Support Business Activities Research Articles

Bricolage as Survival, Growth and Transformation: The Role of Patch-Working in the Social Agency of Migrant Entrepreneurs

This article examines the patch-working strategies of migrant entrepreneurs as a form of social agency. ‘Patch-working’ – the reliance on supplementary forms of income to support business activity – is often seen as a means of cushioning the financial vulnerability of small firms. However, the mechanisms and forms that patch-working takes tend to be overlooked. Evidence from 42 West Midlands’ firms shows that, despite the highly constrained operating environment, the exercise of social agency can help to cushion against disadvantage and to rework their current conditions through patch-working. This allows for business growth, and even transformational growth in some cases, rather than sheer survival. Even so, our findings show that the agency of migrant entrepreneurs brings about only minor improvements in revenue and is certainly not capable of fundamentally changing either the nature of the sector or the structure of the labour market in which they are embedded.

EVALUASI TINGKAT KAPABILITAS KINERJA LAYANAN TI PADA LAYANAN INTERNET BIDANG A MENGGUNAKAN FRAMEWORK COBIT 5 DOMAIN MEA 01 (STUDI KASUS : SATUAN ORGANISASI XYZ - LEMBAGA ABC)

Information technology (IT) has a very important issue to support business activities in the organization. IT for business has a huge impact on the sustainability of the organization. Bidang A's objective in the Indikator Kerja Utama (IKU) is the implementation of reliable information technology, so Bidang A makes Service Level Agreement (SLA) for agreement level of service quality. For Bidang A requires evaluation to assess the level of service performance capability and makes recommendations to IT services that have not achieved (IKU) in the RENSTRA of Satuan Organisasi XYZ. Bidang A started implementing the COBIT 5 framework as the current governance update action. Bidang A has not yet assessed whether the implementation of the COBIT 5 framework on Bidang A's Internet service has gone well, so this evaluation activity is an initial evaluation of IT Service Performance and IT capability level using the COBIT 5 framework as a measurement tool. The domains used in COBIT 5 are Monitoring, Evaluate, and Assess (MEA). MEA01 is used because MEA01 collects, validates, and evaluates IT business and IT process objectives to provide performance transparency, conformity and drive achievement of organizational goals.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR OF INTEREST AND USE OF CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY AS SUPPORT TO BUSINESS ACTIVITIES

The objective of this study is to assess the various factors that determine consumer behavioral intention and actual use of cloud computing as a technology considered capable of supporting business activities. The population of this research is the collegestudents in Malang. The data was collected through survey method. 153 questionnaires were distributed directly to the respondent or via an internet link. The study shows that there are several factors determining the behavior of individual’s intention and actual usage of cloud computing technology, that is the compatibility and the ease of use on cloud computing. Both factors proved to have partial mediation effect on the actual usage of cloud computing through the behavioral intention of using cloud computing.Other findings are positive effects of the usefulness of cloud computing on behavioral intention on using cloud computing, and the cloud computing user’s image on the actual usage of cloud computing. Businessmay consider cloud computing technology as well as those factors to be applied to gaining more consumers and can be used as a breakthrough to add new competitive advantage.

ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN LOCAL BUSINESS:SIMULATION OF LOW IMPACT DEVELOPMENT IN SURAKARTA REGENCY

This paper will describe the function of water resources to support business activities in Surakarta regency, Central Java province. Surakarta is a business city in Central Java province with small business enterprises and specific culture. This city has a famous river with the name is Bengawan Solo. Bengawan Solo is a River Flow Regional (RFR) to support business activities in Surakarta regency. Concious with the function, societies and local government in Surakarta must to manage the sustainability of River Flow Regional (RFR) Bengawan Solo. It is important to manage the sustainability of business activity in Surakarta regency. 
 According to the condition in Surakarta regency, this paper will explain how the simulation of Low Impact Development Model in Surakarta regency. Low Impact Development is a model that can manage and evaluate sustainability of water resources in River Flow Regional (RFR). Low Impact Development can analys goals, structures, and process water resources management. The system can also evaluate results and impacts of water resources management. From this study, we hope that Low Impact Development can manage water resources in River Flow Regional (RFR) Bengawan Solo.

EFEKTIVITAS SISTEM INFORMASI DALAM MENINGKATKAN KINERJA KARYAWAN SEBAGAI LAPORAN PERTANGGUNGJAWABAN

Information is an important factor for the company because it is one resource that can be processed to support business activities amid increasingly fierce competition. The role is a management information system to manage data, organizing, and retrieving information that helps organizations to provide services faster, more accurately and more easily, which affects also the performance level. Use of information systems can effectively improve the performance of employees. The research is a qualitative case study approach in Purwokerto Gramedia ELTI by conducting in-depth interviews to 6 employees. The quality of information systems and services to operationalize the system makes employees work more produktift, effective and efficient.

