Business diplomacy in practice :a grounded theory study in management among professional diplomats : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand

Background: How can diplomacy contribute to the success of businesses and to better management and business practices in today’s complex and interconnected world? Diplomacy has been associated with business and commercial activities for thousands of years. However, due to the modern events of globalisation and increased geopolitical risks facing businesses, management scholars have been looking at the concept of diplomacy and have tried to apply it to management and organisational settings. Aims and Significance: Despite the growing attention to business diplomacy, the literature remains limited and lacks clear empirical research that provides a practical understanding and conceptualisation of this subject. Therefore, this study looks at diplomacy from managers’ and diplomats’ perspectives in relation to business and management. Diplomacy continues to evolve in its practices, skills, and policies, and so do today's businesses. Investigating the range of professional diplomats’ responsibilities and knowledge could give managers and management researchers an understanding of the intricate complexity of the diplomat's task, which will enhance their own work. This research aims to address this issue by answering the question: How do professional diplomats, in businesses and governments, understand business diplomacy? And what are the key elements associated with business diplomacy in practice? The research objective is to examine the role of diplomacy in business and management and to investigate its related core elements that can help businesses and managers be successful in today’s business environment. Method: To address this issue, an interpretative-exploratory study was conducted using the Straussian grounded theory approach. Using semi-structured interviews as the data collection method, twenty-one official diplomats, CEOs, businesspeople, and managers from both the private and public sectors were interviewed. Participants were asked to describe their understanding of diplomacy and what constitutes its basic elements and practice. Findings: The study found that business diplomacy is a process of multiple integrated qualities. In particular, the findings indicate that business diplomacy is the capability to professionally and systematically manage and influence multiple stakeholders, as well as the operating environment, to advance business interests and to create favourable conditions for the firm. Consequently, the theory of Multi-Stakeholder Managing and Influencing (MSMI) in business diplomacy was developed that offers new insights into the area. MSMI suggests that business diplomacy is achieved through the integration of multiple qualities, namely: interaction and engagement, core knowledge competencies (CKC), multiperspective consideration, and power-authority building (PAB). MSMI also suggests that these qualities are closely interrelated and co-dependent on each other. Conclusions: The findings of this study contribute to our developing a scholarly understanding of business diplomacy, its meaning in practice, and what constitutes its core elements. As one of the earliest empirical studies in business diplomacy, this study broadens and deepens our views by offering new insights and theory. The findings contribute theoretically and practicably to the body of knowledge by suggesting that business diplomacy constitutes multiple qualities, is recognised and valued by participants, and is found to create long-term value for businesses. This has implications for businesses and universities as it encourages them to incorporate business diplomacy as a strategic tool to be learned and practiced at the organisational level. This study serves as a starting point for further empirical research in business diplomacy, and future researchers are encouraged to carry out larger-scale studies on different populations and industries to replicate and validate the theory

Proper Accounting is Vital for Sustainable Business Growth

This study explains the role of accounting in business growth. In addition, this study clarifies how accounting offers support for business process. This paper demonstrates the types of services that perform by accounting. The research indicates how accounting information can be used in order to meet the needs of a business, make right decisions, and improve the company’s profitability. This article also examines why business organization often needs a way to keep score when conducting business operations. How accounting usually fits this need because it allows to company to create financial reports that enable business owners and managers to review the efficiency of operations. The conclusion of this study shows the importance of using accounting as a sophisticated financial management system for business organization's performance, growth, and expansion

The Resin Bond to High-Translucent Zirconia—A Systematic Review

Objectives: Several systematic literature reviews have assessed the scientific evidence on resin bonding protocols to conventional 3 mol% ytrria-stabilized zirconia (3Y-TZP) ceramics. It has been widely discussed, however, that the differing composition and physical properties of new high-translucent zirconia generations (4Y-TZP and 5Y-TZP) may require alternative bonding materials and procedures. This paper reviewed in vitro studies on the success and durability of bonding protocols to high-translucent zirconia. Material and methods: A systematic search of PubMed and Cochrane Library for in vitro studies on bonding to new zirconia generations published until November 2020 was conducted and complemented by a manual search. Studies selected for review fulfilled the applied inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of the included studies was assessed with the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials. Results: Of 629 screened articles, 18 were included in this review. They investigated different surface pretreatment methods, primers, resin cements, aging procedures, and bond strength test protocols. The limited number of the identified studies and the heterogeneity of the extracted data did not allow to conduct a meta-analysis. Conclusions: The available evidence suggests that resin bonding protocols successfully applied to conventional zirconia are also the most successful for high-translucent zirconia. Airborne particle abrasion and special phosphate monomer-containing primers or composite resin cements provide long-term durable resin bonds. Clinical significance: Durable bonds can be established between high-translucent zirconia and resin cements. The bonding materials and procedures applied do not compromise their physical properties. © 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC

