Business Resources Research Articles

A Community Marine Tourism as a Business Sector: Challenges Faced by Local Community

Marine tourism is one of several economic drivers which contribute to local community livelihood and regional income. Many potential coastal areas are gradually developing and transformed by its’ local communities into local-scale tourisms which accommodate local or domestic or surrounding tourists’ recreational needs. However, to be sustainable, there are many issues need to be addressed. The study intends to explore Dalegan community perceived tourism issue in developing their WPP destination or white sand tourism. The study adopts qualitative method in gathering and analyzing the data. The data are gathered through Dalegan community dialog or interactive session during Dalegan community service program. The collected data are interpreted by implementing thematic analysis. The study reveals that there are three main issues faced by Dalegan local communities: financial, creativity and lack of legal procedures. The collaboration of financial service agents, educational institutions, (local) government bodies and local community inclusion is needed. The study demonstrates that to build Dalegan marine tourism, local/community leadership, local human quality improvement, local resources identification and local culture need to be used as the development grounds. The study also shows that the local community is still not aware of the environmental issues and diversification of recreational activities. Thus, local community still needs advocacy to understand the relationship between tourism and environment. The study also finds that local women are valuable human resource for marine tourism business. They are potential women entrepreneurs who develop small business around WPP marine tourism.

The impact of the UK's Modern Slavery Act (2015) on the disclosure of FTSE 100 companies

This paper explores the impact of the UK's Modern Slavery Act (2015) on the disclosure of the FTSE100 companies. It conducts a content analysis of modern slavery disclosures in the modern slavery statements, annual reports, and sustainability reports from 2013 to 2019. By utilising the framework by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Practical Guidance by the Home Office and the Global Reporting Initiative, we assess the extent and quality of modern slavery disclosures. Our analysis reveals a high level of compliance to the Act's minimum disclosure requirements. We also note an increase in the extent and quality of disclosures following the introduction of the Act, although quality remains low throughout the period as symbolic disclosure is predominantly in evidence. Drawing on normativity theory we identify intrinsic and contextual conditions for norm development. We find that while the presence of intrinsic conditions has positively contributed to the extent and quality of some disclosure themes, the lack of controllability and communication with suppliers has undermined related disclosure provision and constitutes a major hurdle for improving accountability in supply chains.

일부 화학제품 제조업을 대상으로 사고사례 및 빈도 분석을 통한 사업장 전과정(LC) 위험성 평가

Even after the hydrofluoric acid accident in Gumi in 2012, chemical accidents, both large and small, continue to occur in the manufacturing industry, and the risk is particularly high in small and medium-sized businesses. They complain about the difficulty of dealing with safety and health issues due to lack of resources such as time, staff, and capital. As the facilities of chemical plants are becoming more sophisticated, the risk of accidents is increasing, and the accident rate in non-routine operations such as maintenance and process changes is high. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique to analyze the entire flow of existing chemicals, but a life cycle that focuses on environmental aspects and manages risks in terms of safety engineering is required. In this study, risk assessment was conducted by analyzing the cases and frequency of chemical accidents in the life cycle of chemical product manufacturing sites. In particular, it was attempted to efficiently utilize limited resources by giving priority to quantitative evaluation. Cases of accidents in Korea and abroad were collected, and the intensity and frequency of occurrence were calculated for each accident case. As a result of the study, the priority of risk management of the facility was selected in the order of storage tank, reactor, pump and storage container, tank lorry and mixer. As a result of comparing the changes of the F-N curve for the storage tank and the mixer using the Safeti 8.4 program, it was shown that the storage tank has a higher priority than the mixer. It is judged that the limited resources of small and medium-sized businesses can be used efficiently through this study, and it is necessary to establish a unified form and reporting system for accurate frequency calculation.

Differential Privacy-Based Double Auction for Data Market in Blockchain-Enhanced Internet of Things

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), large amounts of data are collected, which constitute a valuable business resource. Hence, a suitable IoT data market needs to be established, and the provision of safe and effective trading services for multiple buyers and sellers is required. This paper introduces an IoT data market framework supported by blockchain. It focuses on a transaction realization scheme for multiple buyers and sellers. In the scheme, the mechanisms are designed to determine the corresponding data providers and recipients for the buyers and sellers, respectively, and the transaction prices of both parties. When the data market runs, an inference attack will raise bid information leakage issues. We study a transaction scheme that enables differential privacy protection of bids based on an exponential mechanism. This paper theoretically proves the individual rationality, weak budget balance, and truthfulness of the normal transaction scheme and differential privacy-based transaction scheme. This paper also theoretically proves the effectiveness of the differential privacy protection for bids of transaction participants. Furthermore, this paper verifies the performances of the two schemes through digital simulation experiments. From the experiments, we can also prove that these schemes occupy reasonable social welfare and computational overhead.

