Business Undertaking Research Articles

Strategic project management as an innovative approach for sustainable green campus buildings in Africa

Purpose Across the African continent many colleges and universities are facing hurdles in sustaining green building initiatives. Often the barriers to green building are not purely financial, they include a significant number of non-financial issues directly connected with the way green building initiatives are integrated within the management of these higher learning institutions (HLIs). The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons behind widespread barriers and the ways in which the barriers could be overcome through strategic project management. Design/methodology/approach The paper includes a critical review of existing literature on barriers to sustaining green building initiatives and an argument is built on the need to manage these initiatives as projects. Consequently it establishes that there is a seamless connection between HLIs strategies and projects, hence strategic project management as a framework to sustain the green campus culture. Findings Despite numerous barriers facing African HLIs in embracing green campus buildings (GCBs) as part of their permanent business undertakings; this review strongly suggest a change of direction from “traditional approaches” to strategic project management, where all green building initiatives are transformed to programmes and portfolios dealing with sub-sets of the core business of HLIs. Practical implications Strategic decision to include green campus building initiatives (GCBIs) as part of HLIs core strategic business projects will bring permanence in GCB thinking and resources will be allocated to GCBIs and green campus thinking may become a norm and one of the metrics for organization success. Social implications Strategic project as a way to creating a conducive-environment for GCBIs success will become a constant and part of the way in which African HLIs are managed. Originality/value Contemporary management approaches like strategic project management is embraced as mean for allowing under-resourced African HLIs achieving significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Cultural Aspects and Social Attitudes towards Women Entrepreneurs in Gweru Zimbabwe

This study contributes to the growing concern about the cultural aspects and social attitudes towards women entrepreneurs in emerging economies. The literature reveals that cultural and social implications besiege women entrepreneurs in their daily business undertakings. Given this background, this studys main purpose is to explore the cultural aspects and social attitudes towards women entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe. A mixed method approach that includes semi-structured interviews with cultural experts (3) and a survey of women entrepreneurs (30) was adopted. Focus groups of informed women entrepreneurs were also used (2 groups). All participants were drawn from the small business sector of Gweru urban, Zimbabwe, using a stratified sampling method. Findings from our study revealed the need to create awareness amongst women entrepreneurs, of their conventional, attitudes towards signals of self-pity, business capability, self-confidence, self-worthiness, capable and competitive women entrepreneurs, and equal opportunities in the marketplace. It also emerged that women entrepreneurs in this study culturally and socially believe that they were lesser commercial and economic competitors than their male counterparts. Women also asserted that they cannot make effective business decisions without the involvement of the men in their lives. There also exists a notion among women that their sexual counterparts had an upper role to play in their contractual obligations. These emerging insights create an informed basis for financial lending decisions by banks, micro lenders and other Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) investors. Further insights also provide Policy makers with practical information upon which to pave their informed decisions towards women-owned enterprises.

A systematic approach to recycling organics for horticulture: comparing emerging and conventional technologies

Recycled organics: how best to use this resource? A three-year study took the first steps towards an answer by exploring emerging (biochar from pyrolysis) versus conventional (composting) processing technologies for their ability to convert recycled organics-city green waste and farm trash-into usable products that enhance horticultural productivity, with attendant carbon sequestration and environmental benefits. In this study, we compared organic products prepared from one common feedstock using four different technologies: windrow composting; a small mobile pyrolyser for on-farm processing; a medium pyrolyser for community or small business undertakings; and a large pyrolyser for high through-put requirements. The project then determined whether organic products enhance plant performance, are useable for horticulture and outperform or complement composting. This paper summarises some key outcomes from i) physical and chemical characterisation of organic products and ii) annual vegetable (tomato 'Rebel') and perennial fruit (blueberry 'Opi') field trials, thus providing the first step towards an understanding of the system from feedstock source to the farm.

