82 research outputs found
The Northern Ireland wine market: challenges; changes; and characteristics
Until very recently the traditional wine producers such as Germany and France enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the Northern Ireland wine market. Changes are beginning to take place with New World Countries having a growing impact in this market place. This paper presents an overview of the Northern Ireland wine market as well as a more indepth look at eleven case studies. Particular emphasis is placed on the source of the wine and the relative importance of each wine producing country. The paper suggests some factors which have contributed to the increasing popularity of New World wines in Northern Ireland
Implementing business continuity management – sharing good practice from an Irish context
ABSTRACT
Never has the need for robust, resilient organizations been so evident as in recent times with more and more well-established, respected organizations becoming unstable or even perishing as a result of the global recession. Added to these challenging economic times we have the demands of managing increasingly complex organizations, which are often highly dependent on sophisticated Information Systems and technology. Perrow’s Normal Accident Theory (1994) points to the fact that “no matter how hard we try there will be serious accidents because of the interactive complexity”[1] of the organizations in which we work.
The introduction of BS25999, the British Standard for business continuity management, draws on international good practice in this field and brings together a clear view of what should constitute effective business continuity management for organizations across all sectors. This has provided Business Continuity Managers with a benchmark against which this aspect of their organization can be measured.
This paper provides an overview of the Business Continuity Management Lifecycle. It discusses the key steps which must be taken in order to establish a Business Continuity Management Programme. It then explores the various approaches and methods which may be employed to gain a greater understanding of the organization. The paper highlights how organizations need to determine the BCM strategy which should be implemented and how to plan for delivery of an effective response in the event of a disruption to normal business. This will involve giving appropriate consideration to key resources such as: People; Premises; Technology; Information; and Supplies.
The paper includes a discussion on ensuring all arrangements are fit for purpose, and outlines the importance of high quality exercising and training initiatives. Finally the paper determines how Business Continuity Management can be embedded into the culture of organizations so that they continue to grow in terms of resilience and maintain key functions and outputs in times of crisis.
The research for this paper involved the completion of a number of case studies which investigated how BCM is implemented in a range of organizations. As each phase of the BCM Lifecycle is discussed an example of good practice, drawn from these cases, will be outlined in order to illustrate how the various elements of the BCM lifecycle may be implemented within organizations across the public, private and voluntary sectors
Crisis management: Towards a model of good practice for small to medium sized hotels.
Research indicates that the hotel industry provides the perfect environment for certain crises to develop and escalate [1,2,3,4,5]. Given the nature of the industry, hotels must be friendly, inviting, and easy to access. Members of the public, as well as residents, are encouraged to use the facilities. This kind of open door or open access policy makes hotels easy targets for criminals, terrorists, etc. In addition, the fact that guests eat, drink and sleep on the premises opens up a whole range of potential crises linked to food poisoning, fire, criminal damage, and issues relating to personal safety. It is easy to imagine the dangers associated with having to evacuate a hotel full of sleeping guests. When a hotel operates in a particularly volatile or unstable environment, such as Northern Ireland, the spectrum of potential crises increases still further.
The recommended approach to crisis management has evolved through three stages. The search for a model of good practice began with a model drawn from the crisis management literature. The second stage involved conducting interviews with general managers from hotels in Northern Ireland. The key focus of these interviews was a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the literature based model. As a result of these interviews a much simplified model, the Crisis Management Triangle, was developed. The Crisis Management Triangle was then presented to a focus group of managers to confirm that it represented a realistic, feasible, clear approach to crisis management which could be deployed in Northern Ireland hotels. The crisis management triangle highlights the key components of effective crisis management:
the crisis team;
a crisis audit;
the crisis plan; and
training
PNU & DCU Research Digest Vol.2 2018
A Research Digest highlighting the research conducted by students of Business Administration under the supervision of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University & Dublin City University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabi
The challenge of managing health and safety when conserving historic buildings
Last November the Palace of the Gladiators in Pompeii collapsed. It was 2,000 years old and had survived the eruption of Vesuvius and nearly 200 years of tourism. Neglect and unseasonably heavy rains were blamed for the loss of the building (despite its rather grand name it was only forty square metres in area). This is a dramatic example of loss of heritage.
The difficulty facing conservation experts charged with salvaging damaged heritage like this is to balance the need to save heritage and the hazard to workers who will carry out the work. The example above is extreme but this dilemma is repeated every day as professionals attempt to look after our built heritage and at the same time be mindful of hazards inherent in the work. Structural collapse is one thing but there are other less obvious hazards in the conservation sector. Falls, health and the dangers from diseases are the less obvious hazards.
The paper explores this dilemma, the concern for heritage and the risk to workers. Surprisingly, there is very little literature that examines this issue. Health and Safety literature, legislation and practice do not appear to take any account of the particular difficulties of working on heritage buildings. Likewise very little conservation literature takes account of Safety and Health issues.
There are other pressures on heritage buildings. Legislation to do with energy conservation and access for the disabled has been introduced and often with very little reference to each other. This has made the task of ensuring safety in conservation works all the more difficult. It is this milieu that this research explores. In this paper these questions will be dealt with in the Irish context, in particular the conservation of Ireland’s capital, the Viking, Norman and Anglo-Irish city of Dublin. The question to be answered is complex and contains elements of history, culture, technology, law and safety in construction. It is; how can conservation works be safely completed and how appropriate are the standard documents and procedures in achieving this?
To answer this question a review of literature was completed. Informed by this, research in the field was undertaken. This consisted of interviews with experts in health and safety, administration and conservation, contractors and their quantity surveyor. It would seem, on the balance of evidence from the literature review, that conservation works are part of the most risky sector of the construction industry, however the field research cast some doubt on that view.
This research attempts to deal with a tricky part of the construction industry. The research challenges the ethos of the heath and safety project, equally it asks difficult questions of the heritage and conservation sector, it remains to be seen how all this is to be resolved
PNU & DCU Research Digest Vol.1 2017
A Research Digest highlighting the research conducted by students of Business Administration under the supervision of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University & Dublin City University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabi
DCU&PNU Research Digest MScBA 2023
Abstracts from DCU@PNU MScBA dissertations and applied research practicums
Do industrial incidents in the chemical sector create equity market contagion?
Purpose: This paper examines a number of US chemical industry incidents and their effect on equity prices of the incident company. Furthermore, this paper then examines the contagion effect of this incident on direct competitors.
Findings: This paper finds that the incident company experiences deeper negative abnormal returns as the number of injuries and fatalities as a result of the incident increases. The equity value of the competitor companies suffer substantial losses stemming from contagion effects when disasters occur causing ten or more injuries and fatalities, but benefit from the incident through increasing equity value when the level of injury and fatality is minor.
Practical implications: This research can be used as a resource to promote and justify the cost of safety mechanisms within the chemical industry, as incidents have been shown to negatively affect the equity value of the not just the incident company, but also their direct competitor
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