Abstract: The purpose of this research was to study five vital
factors related to employees’ job performance. A total of 250
respondents were sampled from employees who worked at a public
warehouse organization, Bangkok, Thailand. Samples were divided
into two groups according to their work experience. The average
working experience was about 9 years for group one and 28 years for
group two. A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data.
Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage,
mean, standard deviation, t-test analysis, one way ANOVA, and
Pearson Product-moment correlation coefficient. Data were analyzed
by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The findings
disclosed that the majority of respondents were female between 23-
31 years old, single, and hold an undergraduate degree. The average
income of respondents was less than 30,900 baht. The findings also
revealed that the factors of organization chart awareness, job process
and technology, internal environment, employee loyalty, and policy
and management were ranked as medium level. The hypotheses
testing revealed that difference in gender, age, and position had
differences in terms of the awareness of organization chart, job
process and technology, internal environment, employee loyalty, and
policy and management in the same direction with low level.
Abstract: The present study examines the mediating effect of
online flow experience on the relationship between extraversionintroversion,
locus of control and loneliness, and depression and
satisfaction with life. The data was obtained using a structured
questionnaire prepared by adapting standardized scales available from
a sample of 102 engineering students from different technical
institutions at Bhubaneswar, India. The results indicate that there is a
positive significant relationship between introversion, external locus
of control, loneliness, depression and online flow experience, and
extraversion, internal locus of control and satisfaction with life. The
results also suggest that online flow experience mediates the
relationship between the aforementioned variables.
Abstract: Promoting critical thinking (CT) in an educational
setting has been appraised in order to enhance learning and
intellectual skills. In this study, a pedagogical course in a vocational
teacher education program in Turkey was designed by integrating CT
skill-based strategies/activities into the course content and CT skills
were means leading to intended course objectives. The purpose of the
study was to evaluate the importance of the course objectives, the
attainment of the objectives, and the effectiveness of teachinglearning
strategies/activities from prospective teachers- points of
view. The results revealed that although the students mostly
considered the course objectives important, they did not feel
competent in the attainment of all objectives especially in those
related to the main topic of Learning and those requiring higher order
thinking skills. On the other hand, the students considered the course
activities effective for learning and for the development of thinking
skills, especially, in interpreting, comparing, questioning,
contrasting, and forming relationships.
Abstract: At the time where electronic books, or e-Books, offer
students a fun way of learning , teachers who are used to the paper
text books may find it as a new challenge to use it as a part of
learning process. Precisely, there are various types of e-Books
available to suit students- knowledge, characteristics, abilities, and
interests. The paper discusses teachers- perceptions on the use of ebooks
as a paper text book in the classroom. A survey was conducted
on 72 teachers who use e-books as textbooks. It was discovered that a
majority of these teachers had good perceptions on the use of ebooks.
However, they had little problems using the devices. It can be
overcome with some strategies and a suggested framework.
Abstract: Human Resource (HR) applications can be used to
provide fair and consistent decisions, and to improve the
effectiveness of decision making processes. Besides that, among
the challenge for HR professionals is to manage organization
talents, especially to ensure the right person for the right job at the
right time. For that reason, in this article, we attempt to describe
the potential to implement one of the talent management tasks i.e.
identifying existing talent by predicting their performance as one of
HR application for talent management. This study suggests the
potential HR system architecture for talent forecasting by using
past experience knowledge known as Knowledge Discovery in
Database (KDD) or Data Mining. This article consists of three
main parts; the first part deals with the overview of HR
applications, the prediction techniques and application, the general
view of Data mining and the basic concept of talent management
in HRM. The second part is to understand the use of Data Mining
technique in order to solve one of the talent management tasks, and
the third part is to propose the potential HR system architecture for
talent forecasting.
Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to estimate the cost of road traffic accidents in Egypt. The Human Capital (HC) approach, specifically the Gross-Loss-of-Output methodology, is adopted for estimation. Moreover, cost values obtained by previous national literature are updated using the inflation rates. The results indicate an estimated cost of road traffic accidents in Egypt of approximately 10 billion Egyptian Pounds (about $US 1.8 billion) for the year 2008. In addition, it is expected that this cost will rise in 2009 to 11.8 billion Egyptian Pounds (about $US 2.1 billion).
Abstract: The IFRS for Small and Medium-sized Entities
(SMEs) was issued in July 2009 and currently regulators are
considering various implementation strategies of this standard.