Improving Employees Accountability and Firm Performance through Management Accounting Practices

Abstract Evolution in the business environment will play a key role in spurring the growth of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) globally. Growing changes in business competition, daily operation, new strategy and technology are driving transformation in employees productivity and the future business environment that have significant impacts to organizations. Many organizations are demanding for proactive entrepreneurs with a dynamic team, who can run and steer their businesses to becoming more cost-efficient, which may lead to increased efficiency of firm performance. Literatures in management accounting recognize the important role of Management Accounting Practices (MAP) in Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This study examines the relationships between budgetary participation, commitment and performance measures through the tools and techniques of MAP in firm performance. A case study approach with heavy reliance on semi-structured interview was used, where 16 informants who are key decision makers and officer from different management levels were interviewed in the case study. Other sources of evidence have also been sought to enhance the desirability of the findings discussed. Our findings revealed that usefulness of MAP in the company improved employees’ accountability and firm performance. It also showed that budgetary participation and commitment from employees’ accountability have improvement activity when using MAP. This is directed towards helping others in achieving the desired business results by strategically positioning themselves into MAP in making informed decisions in their business undertaking. Further, the budgetary participation and commitment are predictors of managerial performance and accountability in perceived usefulness of MAP of firm performance outcomes.

MECHANISMS FOR ENHANCING ETHICAL BEHAVIOR IN THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION

1.IntroductionThe business realm grasps accountants as knowledgeable, impartial and reliable experts, depending on their qualified services for decision-making. Professional accountants should be highly competent in accounting knowledge and be endowed with a significant level of probity (Nica, 2016, 2015) and a comprehension of ethical criteria. Public accounting is unexampled in contrast with other occupations as ethical behavior does not merely empower it to keep on to assist the business sphere efficiently (Bratu, 2015), but the whole underpinning of the line of work is established on confidence in the proficiency and rectitude of the accountant. Public accounting functions to check the financial veracity and soundness of information supplied by diverse entities. Misbehavior from a professional undermines his particular practice and jeopardizes the foundation of the occupation. (Chiang and Braender, 2014)2.The Relevance of Ethics in Public AccountingThere are broad ethical duties that accrue to experts and particular duties that result from being an accounting professional. Supplying precise financial depictions of business undertakings is a useful operation (Cesaroni, Sentuti, and Buratti, 2015), as it provides a crucial service to individuals who require that information to participate in financial decision-making. Instrumental activities may generate both substantial benefits and considerable disservice to individuals. Accounting and the abilities of the accounting professional may be employed to bring about considerable disservice to society if the intentions for which the information is utilized are detrimental (Giroux, 2016) or against the law. Accounting may be misapplied to assist some individuals to the detriment of others: the accounting itself may be carried out adequately, but the accounting professional's practice and abilities are degraded by their unethical utilization. Being an expert compels the accountant to perform in the best interests of diverse constituencies. (Duska, Duska, and Ragatz, 2011) Distinct features are likely to have an outstanding impact on ethical predispositions of accountants and the manner in which ethical matters are undergone. The traits and dynamics of the communities (Jenner, 2016) accounting professionals associate with might influence the fashion in which distinct accountants experience and puzzle out ethical quandaries. Accountants' practices of ethics tend to differ being contingent upon their age, gender features, their position in an entity, and the character and framing of the matter. The unambiguous linguistic and spatial traits of accounting practice (Ionescu, 2016a, b) might be associated with the manner ethical topics are constituted and undergone by accountants. The ethical propensities of distinct accountants should be grasped with reference to an intricate combination of separate features, contingent properties and issuerelated elements. Accounting practice concerns rights, and within established free-market economics, give precedence to a certain set of rights, being instrumental in an irregular sharing of economic outcomes. (McPhail and Walters, 2009)The auditees' most exemplary reaction to the auditors' more relevant motivation to carry out high-effort (fraud detection) audits should be to diminish their likelihood of fraudulent reporting. Auditors have little motivation to supply low-quality audits as the expenses of audit failures to a professional's standing and client base may be harmful. Auditors should selfimplement audit standards as they endeavor to defend their standings. Regulators might re-distribute resources more suitably by assisting distinct audit companies in enhancing their evaluations of risk and payouts (Popescu Ljungholm, 2015a, b, c, d e) instead of dissipating important resources by carrying out audit standards. As long as auditors cannot investigate every business deal of an audit client, there may be a possibility that the former are unsuccessful in altering an audit report on financial statements that are materially distorted. …

An Evaluation of the Restraint of Trade to Contracts for the Sale of a Business Undertaking in South Africa

Agreements in restraint of trade prohibit the contracting party to exercise the choice in performing the profession or business activities. As a general rule, agreements in restraint of trade are p...