Dolok Sanggul Business Hotel (Sustainable Architecture)

The business hotel is one of the facilities that support business work, and their activities are the reason of humans to travel some place for business in an area or urban areas. Dolok Sanggul Kab. Humbang Hasundutan is the one of area increasing their economy in every year with agriculture and hospitality sector as one of the driving axis of the economy in this area but, no one the hotel that supports business activities in around of this area. As one of the efforts undertaken to maintain the sustainability of natural, the design of Sustainable Architecture in the business hotels to be designed is very suitable theme be the reference to scheming business hotels in this area.

“ SOLO GLOBAL BUSINESS ERUDITION DI SOLOBARU ” TOWN SQUARE SEBAGAI PEMERSATU SEKOLAH BISNIS DAN RENTAL OFFICE DENGAN KONSEP HYBRID BUILDING

<p><em>Increased investment in various sectors of the economy, providing employment opportunities and entrepreneurship opportunities are greater in Solo </em><em>Baru </em><em>Region. Increased business activity needs to be supplemented by the provision of trade facilities, offices and education. Trading facilities and offices are highly developed in Solo Baru in 2016, but for educational facilities to support business activities in Solo Baru yet available. </em><em>Solo </em><em>Global Business Erudition (SOLO GLOBE) is present as a place of learning and the development of business activities in Solo Baru multi-functional as the School of Business, </em><em>Rental </em><em>Office and Town Square. Design issues are: how the shape and appearance of the building mass of the School of Business, </em><em>Rental </em><em>Office and Town Square into a single unified building SOLO GLOBE by applying the concept of building a hybrid, so that the shape and building facades can clarify the function and the privacy of each building. The method used is the method of architectural design. The results obtained are the design of a building SOLO GLOBE which retains the character and privacy between each building functions without harming each other.</em><em></em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em>: </em><em>Architecture, Business School, </em><em>Combination, </em><em>Hybrid Building, </em><em>Multifun</em><em>c</em><em>tion, Town Square.</em></p>

TINJAUAN SYARIAH TERHADAP TRANSAKSI MUAMALAT ASURANSI KESEHATAN BADAN PENYELENGGARA JAMINAN SOSIAL (BPJS)

Insurance business can be distinguished on some reviews. It includes generalinsurances, life insurances and reinsurances (on the basis of its function).Based on its basic policy, it includes term life insurances, whole life insurances,two beneficial insurances, insurances of investment unit (unit linked). Basedon its belongings, it includes national private-owned insurances, state-ownedinsurances, foreign corporations-owned insurances, and multiplicity-ownedinsurances. Based on the nature of its implementation, it includes voluntaryand compulsory insurances. Based on the business support activities, it includesinsurance brokers, reinsurance brokers, insurance loss assessor, consultingactuary, and insurance agents. Mean while, mechanisms of Takaful (shari’ainsurances) include underwriting, insurance policies, premiums, managementof premiums, claims and insurance coverage. The main obstacles to developshari’a insurance are lack of socialization, limitation of human resources ofTakaful’s expert; lack of Muslim support, weakness of government support.Keywords: Insurance, Shari’a, BPJS.IAIN Tulungagung, Jl. Mayor Sujadi Timur No. 46Email:budikolistiawan@gmail.com

The role of corruption in shaping the value of holding cash

This paper analyses the relationship between cash holdings and performance, considering the moderating effect of corruption that exists in the institutional context in which firms operate. The results show the importance of corruption in shaping the sign and the intensity of the value of cash holdings. The sign of the effect of corporate liquidity on firm performance changes according to varying levels of corruption. Holding cash is shown to have a noteworthy and no marginal role in supporting business activities and points to an avenue of investigation for future research.

A process-based framework of using social media to support innovation process

Although many organizations have deployed social media tools to support business activities such as marketing or customer relationship management in the past several years, academic research on usi...