Factors Impacting Employee Job Satisfaction

This study explains the factors that have an affect on job satisfaction between employees within an organization. In addition, this study clarifies the relationship between the work environment and job satisfaction within an organization. This paper demonstrates the importance of attaining job satisfaction through creating a positive workplace. Also, the research illustrates the role of job satisfaction in an organization's performance. The conclusion of this study shows that working conditions, salary and compensations, fairness, respect from co-workers, and the relationship with supervisors have an overall impact on job satisfaction amongst an organization's employees

Understanding suicide and its prevention in the Indian context: Mental Health Perspective

In India, suicide research has largely concentrated on the prevalence, method, psychological, and demographic risk factors. Suicide processes, paradigms, prevention strategies, and other features of suicide that are common in the West may not be applicable in India. It is vital to study potential underlying processes, various suicide prevention methods, and suicide prevention in general, as well as what more work has to be done in the Indian context. Suicide, on the other hand, is a cross-sectoral public health issue that demands collaboration across all key sectors, and its prevention should engage all stakeholders in India

“Cached memories”:Spatiotemporal (Dis)ruptures and Postmemorial Absence in Palestine +100

This article argues that spatiotemporal (dis)ruptures in the collection Palestine +100 (2019) extend and problematize Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory to produce what I call a “postmemorial absence.” Each story takes place in 2048, or 100 years following the collective trauma of the Nakba. However, when articulated through a critical framework of Absence and Loss (Dominick LaCapra, 1999), the stories attest that this event has not been relegated to the past but continues to reverberate through successive generations, resulting in a uniquely Palestinian postmemory. Collective traumatic remembrance is a burden leading to isolation and alienation. Science fiction, with its future orientation, has not been popular with Palestinian authors whose literature is largely characterized by allegiance to the past. Palestine +100 is unique in that the intentional framing compels writers to contend with a future imaginary. This results in stories dominated by spatiotemporal (dis)ruptures: characters inhabit parallel spaces and simulations; time moves backwards or stands still; and the notion of “return,” which looms large in the Palestinian psyche, is digitized in innovative and unique ways. The article argues that these stories illuminate a narrative present (which, for the reader and writer, is the near future) characterized by profound absence and alienated suspension. It is a present (future) which lacks meaningful existence in light of a past that has not passed. In such a void, memory and, by extension, history become the enemy. Consequently, characters are trapped between a duty to remember and a desire to forget. This tension illustrates an attempt to sever the inter- and transgenerational link of trauma that is produced by the structure of postmemory

Investigating Information Trust, Professional Ethics and Risk When Embracing E-government: An Empirical Study of Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

In an attempt to establish more efficient and transparent governmental services, manual systems of government across the globe are being transferred to e-government systems, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). However, this transformation, and especially ensuring user acceptance of e-government, poses a number of challenges. Against this backdrop, the current work examines issues that are related to information trust, professional ethics, and the risks incurred in embracing an e-government. This was carried out based on three Saudi Arabian organisations namely the Ministry of Interior; the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology; and King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology. Qualitative methods was adopted for both data collection and analysis based on semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. The data were analysed using thematic analysis to establish perceptions and behavioural patterns of e-government systems among both government officials and general users. A technological gap was identified as the core impediment to widespread implementation and user acceptance of e-government in KSA. It was established that governmental success in ensuring the system is resilient against data loss and hacking, and habitual adoption of checking mechanisms, can lead towards improved implementation of e-government, along with its utilisation throughout KSA. This research contributes a research model, informed by institutional theory, of factors affecting the adoption of e-government from both employees and citizens’ perspectives (as evident within KSA). It responds to calls from other Information Systems researchers to study e-government by conducting an in-depth field investigation using qualitative research. In doing so, it addresses issues related to information trust, professional ethics and risk in e-government implementation