Web API recommendation via combining graph attention representation and deep factorization machines quality prediction

SUMMARYAs more and more companies and organizations encapsulate and publish their business data or resources to the Internet in the form of APIs, the number of web APIs has grown exponentially. For this reason, it has become challenging to quickly and effectively find web APIs from such a large‐scale web API collection, which meet the requirements of mashup developers. To this end, this article focuses on recommending suitable web APIs to build high‐quality mashups by classifying and integrating content‐oriented service functionality with service invocation prediction. The proposed web API recommendation method for mashup development uses graph attention representation and DeepFM quality prediction. First, it uses the web API composition and shared annotation relationships to construct a web API relationship network. Second, it applies the self‐attention mechanism to compute the attention coefficients of different neighboring nodes in the web API relationship network. So, for a specific web API node, the weighted sum of the importance of its neighboring nodes and features characterizes that web API node. Doing so ensures that the service can be divided more accurately into different functional clusters via high‐quality characterization. Third, for the web APIs in a cluster, the high‐quality representation results are combined with multidimensional quality of service attributes. It employs the DeepFM to model and mine complex interaction relationships between features and subsequently predict and rank the invocation scores of web APIs. Finally, experiments are compared and analyzed on real‐world web API datasets. It can be seen from the results of several groups of comparative experiments that the proposed method outperforms other nine baseline methods on accuracy, recall, F1, DCG, and AUC and achieved a good classification accuracy and recommendation effect.

Proposition of a structural model for business value creation based on circular business models, innovation, and resource recovery in the pet industry

AbstractBased on the assumptions of circular economy, resource recovery, and innovation, the aim of this research is to analyze the relationship between innovation constructs, resource recovery practices, Circular Economy Business Models (CEBMs), and value creation in a fast‐growing emerging economy. A set of empirical data from 443 companies in the pet industry were used. In terms of methodology, the study was processed using the SPSS software, using Structural Equation Modeling, with manipulation of primary data. CEBMs demand greater engagement, internalization of initiatives, and synergy with the operating ecosystem of the pet industry. Innovation is present but has the potential for expansion through adherence to the innovation ecosystem and its technological package, partnerships, and relationships so that companies can scale up and create value with the support of resource recovery practices. The results of this study can be useful for companies in the pet industry, as it allows the identification of areas and practices that require their attention to improve organizational performance and create value for the business based on initiatives supported by the assumptions of circular economy and sustainability.

Linking Regenerative Travel and Residents’ Support for Tourism Development in Kaua’i Island (Hawaii): Moderating-Mediating Effects of Travel-Shaming and Foreign Tourist Attractiveness

“Leaving the place behind, better than before” is the regenerative state-of-mind approach to reset, rethink and move forward, beyond sustainable tourism. Despite growing global attention, empirical evidence supporting tourism developments through regenerative travel remains extremely rare. Moreover, rampant incidents of travel-shaming across tourism destinations undermine foreign tourist attractiveness, ultimately affecting residents’ support for tourism developments. To address this overlooked and potential research gap, the present study develops and tests a holistic moderated-mediation model of resident’s support for tourism development, involving regenerative travel, travel-shaming and foreign tourist attractiveness. Drawing on study data from 463 islanders in Kauai (Hawaii) and the use of structural equation modeling via Mplus, the study provides pioneering evidence on the effects of regenerative travel on residents’ support for tourism development, under moderating-mediating influence of travel-shaming and foreign tourist attractiveness. The present study implications extend to the development and validation of a new scale for regenerative travel. The study findings offer strategic insights and directions for imagining new business models, resources, and relationships within regenerative tourism in the post-pandemic world.