Entrepreneurship education: a panacea for curbing graduate unemployment in Nigeria

The biggest challenges of Nigeria today are youth unemployment. Nigeria, being the giant of Africa has the largest number of youths who are yet to be properly mobilized and empowered for gainful economic activities. This can only be tackled through entrepreneurship education which involves teaching and learning of the needed skills and knowledge that equip one to become self-reliant through being an effective and successful initiator, manager, innovator and risk bearer of business undertakings. Unemployed youths should be encouraged to acquire skills that will be applied to economic activities on graduation from requisite compulsory training while those who are still in school should be made to offer entrepreneurship courses that would prepare them to embark on small and medium-scale enterprises, which have significant roles to play in the development of any economy. Therefore, this paper discusses entrepreneurship education and unemployment reduction in Nigeria, problems facing entrepreneurship education and its graduate and ways of addressing this problem so that our national and human resources will be properly employed for economic emancipation, so as to turn our youths into job creators and not job seekers.

An Embryonic Journey of Musical Entrepreneurship with “The Captain,” Jorma Kaukonen, and His Co-Pilot, Vanessa

The music business is a case study in how macro-environmental factors can radically transform an industry. Developments such as digital production and distribution, coupled with social media, crowdfunding, and changing consumer preferences, have dramatically transformed the business model for the recorded music industry in recent years and spurred the development of entrepreneurial business models to enable musicians to survive in their changing environment. As a solo artist and founding member of the musical groups Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician Jorma (“The Captain”) Kaukonen has recorded albums for major labels such as RCA, Sony, and Columbia, as well as independent labels such as Relix and Red House Records. In this interview, Jorma and his wife and business manager, Vanessa Kaukonen, discuss their experiences as musical entrepreneurs in the digital age, including their founding of the unique Fur Peace Ranch guitar camp in the hills of Appalachia. The entrepreneurial business undertakings of the Kaukonens highlight the potential for entrepreneurial musicians to develop innovative and sustainable business models for surviving in this new world of music.

A Description of the Contribution of Reputation Maintenance on Government Ministries Public Perception: A Case Study of Government Ministries Headquarters

Reputation is an intangible concept. Universally, good reputation demonstrably increases corporate worth and provides a sustained competitive hedge. As such, positive reputation from key stakeholders such as customers, opinion leaders in the business community, suppliers and current and potential employees can help a business undertaking achieve its objectives more easily. For instance, if an organization is positively perceived by its main customers, they wil prefer trading with the organisation rather than its competitors. Positive reputation is not only a preserve for business enterprises, but it is also an important and beneficial task for non-profit organisation including government institutions. The main objective of this study was to describe the contribution of reputation management on government ministries public perception. To achieve the study objectives a survey design was employed. The target population included the corporate communication practitioners and their deputy’s in government ministries. The study used census, where eighteen ministries were randomly selected and two respondents were selected from each hence making up a total sample of 36 respondents. The research instrument used was a questionnaire, which was developed, based on the research questions. The researcher self-administered the questionnaires to the sampled corporate communication practitioners and their deputies. The questionnaire also served as the interview guide since it had both open and closed questions. Further, data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented using percentages, graphs, frequency tables, and cross tabulation. The study findings revealed that reputation maintenance contributions are immense although they are ranked in the order of their contribution and other were more important in some department that others.

From the Other Side

I looked up the word entrepreneur in Webster's New World Dictionary (1980) with a specific purpose in mind, and I found this definition: “A person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of profit.” I don't particularly like that definition, and it doesn't seem to fit with the way we use the word today. To me, the risk/return ratio for an entrepreneur is totally out of proportion to the idea of assuming some risk to make money. All business start-ups do that. Everyone takes risks to some extent. Driving in Houston traffic has a risk reward that is about a hundred, i.e., the risk outweighs the probability of reaching your destination. That driving analogy won't make me an entrepreneur just because I make it home safely every day. The dictionary definition specifies “a business undertaking.” In addition, I think the “real” entrepreneur has to be entrepreneurial more than once!

Microeconomic reform and the Whitlam Government: the case of telecommunications and post

Arguably the most important microeconomic reform of the 1970s in Australia was the abolition of the Post-Master General's Department (once generally known as the PMG, and later, as the Australian Post Office) and its replacement in 1975 with two more commercially focused organisations: Telecom Australia and Australia Post. At the time of its reform, the Post-Master General's Department was Australia's largest business undertaking and an organisation plagued with difficulties. This article analyses the impact of the reform in the general context of the Whitlam Government (1972–1975) and contemporary Australian economic performance. It also compares the Post-Master General's Department before 1975 with the efficiencies of the two replacement commissions in order to emphasise the reform's importance.

