Knowledge Management Practice at a Bulgarian Bank: A Case Study

This paper reports on knowledge management (KM) practices in the customer service and lending departments of one of Bulgaria's top retail banks and investigates how KM processes can be further improved. The Bank's KM activities have been studied using observations, interviews and informal discussions for data collection. Findings were compared and contrasted with existing literature in similar contexts. Although rudiments of knowledge sharing are evident from the KM activities in different departments of the bank, the limitations such as resistance to change of the implemented KM systems are impeding the effectiveness of the knowledge management process. More training and incentives are needed to increase knowledge creation and sharing. Moreover, a clearly articulated KM strategy along with success criteria and commitment and support from senior management is needed. There is a severe lack of knowledge management studies in Bulgarian context in general and Bulgarian banking sector in particular. The authors' findings will potentially help in improving knowledge sharing practice as well as provide a valuable insight into knowledge management related issues in the Bulgarian context. The findings from this research can be useful to companies from Eastern Europe and other regions in improving their knowledge sharing practice

Exploring the Context and Practices of Expert Simulation Modellers

Simulation modelling lacks a rich body of literature on practices of modellers in the real world. We study the context and some generic practices of expert simulation modellers to discover how the context of modellers may affect the practice of modelling and simulation. The results highlight that simulation modellers develop their models under a variety of contexts and their practices may be affected by their context. The problem area, the scope and the breadth of a problem, simulation software and the size and complexity of the model are some of the contextual factors which may affect a modeller’s practices such as model development, documentation, maintenance and evaluation. For example, model maintenance is required only for large scale models developed for long term use. Similarly, varying level of documentation may be required depending on the client requirements and project needs. Our study is a valuable addition to the research investigating simulation practice in the real world

N-[4-(4-Nitrophenoxy)phenyl]-propionamide

The title compound, C15H14N2O4, is an important intermediate for the synthesis of thermotropic liquid crystals. The dihedral angle between the two aromatic rings is 84.29 (4)°. An N-H...O hydrogen bond connects the molecules into chains running along the b axis. In addition, the crystal packing is stabilized by weak C-H...O hydrogen bonds. Key indicators: single-crystal X-ray study; T = 173 K; mean σ(C–C) = 0.002 Å; R factor = 0.036; wR factor = 0.096; data-to-parameter ratio = 14.3

Issues of privacy and trust in e-commerce: Exploring customers’ perspective

Despite rapid growth in e-commerce, many of the privacy and trust issues concerns remain unaddressed. We report a qualitative study on customers’ concerns over privacy and trust in online purchasing. A number of issues such as data privacy, data security and safety, data disclosure and sharing by the seller with third parties have been explored with regular internet shoppers. The findings suggest that trusted/branded websites, secured websites, websites with clearly stated data protection/privacy policies makes people more comfortable in online shopping and decreases their data privacy concern. While unsecured websites, vague data protection/privacy policy, disclosure of data to the third parties; in turn discourage the users from releasing their personal data while shopping online

Antecedents of Dividend Policy: Empirical Evidence from Banking Sector of Pakistan

This paper explores the determinants of dividend policy of commercial banks operating in Pakistan. Dividend decision of any bank primarily depends upon its profitability, retained earnings, cash flows, corporate taxes and leverage. This study is an attempt to find out key determinants and their impact on cash payout and total payout ratios. It also aims to test the implication of dividend theories on Pakistani banks using data for a period of 8 years ranging from 2006 to 2013. Balanced panel data regression with fixed effects model has been used in this study. All independent variables - PAT, SLACK, EPS, CTA and TD[1] reported significant results. We found significant role of profitability theory, packing order theory, free cash flow theory and agency cost theory in determining dividend policies whereas, tax effect and financial slack has no effect in banking sector of Pakistan. [1] Profitability, retained earnings, earnings per share, cash flows, and leverag