Romania is a member of the European Union since 2007, thus
accounting regulations were issued in order to ensure compliance
with the European Accounting Directives. As the European
Commission rejected recently the mandatory use of IFRS for SMEs,
regulatory bodies from the Member States have to decide if the
standard will affect or not the accounting practices of SMEs from
their countries. Recently IASB invited stakeholders to discuss the
revision of IFRS for SMEs. Empirical studies on the differences and
similarities between national standards and IFRS for SMEs could
inform decision makers on the actual level of convergence in
different countries. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical
evidences on the convergence of the Romanian regulations with IFRS
for SMEs analyzing the results in the context of the last revisions
proposed to the EU Accounting Directives.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to study the factors
related to the satisfaction of consumers who purchased a Toyota
SUV Fortuner. This paper was a survey data which collected 400
samples from 65 car dealerships. The survey was conducted mainly
in Bangkok, Thailand. The statistics utilized in this paper included
percentage, mean, standard deviation and Pearson Product-Moment.
The findings revealed that the majority of respondent were male with
an undergraduate degree, married and live together. The average
income of the respondents was between 20,001 - 30,000 baht. Most
of them worked for private companies. Most of them had a family
with the average of 4 members. The hypotheses testing revealed that
the factors of marketing mix in terms of product (ability, gas
mileage, and safety) were related to overall satisfaction at the
medium level. However, the findings also revealed that the factors of
marketing mix in terms of product (image), price, and promotion, and
service center were related to the overall satisfaction at the low level.
Abstract: Service innovations are central concerns in fast
changing environment. Due to the fitness in customer demands and
advances in information technologies (IT) in service management, an
expanded conceptualization of e-service innovation is required.
Specially, innovation practices have become increasingly more
challenging, driving managers to employ a different open innovation
model to maintain competitive advantages. At the same time, firms
need to interact with external and internal customers in innovative
environments, like the open innovation networks, to co-create values.
Based on these issues, an important conceptual framework of e-service
innovation is developed. This paper aims to examine the contributing
factors on e-service innovation and firm performance, including
financial and non-financial aspects. The study concludes by showing
how e-service innovation will play a significant role in growing the
overall values of the firm. The discussion and conclusion will lead to a
stronger understanding of e-service innovation and co-creating values
with customers within open innovation networks.
Abstract: This article first summarizes reasons why current approaches supporting Open Learning and Distance Education need to be complemented by tools permitting lecturers, researchers and students to cooperatively organize the semantic content of Learning related materials (courses, discussions, etc.) into a fine-grained shared semantic network. This first part of the article also quickly describes the approach adopted to permit such a collaborative work. Then, examples of such semantic networks are presented. Finally, an evaluation of the approach by students is provided and analyzed.
Abstract: This study examines age and sex patterns of
children-s disability in the Parila union of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. For
this we assumed that (1) prevalence of disability patterns and its
severity in the middle childhood are higher than in the infancy or
latter childhood in the Parila union of Rajshahi, (2) prevalence of
disability patterns and its severity among the boys compared to girls
are higher in the study area of Bangladesh. In order to examine the
assumptions 102 samples, including their mothers were selected
based on snowball process and the respondents were individually
interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire method. The results
of the study suggest that disability patterns and its severity among the
male children were two-fold higher than the female children. In
addition, these patterns of children-s disability and its severity in the
middle childhood were also higher than in the infancy or latter
childhood. Further study should conduct how socio-structural factors
influence age and sex patterns of children-s disability patterns and its
severity in Bangladesh.
Abstract: This study has been prepared with the purpose to get the views of senior class Elementary Education Mathematics preservice teachers on proving. Data have been obtained via surveys and interviews carried out with 104 preservice teachers. According to the findings, although preservice teachers have positive views about using proving in mathematics teaching, it is seen that their experiences related to proving is limited to courses and they think proving is a work done only for the exams. Furthermore, they have expressed in the interviews that proving is difficult for them, and because of this reason they prefer memorizing instead of learning.
Abstract: The purposes of this study are 1) to study the frequent
English writing errors of students registering the course: Reading and
Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and 2) to find out the
results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective
feedback and writing error treatments. Samples include 28 2nd year
English Major students, Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha
Rajabhat University. Tool for experimental study includes the lesson
plan of the course; Reading and Writing English for Academic
Purposes II, and tool for data collection includes 4 writing tests of
short texts. The research findings disclose that frequent English
writing errors found in this course comprise 7 types of grammatical
errors, namely Fragment sentence, Subject-verb agreement, Wrong
form of verb tense, Singular or plural noun endings, Run-ons
sentence, Wrong form of verb pattern and Lack of parallel structure.
Moreover, it is found that the results of writing error correction by
using coded indirect corrective feedback and error treatment reveal
the overall reduction of the frequent English writing errors and the
increase of students’ achievement in the writing of short texts with
the significance at .05.
Abstract: Modern retailers such as hypermarket/supermarket
need to be more customer-oriented in order to survive in today-s
competitive business world. As a result, the investigation of
determinant factors of store loyalty becomes important issue for
modern retailing players. This study suggests that consumers- store
loyalty in the modern retailing market (hypermarkets and
supermarkets) is influenced by environmental factors (such as store
image, store personnel). Using a model of stimulus-organismresponse
(S-O-R), this research examines S-R relationship of store
loyalty. S-O-R framework is derived from the existence literature and
tested empirically based on Indonesian consumers- experience. The
stimuli for this study are store image, store personnel, satisfaction
and culture factors. Affect, or the consumers- liking to modern
retailing stores, mediates the chosen environmental factors on
consumer-s store loyalty. The findings showed that store image, store
satisfaction and culture have significant positive relationship to store
loyalty via affect.