Current Situation of E-Waste Issues in Mongolia

Mongolia is a consumer of e-products and their parts are imported from abroad. Currently, e-waste represents the biggest and fastest growing manufacturing waste. The objectives of this study are collecting and analyzing data from statistical reports of Mongolia and comparing them to other countries, and recommending an infrastructure of e-waste management in the existing legal environment. Thereby, all data was published by governmental entities and central statistical bureaus. An e-product, such as computers and TV’s are leading by their imported quantity in Mongolia. The e-waste is becoming one of the most challenging environmental issues because of its tendency to be incompatible for reuse and recycling. However, up to now, a main portion of e-waste is utilized through re-using (45.1%) and disposing (31.9%), and fewer amounts are recycled (23.0%) as was estimated in a study supported with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan, 2010. In conclusion, Mongolia needs to establish e-waste management by implementing core activities such as adapting experiences from high developed countries, harmonizing the corporation between in governmental entities and supporting business activities of recyclers and retailers. The green development policy was approved by the Mongolian Parliament in June, 2014. According to this new policy, it is needed to be applied recycling incentives to raise the environmental awareness of all stakeholders.

Innovative Business Approaches for the Reduction of Extreme Poverty and Marginality?

Extreme poverty is an immense political and market failure, wasting the potential of hundreds of millions of people. Investing in the creation of markets that include the extreme poor and marginalized should thus not only be considered as a charitable activity, but promises high returns on investments – in financial and humanitarian terms. However, while the potential of innovative business approaches to target the poor that live close to the poverty line is increasingly being recognised, the question remains how far these approaches can push the margin to also include those that are extremely poor. And how can those that are marginalized from development opportunities be brought into and benefit from market-based systems to improve the quality of their lives? The impressive rise of business approaches to combating poverty stems from a long history of debates on the role of businesses in society. From an initial focus on social objectives as an external add-on, leading business thinkers have increasingly been stressing the benefits for companies of integrating social considerations into their core business strategies, for instance by targeting lowincome consumers (or ‘bottom of the pyramid’ markets) or strengthening supply and distribution chains through the involvement of local communities as part of inclusive business strategies. Others – most notably Muhammed Yunus along with other social entrepreneurs – are taking this argument one step further, advocating the use of business strategies primarily to address social goals rather than for financial gains. Thus, in discussions on the role of business in society, profit maximisation as the primary objective of business operations is increasingly making way for business initiatives that are guided by social objectives. This trend is also being supported by growing interest among investors in financing enterprises that promote social or environmental objectives, either as their primary aim or in parallel with seeking to generate financial returns. How suitable these different approaches are to engage the poorest and marginalized depends in part on the extent to which they are able to involve the extreme poor themselves, their flexibility to direct business objectives towards the reduction of extreme poverty and marginality, and their ability to successfully operate with non-business public and civil society partners and in sectors of particular interest to the extreme poor. Further research and action is needed to identify outcome-focused indicators and measurement tools for social value creation, examine possible government measures to support business activities for the poorest, and consider complementarities between the different business approaches. While we recognise that it is unrealistic to expect businesses to be able to reach all of the extreme poor, we believe that the boundaries of innovative business operations can be pushed much further to include a far larger number of the poorest and marginalized.

Turning Corporate Social Responsibility‐driven Opportunities in Competitive Advantages: a Two‐dimensional Model

Employing corporate social responsibility (CSR) for competitiveness enhancement requires a radical change in managerial thinking and new tools for supporting business activities. Indeed, the lack of suitable measures for detecting the stage of a company CSR cultural development hinders the identification and exploitation of business opportunities related to CSR. Following this lead, in this paper, we propose a two‐dimensional CSR model for supporting managers in their pursuing for long‐term competitiveness, turning CSR‐driven opportunities in business advantages.The model is based on two dimensions: the “CSR development” dimension and the “CSR commitment” dimension. The CSR development dimension allows decision makers to position companies with respect to the stage of their CSR cultural evolution, whereas the CSR commitment dimension assesses companies' degree of commitment based on their economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic CSR performance. The position that a company occupies in the two‐dimensional CSR model describes both its actual stage of CSR cultural development and its CSR commitment. Finally, the model is employed to a case study in the banking sector. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aligning Websites with Enterprise Success: An Evaluative Approach

Substantial resources have been continuously invested in Website development since this technology was introduced. However, it is still unclear whether enterprise sites fully support their primary business activities. This paper proposes the use of organizational critical activities (OCAs) to help businesses align Web designs with business priorities and thus to achieve success. A case study is presented to demonstrate why identification of OCAs provides the opportunity to understand and monitor the effectiveness of Websites in supporting business activities. The importance-performance analysis (IPA) technique is used to analyze and understand the alignment of Websites with enterprise priorities. It is concluded that OCAs and IPA may assist enterprises in designing, implementing, and monitoring Websites in terms of supporting the activities that are crucial for business success.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing

Abstract Nowadays outsourcing presents a common way to increase business performance. This way of providing supporting business activities is more often used in the field of human resources. The paper deals with the topic of human resources outsourcing, especially the recruitment process outsourcing and it brings the views of several authors on the advantages and potential risks of its use.

