Trade Relations in the Non-Oil Sector

by Gbadebo Olusegun Odularu

2008

In as much as trade fosters economic development, it also exacerbates poverty, especially in the sub Saharan African (SSA) countries. Against this backdrop, this study will increase our understanding of the estimation of non-oil commodity trade flows between Nigeria and the U.S. More specifically, the study aims to analysing the impact of African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) on the U.S. imports of non-oil products from Nigeria. The research objectives are woven around the following questions: - What is the nature of Nigeria's and the U.S.'s foreign trade policies with particular reference to non-oil trade? - What are the patterns, magnitude, composition and trends in Nigeria-US non-oil trade? - Which economic sectors possess greatest potential for fostering trade in the non-oil sector ...

Research Methodology on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

by Jibendu Kumar Mantri

2008

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) represents a milestone in the progression of a continuously advancing methodology for data analysis, which finds extensive use in industry, society and even in education. This book is a handy encyclopedia for researchers, students and practitioners looking for the latest and most comprehensive references in DEA. J.K. Mantri has specifically selected 22 research papers where DEA is applied in different fields so that the techniques discussed in this book can be used for various applications. In A Bibliography of Data Envelopment Analysis (1978-2001), Gabriel Tavares states that DEA is a mathematical programme for measuring performance efficiency of organizations popularly named as decision-making units (DMU). The DMU can be of any kind such as manufacturing ...

Knowledge Transfer in Acquisition of a Small Hydrology Business

by Dr. Sonia G. Lloyd

2008

This study investigated the process of knowledge transfer during a company takeover. The target company is a small international company with offices in six countries that specializes in hydrology. The acquiring company is a large multinational with offices around the world. The acquirer has no experience in the hydrology business and this represents their first experience with the industry. A further factor in the study is looking at how the takeover is affected by differences in culture between the two businesses. The acquirer is very structured and the acquired highly informal. Data for this study has been gathered from a questionnaire and interviews. The findings of the research were generally negative as there was little evidence of knowledge transfer taking place during the first se...

The Development of International Investment Law

Lessons from the OECD MAI Negotiations and Their Application to a Possible Multilateral Agreement on Investment

by Yusuf Caliskan

2008

This dissertation analyses developments in the international regulation of foreign direct investment (FDI). The international legal framework of investment encompasses numerous binding or non-binding legal instruments, including customary international law, bilateral investment treaties, and international organizations’ decisions and resolutions. The rules established by the international legal framework become effective and significant when they are able to be adapted by appropriate and compatible domestic law frameworks. Through analyzing the Turkish foreign investment regulations and policies, this study concludes that there is a successful and complex interaction between international rules and domestic rules on FDI. Like many developing countries, since the 1980s Turkey has revamp...

Six Sigma Leadership

A Study of Six Sigma Black Belts in Conjunction with Transactional and Transformational Leadership

by Lora L. Loethen

2008

Six Sigma is a quality improvement initiative that has evolved over 20 years and is utilized in organizations around the world. The initiative is deployed by a variety of personnel, with Six Sigma Black Belts facilitating the individual projects that serve to reduce waste and enhance customer value throughout all departments within organizations. Extensive education and training is required to become a Six Sigma Black Belt; however, this training rarely, if ever, contains leadership training. As leadership is important to the overall success of the Six Sigma projects and thus, the overall initiative, it is important to know if Six Sigma Black Belts have adequate leadership skills to facilitate Six Sigma project teams. This study serves to quantify Six Sigma Black Belts' leadership abil...

The Role of International Business Operations and the Impact of the Political Environment in Nigeria

A Conceptual Framework Study based on the Banking and Oil Industries

by Olufemi A. Akintunde

2008

This study investigated whether known international business theories available in the literature are meaningful enough to explain the role of international companies in Nigeria. The research examines factors that are likely to influence Nigeria's cultural and ethical values, or contributes to Nigeria's socio-economic development and prosperity. Questionnaires were distributed in four major cities of Nigeria to 600 international companies' customers in four separate shopping malls; all the questionnaires were collected back. This represents a total response rate of 100 percent, which is adequate for this study. The study found that critical factors such as socio-economic development and cultural issues impede the contributions of international companies in Nigeria. The study found that in...

Influence of Marketing on Tobacco Consumption Behavior in Rural and Urban Areas of the Southwestern Region of Nigeria

by Oluwole O. Iyiola

2008

The tobacco industry has always shown much interest in marketing their line of products and have been very successful in portraying smoking as a socially acceptable behavior to billions of people throughout the world. Studies have shown in developed nations that tobacco marketing leads to the onset of smoking among adolescents; in Nigeria, no such study has been done. The purpose of this research is to assess the potential influence of tobacco marketing on tobacco consumption among rural and urban residents in the southwestern region of Nigeria. The survey was designed by the researcher: thirty-six items, self-administered by paper instrument using a cross-sectional design, were distributed to six hundred people in southwestern Nigeria. The study involved 436 males (72.7%) and 164 females...