The Territorial Link as a Condition to Create a Permanent Establishment

It is generally accepted that a physical permanent establishment is characterized by three components: (i) it has to be permanent (not temporary); (ii) it has to be fixed (geographic or territorial link to the ground); and (iii) it has to be at the disposal of the business undertaking which uses it to carry out its activities. The purpose of this study is to analyse whether these three criteria are equally important for the qualification of a permanent establishment and whether, in the context of economic evolution over the last few years, of case law in the various countries that has analysed double tax treaties and of technological improvements, these criteria, in particular the territorial link, are still appropriate.

Credit Rating - Financial Aspects

Fund procurement is one of the key functions of a business undertaking. Because of this, credit Rating has assumed an important place in the modern and developed financial markets. It is a boon to the companies as well as investors. It facilitates the companies in raising funds in the capital market and helps the investors to select their risk-return trade off. This paper can be divided into 3 parts: 1) What is credit Rating? 2) Credit Rating Methodology and 3) Credit Rating Agencies and its symbols. The authors analyzes the significance of credit rating through this paper.

Argumentation and socially questionable business practices: The case of employee downsizing in corporate annual reports

Summary In spite of the fact that the viability of private companies depends on their ability to make profit, CSR research has paid little attention to how questionable business undertakings are discursively constructed in corporate economic/financial disclosures. This paper investigates these processes in the context of employee downsizing. It identifies a range of argumentation techniques which form a basis for broader strategies: rationalisation, normalisation, inevitability and emotional/moral distancing, which corporations used to (re)construct a contested business practice as a positive, routine management strategy or something that cannot be avoided. The paper maintains that the scale and frequency of the questionable undertaking may have an impact on whether the company applies the moralisation strategy, in terms of making an effort to discursively integrate expressions of feeling or a sense of ‘duty’ in the text. Moreover, the paper goes on by suggesting that, even if references to these elements remained succinct, their presence in the text can still be seen as opening up the potential for dissension and change, as they place the elements of duty and caring in the proximity of the ‘natural laws’ of neoclassical economics, such as, the need for profit, unlimited growth and norms of efficiency.

Business Bankruptcy Prediction Models: A Significant Study of the Altman’s Z-Score Model

Businesses are enterprises which produce goods or render services for profit motive. To be able to predict the financial soundness of a business has led to many research works. Financial ratios are a key indicator of financial soundness of a business. Financial ratios are a tool to determine the operational & financial efficiency of business undertakings. There exist a large number of ratios propounded by various authors. Altman developed a z-score model using ratios as its foundation. With the help of the Z- Score model, Altman could predict financial efficiency/bankruptcy up to 2-3 years in advance. The following research paper describes in detail the studies carried out by Altman to predict business bankruptcy. Altman made regular changes to achieve the perfect equation which could predict bankruptcy. The following research paper summarizes the research of Altman that have being made to develop the Altman Z score model. It can be safely said that Altman’s Z score Model can be applied to modern economy to predict distress and bankruptcy one, two & three years in advance.

Survey on the Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity of Companies in the Great East Japan Earthquake - Improving the Business Value by the Information Sharing and Disclosure of BCPs -

This survey, based on a survey conducted by the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), examines the effectiveness of existing disaster preparedness and business continuity efforts. In this paper, we want to point out the following points to present approaches for improving business continuity capability. First, it is necessary for businesses to share business continuity planning (BCP) information in-house, to expand this function in the future, and to create a mechanism for sharing information within the supply chain and industry groups. Second, the key is in improving business continuity capability for the three elements of: formulating BCP (soft countermeasures), improving response by sharing strategy and strengthening against earthquakes, and implementing hard countermeasures by developing a backup system. Third, it is important to incorporate elements of BCP into core business undertakings in order to ensure that business continuity efforts go beyond temporary measures alone (sustainable BCP).