Readiness to Adopt E-Business Among SMEs in Malaysia

The adoption of the Internet as a business strategy tool is becoming an important way for firms to expand their business through innovative strategies. This study provides an insight concerning the factors that influence the adoption of the Internet to support business activities, also known as e-business among SMEs in Malaysia. In addition, the study also examines the relationship between e-business adoption and the business performance of the SMEs. Using a structured survey questionnaire, a usable response was received and statistically analyzed from 177 SMEs that currently use e-business. The research found that organizational characteristics, technology characteristics and environmental characteristics influence e-business adoption and that the adoption of e-business has a direct influence on the business performance of the SMEs. The findings of this study can aid and encourage the SMEs in developing countries to build a competitive advantage by using the Internet in their business strategy practices.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: KONSEP DAN METODE

Recently, usage of Information Technology (IT) as assisting tools in business activities is becoming more common. Business transactions are conducted with support of IT tools so that they can be well processed by system. This is only a small part of IT usage in supporting business activities. IT role can be increased by designing and implementing a system which can extract and change business information from existing operational data so that in the end it can give support in formulating business decisions. This research will discuss the concept, benefits, categories, and method of Business Intelligence implementation.Keywords: business intelligence, method, balanced scorecard

Performance assessment using value‐chain analysis in Mozambique

PurposeHospitality and related service industries represent growing components of Mozambique's increasingly service‐oriented economy. Its government is emphasizing hospitality and tourism as a leading source of economic growth, diversification and poverty alleviation. However, inefficiencies in primary and support business activities of such services could be obstructing value creation for the customer. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the value creation process in hospitality services and its impact on business performance and product/service prices.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses value chain analysis to evaluate the sequential chain of primary and support activities. It includes qualitative observations, and assessment of field‐surveyed quantifiable indices and operational and market factors influencing these performance indices.FindingsKey operational factors contributing to low value creation include low employee productivity and management inefficiency. This is largely due to a lack of trained employees. Market factors impacting low value creation are: the high level of business taxes; high import duties, and the high cost of compliance with government regulations, licenses and permits (consultants are hired to make submissions to obtain approvals).Research limitations/implicationsPolicy recommendations are presented for the private sector and government. They include a comprehensive human resource policy for hospitality and related industries; a list of import‐exempt key production inputs; and reevaluation of regulatory procedures and the business tax burden. Future research could further quantify these effects and also look at a broader set of factors, beyond firms' institutional environment.Originality/valueThis paper is amongst the few in the literature that have used value chain analysis to evaluate hospitality services. It is the first such analysis of hospitality services in sub‐Saharan Africa where availability of both quantifiable time series and cross‐sectional data remains an obstacle to research. Value chain gaps of hospitality services in the sub‐Sahara region identified in this paper could also be associated with other service sectors such as business, financial, and other consumer services.

An open digital environment to support business ecosystems

We present a Peer-to-Peer network design which aims to support business activities conducted through a network of collaborations that generate value in different, mutually beneficial, ways for the participating organisations. The temporary virtual networks formed by long-term business transactions that involve the execution of multiple services from different providers are used as the building block of the underlying scale-free business network. We show how these local interactions, which are not governed by a single organisation, give rise to a fully distributed P2P architecture that reflects the dynamics of business activities. The design is based on dynamically formed permanent clusters of nodes, the so-called Virtual Super Peers (VSPs), and this results in a topology that is highly resilient to certain types of failure (and attacks). Furthermore, the proposed P2P architecture is capable of reconfiguring itself to adapt to the usage that is being made of it and respond to global failures of conceptual hubs. This fosters an environment where business communities can evolve to meet emerging business opportunities and achieve sustainable growth within a digital ecosystem.

Factors affecting cross-hospital exchange of Electronic Medical Records

Adopting Electronic Medical Record (EMR) exchange may save patients’ lives and also improve their health. Most Electronic Data Interchange studies have considered commercial enterprises and necessary funding to support business activities, EMR exchange focuses on saving patients’ lives. Our study combined transaction cost and sociological perspectives to identify factors that affect a hospitals’ willingness to implement EMR exchange. A survey was conducted with regional hospitals and medical centers in Taiwan to justify the validity of a resulting model. Our findings indicated that the model was valuable and determined which factors influenced the decision to implement EMR exchange at these hospitals (perceived benefits, uncertainty, influence, and reciprocal investments). Based on these findings, healthcare policy makers can promote EMR exchange and hospitals can identify desirable partners that will form a strategic alliance to meet the dynamic challenges in the healthcare industry.