Comparative Analysis of FDI in China and India

Can Laggards Learn from Leaders?

by Swapna S. Sinha

2008

Some emerging markets have been leaders in the world and have grown at a higher rate benefiting from higher Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) by Trans National Corporations (TNCs) and some have been laggards and have not able to attract as much FDI and grow that efficiently. Why China gets 60 billion dollars FDI annually as compared to India which does not even get 6 billion dollars, is an intriguing question? This dissertation explores the determinants of FDI in such emerging economies to answer the above question. What has India done till now to attract FDI? What has been China’s strategy to become the most FDI attracting country in the world? What lessons India can learn from China and improve its FDI inflow? The study attempts to theorize what lessons emerging markets that are laggards ...

Computer Simulation Using Excel without Programming

by Evon M. O. Abu-Taieh

2008

Defining Simulation in its broadest aspect as embodying a certain model to represent the behavior of a system, whether that may be an economic or an engineering one, with which conducting experiments is attainable. Such a technique enables the management, when studying models currently used, to take appropriate measures and make fitting decisions that would further complement today's growth sustainability efforts, apart from cost decrease, as well as service delivery assurance. As such, the Computer Simulation technique contributed in cost decline; depicting the "cause & effect", pinpointing task-oriented needs or service delivery assurance, exploring possible alternatives, identifying problems, as well as, proposing streamlined measurable deliverable solutions, providing the platform fo...

African American Decision Makers in Healthcare

Exploring the Impact of Mentoring on Professional Advancement

by Deon L. Wolliston

2008

This qualitative case study explored the impact of mentoring on professional advancement among African Americans healthcare professionals. A nonrandom purposeful sample was used to identify 21 African American hospital decision makers employed in the specialty areas of nursing, medicine, pharmacy, and administration. Two central research questions were used to explore the role of mentoring on professional advancement and the participants’ perception of the importance of mentorship and empowerment on their professional advancement. Data was analyzed using Moustakas (1994) modified van Kaam method of analysis. Results of the study showed that mentoring plays an important role in the professional advancement of African American hospital professionals. Additionally, the study participants beli...

Neural Substrates of Decision-Making in Economic Games

by Angela A. Stanton

2008

In economic experiments decisions often differ from game-theoretic predictions. Why are people generous in one-shot ultimatum games with strangers? Is there a benefit to generosity toward strangers? Research on the neural substrates of decisions suggests that some choices are hormone-dependent. By artificially stimulating subjects with neuroactive hormones, we can identify which hormones and brain regions participate in decision-making, to what degree and in what direction. Can a hormone make a person generous while another stingy? In this paper, two laboratory experiments are described using the hormones oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP). Concentrations of these hormones in the brain continuously change in response to external stimuli. OT enhances trust (Michael Kosfeld et al. ...

Opportunities and Challenges of Tourism Financing

A Study on Demand and Supply; Status, Structure, Composition and Effectiveness of Tourism Financing in Nepal

by Dr. Bishnu Prasad Gautam

2008

The study examines the tourism and tourism financing in triangular form. The first is the impact of tourism and tourism financing on the economic growth and development of the country. The second is the response of the Tourism Business Enterprises (demand side) about the pattern and effectiveness of tourism financing and the third one is the views of the Banks and Financial Institutions (supply side). It uses both primary and secondary data and applies various mathematical and statistical tools such as ratio analysis, correlation coefficient, Phi-coefficient, Chi-square test, t-Test for two sample means and regression analysis (OLS). It found a significant impact of tourism and tourism financing in the economic development of the country. Added to this, it found a significant variation i...

Informalisation as a Strength

Community Survival Systems and Economic Development in the African City

by Frank Meintjies

2008

This dissertation is concerned with resources for economic development in cities in Africa. It argues for the greater understanding of the dynamics, practices and cultures within popular neighbourhoods and for recognising the creativity within them as a critical resource. Such an appeal is apt in a context where informal initiative has been suppressed, neglected and its potential wider influence curtailed. This paper takes the view that the popular neighbourhood is not just a place of needs, nor are its resources important only for addressing its own pressing issues; rather, it can be a major contributor to economic development in cities of Africa. This argument draws on concepts and findings from two research initiatives on a Lusaka settlement which delved into community resourcefulness, ...