Palestinian Postmemory:Melancholia and the Absent Subject in Larissa Sansour's In Vitro, Saleem Haddad's "Song of the Birds," and Adania Shibli's Touch

This article argues that Sansour's In Vitro, Saleem Haddad's short story "Song of the Birds," and Adania Shibli's novella Touch present a uniquely Palestinian postmemory, or what I call a postmemorial absence, which critiques the viability of a future when individuals feel trapped by memories of a traumatic past that prevent a meaningful present from materializing. I argue that these works further invite the question of a Palestinian identity that moves beyond the Nakba and what form such an identity might take. The first section discusses how Haddad's and Sansour's works exemplify the burden of collective memory, using the medium of science fiction to explore spatial imaginaries and the precarity of the Palestinian present. The second section illustrates how Shibli's Touch constitutes a powerful imagining of an identity unanchored to a collective traumatic past, whereby severing the inter- and transgenerational traumatic link is attempted. Her work, through its experimental form and style, suggests that negation of subjectivity—a breaking down to build anew—may be necessary to realize an identity unencumbered by past trauma

Investigating the impact of adaptive facades on energy performance using simulation and machine learning

Buildings consume approximately 40% of the world's primary energy, and half of this energy demand stems from space cooling and heating. To meet the targets of designing high performance buildings, intelligent solutions need to be integrated into the design process of buildings to achieve indoor environmental comfort and minimize energy consumption. In particular, the building façade plays a crucial role, as it acts as a separator element that can control the indoor environment and energy performance. This is even more important in buildings with extensive glazing systems particularly in harsh, hot climates. As stated in the literature, buildings are exposed to dynamic environmental factors that change continuously throughout the day and the year. Nonetheless, regardless of the climatic variations, building skins have been typically designed as static envelopes, which are limited in terms of their responsiveness to indoor or outdoor environmental conditions. In contrast, adaptive façades (AFs) are flexible regarding the adaptability of the system to climatic conditions enabling them to respond to short-term changes in the environment. In practice, assessing the performance of AFs during the early stages of the design is still a challenging task due to their time-varying dynamic behaviour. Most current building performance tools (BPS) were originally developed to assess fixed façades where changes to the geometry of the façade are not taken into consideration during simulation. To that end, adaptive systems require a more complex workflow that can correctly predict their performance. This research is intended to assist architects and façade specialists in two main aspects; firstly, an algorithmic framework was developed to predict the energy performance of AFs in the early design stages. The algorithmic workflow creates a link between plug-ins including the Ladybug and Honeybee tools, and EnergyPlus for running the simulation with the built-in tool energy management system (EMS) to program a code to actuate the AF system in an hourly time step (Figure 1). The workflow considers the time-varying dynamic behaviour of AFs based on different environmental parameters. The aim is to accurately evaluate the potential of AFs in energy performance in an office tower. Secondly, by exploring the complexity and limitation of current tools, a novel method is proposed to assess the energy performance of AFs using machine learning (ML) techniques. Two different ML models, namely, an artificial neural network (ANN) and a decision tree (DT), were developed to predict the energy performance of AFs in the early design stages in a significantly faster time compared to simulation. The surrogate models were trained, tested, and validated using the generated synthetic database by simulation (hourly cooling loads of AF and hourly solar radiation). During the training phase, a hyperparameters tuning procedure was carried out to select the most suitable surrogate model (Figure 2). By comparing the static shading system with AFs in terms of energy consumption, the results confirmed that the AFs were more effective in terms of cooling load reductions compared to static façades where cooling loads were reduced by 34.6%. The findings also revealed that the control scenario that triggered both incident solar radiation and operative temperature in a closed loop mechanism performed better than other control scenarios. Regarding the surrogate models, this research found that ML techniques can predict the hourly cooling loads of AFs with a high accuracy in the range of 85% to 95%. In particular, the DT model showed a 17% improvement in R2 accuracy over the ANN model in predicting the hourly cooling loads of AFs