Abstract: This paper discusses E-government, in particular the
challenges that face adoption in Saudi Arabia. E-government can be
defined based on an existing set of requirements. In this research we
define E-government as a matrix of stakeholders: governments to
governments, governments to business and governments to citizens,
using information and communications technology to deliver and
consume services. E-government has been implemented for a
considerable time in developed countries. However, E-government
services still face many challenges in their implementation and
general adoption in many countries including Saudi Arabia. It has
been noted that the introduction of E-government is a major
challenge facing the government of Saudi Arabia, due to possible
concerns raised by its citizens. In addition, the literature review and
the discussion identify the influential factors that affect the citizens’
intention to adopt E-government services in Saudi Arabia.
Consequently, these factors have been defined and categorized
followed by an exploratory study to examine the importance of these
factors. Therefore, this research has identified factors that determine
if the citizen will adopt E-government services and thereby aiding
governments in accessing what is required to increase adoption.
Abstract: User-Centered Design (UCD), Usability Engineering (UE) and Participatory Design (PD) are the common Human- Computer Interaction (HCI) approaches that are practiced in the software development process, focusing towards issues and matters concerning user involvement. It overlooks the organizational perspective of HCI integration within the software development organization. The Management Information Systems (MIS) perspective of HCI takes a managerial and organizational context to view the effectiveness of integrating HCI in the software development process. The Human-Centered Design (HCD) which encompasses all of the human aspects including aesthetic and ergonomic, is claimed as to provide a better approach in strengthening the HCI approaches to strengthen the software development process. In determining the effectiveness of HCD in the software development process, this paper presents the findings of a content analysis of HCI approaches by viewing those approaches as a technology which integrates user requirements, ranging from the top management to other stake holder in the software development process. The findings obtained show that HCD approach is a technology that emphasizes on human, tools and knowledge in strengthening the HCI approaches to strengthen the software development process in the quest to produce a sustainable, usable and useful software product.
Abstract: Complaints today have the ability to retain
customer loyalty using state of the art systems and strategies
in customer relationship management to analyze and respond
to a plethora of customer perception. The Majority of
companies are not aware of the beneficiary utilization of
customer complaints for the sake of quality improvements.
Also, some companies have problems determining how
resolution of complaints can be profitable. In this study, we
will define the problems and ascertain the importance of
customer management system on the companies. Furthermore,
we will determine the impact of such a system on efficiency,
confidence, profitability and customer complaints. Eventually,
we will develop methods and address the issues. In this paper,
we used an open-ended questionnaire and distributed that to
30 randomly chosen respondents which were the passengers in
an airport. We also define three hypotheses for our study and
we will validate each of them. Then using frequency, Chi-
Square and quality control method we optimized the size of
customers- negative feedback and improved the process of
customer retention.
Abstract: One of the most important areas of knowledge management studies is knowledge sharing. Measured in terms of number of scientific articles and organization-s applications, knowledge sharing stands as an example of success in the field. This paper reviews the related papers in the context of the underlying individual behavioral variables to providea direction framework for future research and writing.
Abstract: Design patterns describe good solutions to common
and reoccurring problems in program design. Applying design
patterns in software design and implementation have significant
effects on software quality metrics such as flexibility, usability,
reusability, scalability and robustness. There is no standard rule for
using design patterns. There are some situations that a pattern is
applied for a specific problem and this pattern uses another pattern.
In this paper, we study the effect of using chain of patterns on
software quality metrics.
Abstract: A comprehensive discussion of feasible strategies for sustainable energy supply is urgently needed to achieve a turnaround of the current energy situation. The necessary fundamentals required for the development of a long term energy vision are lacking to a great extent due to the absence of reasonable long term scenarios that fulfill the requirements of climate protection and sustainable energy use. The contribution of the study is based on a search for sustainable energy paths in the long run for Austria. The analysis makes use of secondary data predominantly. The measures developed to avoid CO2 emissions and other ecological risk factors vary to a great extent among all economic sectors. This is shown by the calculation of CO2 cost of abatement curves. In this study it is demonstrated that the most effective technical measures with the lowest CO2 abatement costs yield solutions to the current energy problems. Various scenarios are presented concerning the question how the technological and environmental options for a sustainable energy system for Austria could look like in the long run. It is shown how sustainable energy can be supplied even with today-s technological knowledge and options available. The scenarios developed include an evaluation of the economic costs and ecological impacts. The results are not only applicable to Austria but demonstrate feasible and cost efficient ways towards a sustainable future.