The concept of the information field in the development of accounting science

Introduction. According to T. Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, there are tendencies in modern accounting normative knowledge that lead to the accumulation of contradictions between the achievements of information sciences and imperfect practice of obtaining information resources for business. This indicates the need to develop a new accounting paradigm for the needs of post-industrial society.Goal is to develop a new concept of accounting science, in which the central place should belong to the theoretical basis formed on the basis of laws of philosophy, sociology, information theory, management theory, psychology, systems theory, expanding methods of collecting and processing business facts past, present, future position of the enterprise in a rapidly changing environment and adaptation to change, which contributes to its long- term existence.Research methods. The article uses not only those methods that are traditionally inherent in accounting, but also those borrowed from other sciences in order to expand the methodological apparatus of research accounting problems - the laws of dialectics, logic, historical and systematic methods, analysis, synthesis and more. The choice of methods involves the creation of the concept of management accounting based on the disclosure of the category of «information field» of the enterprise, which helps employees understand the management system, what additional information they need to manage and can generate for them accounting information service.The results of the author’s work are devoted to the problem of developing the structure of the concept of management accounting, as modern publications on this issue, in fact, are based on personal subjective ideas about management accounting models. Unfortunately, apart from general maxims regarding the organization and methods of accounting for costs and revenues in terms of structural units of the enterprise (cost centers), responsible persons (places or areas of responsibility), certain products and calculation methods, such publications do not provide any theoretical generalizations.It is time to develop, at least in the first version, the conceptual foundations of management accounting, given the typical structure of the information field, which can be adapted to the individual needs of specific enterprises.Perspectives for further research on the problems of management accounting are related to the definition of its boundaries and methods of regulation within the enterprise. This accounting should not be endowed with the prognostic function performed by strategic accounting in the controlling system. Its role is more modest - serving the information needs of managers of the operational level of management in real time.

The impact of business analytics capabilities on innovation, information quality, agility and firm performance: the moderating role of industry dynamism

PurposeAs businesses keep investing substantial resources in developing business analytics (BA) capabilities, it is unclear how the performance improvement transpires as BA affects performance in many different ways. This paper aims to analyze how BA capabilities affect firms’ agility through resources like information quality and innovative capacity considering industry dynamism and the resulting impact on firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper tested the research hypothesis using primary data collected from 192 companies operating in Bangladesh. The data were analyzed using partial least squares-based structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results indicate that BA capabilities improve business resources like information quality and innovative capacity, which, in turn, significantly impact a firm’s agility. This paper also found out that industry dynamism moderates the firms’ agility and, ultimately, firms’ performance.Practical implicationsThe contribution of this work provides insight regarding the role of business analytics capabilities in increasing organizational agility and performance under the moderating effects of industry dynamism.Originality/valueThe present research is to the best of the authors’ knowledge among the first studies considering a firm’s agility to explore the impact of BA on a firm’s performance in a dynamic environment. While previous researchers discussed resources like information quality and innovative capability, current research theoretically argues that these items are a leveraging point in a BA context to increase firm agility.

Crowdinvesting market: Prospects for development in Russia

Subject. The article considers the crowdinvesting market: its tools, participants, form of organization, risks, prospects for development in the Russian economy. Objectives. The aims of the study include analysis of new financing instruments that appeared in conditions of digital technologies resulting from the concept of co-investment (crowdfunding); exploration of possibilities of crowdlending mechanism and equity crowdfunding in the Russian economy as a tool to attract financial resources for business; substantiation of feasibility of crowdinvesting in conditions of high volatility and instability of the Russian market. Methods. The study draws on the systems approach and methods of analysis, synthesis, comparative analysis, generalization, etc. Results. Using digital technologies, new financing tools enable to provide a part of the business with financial resources through crowdlending and equity crowdfunding, to place free cash with the best return for co-investors. The introduction of digital tools and the use of any market instruments are accompanied by various risks that should be taken into account by the participants of transactions, regulators. Conclusions. The advantages of digital financing instruments formed on the principles of collective investment can attract the necessary additional funding to the economy.

Utilization of Lesser-Used Timber Species in Clustered Furniture Industries of Ethiopia

Demand for all forest products has been increasing in Ethiopia, due to population, economic growth, and the rise in the construction sector. In the past, about 85% of this demand has been covered by indigenous timber species which are now endangered and protected from harvest. As an alternative, there are potential lesser-used timber species in the country that can be utilized to narrow down the gap between supply and demand. This study aims to describe the utilization practices of timber species and identify factors affecting the utilization of lesser-used timber species in furniture industries. The study was conducted in four (4) purposively selected towns based on their Wood business transaction and resource availability. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires. A binary logit model was employed to estimate factors influencing the utilization of lesser-used timber species for industrial application. The results show that the majority of wood furniture industries still depend on pit sawed valuable indigenous timber species of the country. The result indicated that Cordia africana is the main type of timber species preferred to be utilized in the majority of furniture industries. It also indicated that there is a negative perception towards lesser-used timber species, less access to appropriate information, and skill training on wood processing. Therefore, the study implicates the need to intervene in changing perceptions toward these species and build the technical capacity of the wood industries through skill training.

