56 research outputs found
Sustainable Development
The technological advancement of our civilization has created a consumer society expanding faster than the planet's resources allow, with our resource and energy needs rising exponentially in the past century. Securing the future of the human race will require an improved understanding of the environment as well as of technological solutions, mindsets and behaviors in line with modes of development that the ecosphere of our planet can support. Sustainable development offers an approach that would be practical to fuse with the managerial strategies and assessment tools for policy and decision makers at the regional planning level
Inter-Municipal Cooperation as a Tool of Resilience in Small Communities
The hypothesis of the paper is that the resilience of small communities can be engaged by inter-municipal cooperation. The economy of scale of public services is a great challenge for the small communities
in Europe. The review of the international models will focus on the models based on the merge of the municipalities and on the models based on the engagement of inter-municipal cooperation. The literature on
these reforms will be reviewed. Based on the hypothesis, the regulation on inter-municipal cooperation and
service provision of the rural areas in Hungary in the last two decades will be shortly presented. As part of
this research, empirical research was carried out in a Hungarian rural area, which has a strong inter-municipal cooperation. Similarly, empirical research has been carried out in a Slovenian rural area which is based
on the merge of the small communities. The advantages and disadvantages of the inter-municipal model,
and the model based on the merge of the communities were compared in the paper: efficient units of public
services provision can be established not only by the merge of the communities but by the establishment of
inter-municipal associations. Although decision-making is more complicated, the small communities could
be more resilient based on this model, because the flexibility and the community building of the small municipal model prevail as well. The merge of the municipalities offers more efficient decision-making, but the
resilience engaged by the grassroots service provision requires some administrative actions in this model
Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia
Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have
decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from
the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has
also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce
industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction
while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with
the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies
must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s
point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction
towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students
randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area.
Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for
further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer
satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust,
design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future
study direction is provided.
Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia
Definitions of War Violence and Genocide: Narratives of Survivors from the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The aim of this study is analyzing the narratives of survivors of thewar in northwestern Bosnia in the 1990s. The focus lies on analyzing interviewees’ description of war-time violence and also analyzingdiscursive patterns that contribute in constructing the phenomenon“war violence”. Analysis shows that the interpersonal interactions thatcaused the violence continue even after the violent situation is over.Recollections from perpetrators and those subjected to violence of thewar do not exist only as verbal constructions in Bosnia of today.Stories about violent situations live their own lives after the war andcontinue being important to individuals and social life. The crimescommitted in northwestern Bosnia are qualified as genocide accordingto indictments against former Serbian leaders Radovan Karadžić andRatko Mladić. All interviewees in this study experienced and survivedthe war in northwestern Bosnia. These individuals have a present,ongoing relation with these communities: Some live therepermanently, and some spend their summers in northwestern Bosnia.Institutions in the administrative entity Republika Srpska (to whichnorthwestern Bosnia now belong administratively) deny genocide,and this approach to war-time events becomes a central theme infuture, post-war analysis of the phenomena “war violence”, and“reconciliation”. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the politicalelite’s denial of the systematic acts of violence during the war thathave been conveyed by the Hague Tribunal, the Court of Bosnia andHerzegovina onWar Crime, and Bosnian media. The narratives in myempirical material seem to be influenced by (or coherent with) therhetoric mediated in these fora. When informants emphasizeextermination and the systematization of violence during the war, theyproduce and reproduce the image of a mutual struggle on a collectivelevel. The aim of this struggle seems to be that the described acts ofviolence be recognized as genocide
A signs of Islamic State’s terrorism reach and influence among different groups
In this paper are showed the Islamic State adherents group’s which they are
recognized since 2014, those groups have recognized the Islamic State
caliphate and pledged loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
1
. Groups in Yemen,
Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Afghanistan, and Nigeria have used the
Arabic word „wilayah” (state/province) to describe themselves as constituent
members of a broader IS-led caliphate. The implications of such pledges of
loyalty to the Islamic State on groups’ objectives, tactics, and leadership
structures appear to vary and may evolve.
Тhose terrorist groups, followers of IS, use violent protests, assassinations,
terrorist attacks in public places, air traffic, etc. to undermine the integrity of
the countries where they operate and to overthrow legitimate governments.
There are also isolated cases that seem to do the same thing, but they are again
encouraged and driven by the ideology of IS
Risk Management
Every business and decision involves a certain amount of risk. Risk might cause a loss to a company. This does not mean, however, that businesses cannot take risks. As disengagement and risk aversion may result in missed business opportunities, which will lead to slower growth and reduced prosperity of a company. In today's increasingly complex and diverse environment, it is crucial to find the right balance between risk aversion and risk taking. To do this it is essential to understand the complex, out of the whole range of economic, technical, operational, environmental and social risks associated with the company's activities. However, risk management is about much more than merely avoiding or successfully deriving benefit from opportunities. Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks. Lastly, risk management helps a company to handle the risks associated with a rapidly changing business environment
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The impact of emotions on student participation in an assessed, online, collaborative activity
There is growing recognition of the importance of emotions in academic online learning contexts. However, there is still little known about the role of emotions in social and collaborative online learning settings, especially the relationship between emotions and student participation. To explore this relationship, this study used a prospective longitudinal research design to follow 46 distance learning students throughout a 3-week assessed, online, collaborative activity. This approach allowed the fluctuating and dynamic aspects of emotions to be explored as well as the relationship between emotions and student participation in the collaborative activity. Self-report data were gathered using a semistructured online diary at five time points throughout the task (once at the start of the collaborative activity, three times during the activity, and the final entry after the activity had finished). Findings revealed that learners generally perceived pleasant emotions (such as relief, satisfaction and enjoyment) to have positive impacts, or no impact, on participation, whereas unpleasant emotions (such as anxiety, frustration, and disappointment) were generally perceived to have negative impacts, or no impact, on participation. Interestingly, however, anxiety, and to a smaller extent frustration, were perceived by a number of students to have positive impacts during the activity. To conclude this paper, implications for educators are highlighted
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