Przedsiębiorczość jako postawa wobec innych i świata w kontekście procesu budowania płaszczyzny dla dialogu interpersonalnego. Perspektywa pedagogiczno-kulturowa

A need for developing entrepreneurial attitudes in education has been discussed in the literature and pedagogical discourse for a long time already. This issue play a key role in the economy, education, psychology or pedagogy field. There were many expectations when “business studies” subject was introduced into post- secondary schools hoping that this initiative would help to raise economic awareness of young people who are starting their adult life. Many also believed that it would change the market perception and offer opportunities for those who want to get engaged in the market game in order to improve their standard of life. Teachers are those who are mainly responsible for teaching content of the business studies classes and the way they are arranged. The classes are interesting and creative especially that part of it is transferred over to different financial and administration institutions or bank, which is not always approved by schools authorities. On the other hand there is no financial resources to invite experts from outside. However, a part of the educational material is too much focused on psychological determinants of an entrepreneur or they are too general with regards to honesty and ethics issues when making decisions. The author believes that case studies would be more attractive when students could have an opportunity to discuss interesting cases, exchange their views using reasonable arguments. It could be also a good idea to present and discuss biographies of those who became successful, to analyse decisions they made in certain market and economic conditions at the time they were starting their own business undertakings. The entrepreneurial attitude does not necessarily mean focusing only on maximizing the profits but it can also take into account a fiduciary concept like it is the case in classical theories of social responsibility of business. It is additionally a good starting point for creating dialogue relationships first at the level of educational institutions and later at the level of market dependencies. The author in this paper tries to answer if entrepreneurship can make up a space to establish deeper dialogue relationship. The entrepreneurship is – in the author`s opinion – a good example of building relations between people based on ethical sources. It`s very important for the relationship to concentrate on sincere and in-depth interest in the other man. An authentic meeting of the other man should be ingrained in the truth and genuine experience between two people. It is not only a postulate but also a possibility or a requirement of the present time.

A hybrid system for vehicle routing and traffic delay estimation

Traffic delay is causing loss of valuable time to the general commuter and restricts the road network from functioning in an orderly manner. Researchers have concluded that millions of dollars worth of business is lost due to delay caused by road congestion, and consequently hindrance or abolishment of important business undertakings. In this research, we present a hybrid system that calculates link delay between road intersections using fuzzy logic. The aim of the system is to compute a near optimum path using the soft computing techniques such as breadth first search (BFS), depth first search (DFS) and genetic algorithms (GA). The outcomes of this study indicate that the hybrid system solves the traffic routing problem much more efficiently than the existing stand-alone techniques. The results of this research can be integrated with a traffic advisory system, which can alert a user for optimum route selection or inform civil authorities about possible traffic bottlenecks.

Działalność promocyjna gmin w kontekście wspierania przedsiębiorczości (na przykładzie miasta Tarnobrzeg)

The main goal of this article is to present business promotional activities conducted by the local government of Tarnobrzeg town for stimulating internal and external investors to initiate and develop business undertakings in the municipality. The situation in Tarnobrzeg is far from satisfactory because there is no enough diversity and frequency in applying the promotional instruments. Furthermore, limited financial funds don’t allow this sort of activity to be sufficiently developed by the local government. A promotional strategy of the town is a chance here to enhance business promotional activities.

An Evolving Teaching Methodology: An Integrated Approach To Teaching Multi-Disciplinary Classes

This paper discusses an approach to teaching and learning in multi-disciplinary university settings using case study based scenarios presented using films as a key teaching methodology. The production of four films (The Video store, Perception Airlines, Tranquil Whispers, and Middleton) over an eight year period was an iterative process through which the use of film-based case study scenarios was refined as a teaching tool to integrate student learning across multiple disciplines in a business school. Each of the four films was designed to enhance first year university students understanding of theories and practices used in a range of discipline areas that underpin the operations of a commercial business undertaking. The final film mainly discussed here depicts a central case study scenario, entitled Middleton featuring a cast of teaching and academic staff from the Curtin Business School (CBS) in Perth, Western Australia and Curtin Sarawak, Malaysia(Curtin University of Technology). It was produced as a core teaching approach for exploring themes as part of the delivery of several first year units within the CBS, delivered over twelve campuses in Western Australia and South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka). Students in their first year of a commerce degree study compulsory business units that are disparate in their content and delivery. This diversity can cause some students to have difficulty with defining meaningful cohesiveness between units in their first year of study. Middleton sought to integrate the first year subjects into a film depicting a central case study of an international business operation.