A Study of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) during Covid-19 Pandemic: An Evidence using Economic Value-Added Method

The global COVID-19 pandemic has impacted various sectors, especially the economic sector. It also significantly impacts tourism and trade industries, including Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. Creative products have great potential to deliver a city industry into an advanced and independent creative economy. However, information technology for creative product business resource management is still under investigation, which has weaknesses in administrative, financial, process, and access to banking and financial institutions. Thus, this study seeks to formulate a strategy for improving the MSMEs sector in Lhokseumawe. This study was designed using Mix methods by conducting interviews with 200 MSMEs in Lhokseumawe. The Economic Value-Added is applied in this study, which aims to increase the productivity of MSMEs via the introduction of the acceleration board and collaboration with the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Also, the focus group discussion was conducted by inviting local officials from related Lhokseumawe and academics to complete the model for developing a strategy to increase MSME productivity by focusing on the Economic value-added method. Finally, this study recommends sustainable strategies for the MSMEs in Lhokseumawe when running their business during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Blended learning program effectiveness – A Study of High Potential Employees in the Manufacturing Industry- A Systematic Review

Background: With the volatile corporate landscape, an immediate ad-justment in the strategies for blended learning programs is crucial. The management holds significant expectations from the human resources and training departments, urging them to devise inventive, time-efficient, travel- friendly, and cost-effective approaches. Purpose: The Purpose of the study is to determine the blended learning program effectiveness among high potential employees in manufacturing industry. This subject was prevalent in industries such as manufacturing industries. It has a profound impact on the long-term sustainability of organizations, particularly in engaging, nurturing, and retaining high-potential employees within the manufacturing industries. Methods: This research approach offers a thorough understanding of the connections between blended learning program effectiveness, high-potential employees, and manufacturing industries by combining a literature review of 18 research papers, case studies, and surveys. Findings: High potential employees, training professionals, as well as other employees have shown a favourable attitude toward the integration of blended learning program effectiveness methods in manufacturing industries-learning environments. Many firms put a high value on BL because employees are encouraged to learn on the job by participating in work-based activities that include high potential employees as learning partners & make use of business resources they have developed. Conclusions: This research methodology aims to provide a comprehen-sive comprehension of the interrelationships among blended learning programs, their efficacy, manufacturing organizations, and high-potential employees. This will be achieved through the integration of literature reviews, case studies, surveys, interviews, and meticulous data analysis.

Shaping science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum in Australian schools: An ecological systems analysis

Improving young people’s engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is being promoted worldwide as a means of addressing projected shortfalls in expertise needed to further nations’ economic, social and environmental goals. Responding to this, schools are reforming traditional discipline-based curricula into interdisciplinary approaches based on problem and project-based designs, to make STEM learning more relevant and meaningful for students. This study drew on a dataset of 449 Australian principal and teacher interviews, to identify factors influencing STEM curriculum in their schools. It utilised Ecological Systems Theory to build understanding relating to the influence of activities and outputs originating at macro, exo and meso system levels, on STEM curriculum and practices in classrooms. Results demonstrated how many innovative schools were able to successfully leverage community, business and national resources to enhance their STEM curriculum, while others struggled due to limitations imposed by geographic or socio-economic factors, or limited access to resources, expertise or advice. Central to achieving this was the powerful influence of principals’ and teachers’ proximal processes and developmental assets in establishing effective and engaging interdisciplinary STEM curricula, despite constraints imposed by, at best, ambiguous national and state curriculum and policies, rigid assessment regimes and compliance-focused reporting requirements.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Finance of Georgia

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the global economy and similarly to other countries, COVID-19 has hit Georgia hard. COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative impact on both the private sector and health and lives of the people, in the beginning of 2020 it became necessary to find additional financial resources for both business and direct assistance to the population, as well as to cover the costs of preventing the epidemic and provided citizens with social support. In order to finance the Emergency Response Plan measures developed by the Government of Georgia in response to the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary to attract approximately GEL 3.6 billion international financial institutions. Georgia has been able to respond to the socio-economic challenges posed by the OVID-19 pandemic thanks to its recent years prudent macroeconomic policies, fiscal and external reserves growth, well-capitalized financial system and significant donor financial assistance. Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Public Finance, Budget support credits, donor support.

Evaluating performance management systems roadmap for effective practices: A review

As economy shifts and businesses move on their intellectual capital, employees are the key to their competitive advantage and performance. Performance management is the means companies measure performance, develop employees and align their workforce around corporate goals. Employees are the biggest expense, organizations are learning to manage employee performance to identify top performers and develop an optimally functioning workforce. Performance management is receiving unprecedented attention among business and human resource communities.

Holistic and Integrated Framework to Examine Formal Women Business Networks (FWBNs)

Research about women entrepreneurs is not new. In addition to the body of work on women entrepreneurship, networks and businesses, several resources, assistance, and support have been provided through various channels to assist women in their business and entrepreneurial pursuits. Although, research in these areas is popular, there is an aspect that has not gained as much attention – formal women business networks (FWBNs). FWBNs are networks that run like organisations and provide a way for women to network and pursue shared interests while gaining business benefits. These networks provide benefits such as funding, trainings, access to business resource, and are funded by various organisations as well as patronized by several women seeking the benefits they provide. Hence, there is a high expectation on these networks to not only deliver on the very much needed support for women entrepreneurs, but also, to deliver on the ROI to groups, organizations, bodies, and women that give to these networks. Furthermore, recent environmental/external influences like a pandemic have impacted the way entrepreneurs do business and increased the need for support and networks. Thus, it is important that FWBNs that serve to help women businesses be examined more closely and holistically. While literature provides some evidence of the importance of FWBNs, there is limited research about these FWBNs. This could be due to the limited number of frameworks, models or theories that holistically examines all the various possible elements in these networks, as well as the relationships between them. Therefore, a holistic and integrated framework that draws from existing frameworks and provides a lens to measure and explore all possible elements that impact a FWBN, can help provide better insights and understanding in several aspects. This paper is an attempt to provide a holistic and integrated framework that draws from different theories and literature concepts to examine the nature of FWBNs and how they contribute to the success of women entrepreneurs

HOW MUCH ICT SECURITY HAS IMPROVED DURING THE LAST DECADE

HOW MUCH ICT SECURITY HAS IMPROVED DURING THE LAST DECADE

Complementary resources and SME firm performance: the role of external readiness and E-commerce functionality

PurposeElectronic commerce (EC) strategy – performance logic has gained significant popularity in the literature, particularly from the resource-based view (RBV) of theoretical underpinning. However, such an obsession of focusing on organizations' complementary resources has been increasingly challenged, which has pressed the RBV to examine the possibility of external factors that can also impact firm performance. In this study, the authors shed light on the firm's external readiness—defined as the extent to which a firm's customers and suppliers perceive EC as important—in the relationship between SME's complementary resources and firm performance.Design/methodology/approach The authors employed a refined data set based on the British EC Award database, in which the authors sampled 430 British SMEs' senior managements and examined how EC investments made by the SMEs influenced firm performance, and how their external readiness moderated this main relationship.FindingsThe results showed that, in line with the RBV perspective, SMEs' complementary business resources and human resources both had strong and direct impacts on the firm performance. They were also strongly mediated by EC functionality. In addition, SMEs' external readiness moderated the relationship between human resources and firm performance and that of EC functionality on firm performance.Originality/value The findings contribute to RBV theory building by extending earlier research on the role of technology as performance enablers for SMEs and shed light on the often-overlooked role of SMEs' external readiness.

The Effect of Environment Complexity and Resources on the Performance of SMEs Mediated By Business Strategy (Survey on Kasongan Pottery SMEs In Bantul Regency)

This study aims to analyze the effect of environmental complexity and resources on the performance of SMEs mediated by business strategy in Kasongan pottery SMEs. The population in this study were all SMEs pottery handicrafts in the Kasongan pottery center in Kasihan District, Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta. Total of 61 questionnaires have been returned and processed. The data analysis technique used was Partial Least Square (PLS) through SmartPLS 3.3.2 software. The research shows that environmental complexity has a positive and significant effect on performance of SMEs, resources have a positive and significant effect on performance of SMEs, environmental complexity has a positive and significant effect on business strategy, resources have a positive and significant effect on business strategy, and business strategy has a positive and significant effect on performance of SMEs. Also, it is found that environmental complexity has a positive and significant indirect effect on performance of SMEs through business strategy and resources have a positive and significant indirect effect on performance of SMEs mediated by business strategy. Keywords:Performance of SMEsEnvironment ComplexityResourcesBusiness strategy