The Impact Of Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was signed into law in July 2002, with the express purpose of restoring public confidence in corporate financial statements. Prior to the enactment of Sox, investors suffered significant losses due to corporate failures brought on by financial malfeasance.&nbsp

Goodwill Impairment: A New Window For Earnings Management?

The Financial Accounting Standards Board promulgated standard No. 142 in an attempt to improve the understandability of accounting information.  This new rule eliminated the practice of automatically amortizing goodwill.  No. 142 requires public companies to test goodwill for possible impairment at least annually.  An unintended consequence of this new standard is the opportunity for companies to use it in earnings management.  To test the possibility that the rule is being used for this purpose, a sample of companies was chosen, all of which had amounts of goodwill on their balance sheet during the 2003-2005 interval.  The results reveal that the number of companies experiencing losses or low rates of return on total assets who actually impaired goodwill was statistically insignificant during the period under consideration.  Thus, the results strongly suggest that companies are using No. 142 in an attempt to manage the volatility of earnings. &nbsp

Evaluation of the Contents of the Five Stars Hotel Website and Customer Orientation

The objectives of this study are multifold: to investigate the functionality of hotel websites through a content review and to gauge customer perceptions of the value of hotel website design. To conduct the study, hotel websites were combed for numerical and visual information. Providers of information are evaluated based on their unique and comprehensive expertise measurements. The research is based on two key components: a report on all 37 five-star hotels in Jordan that analyzes their website layout in terms of population, and a survey of 100 hotel guests to ascertain how they interpret hotel websites. This proposed study is the first of its kind, with the objective of establishing a methodology for evaluating all hotel measurements provided by hotel websites. The following are the findings: When the independent variable (marketing orientation) has a value of T = 7.519, the coefficient of simple linear regression has statistical significance (Customer Orientation). The fact that Aqaba Zone Advertising and Customer Oriented Classified Hotels have a statistically significant effect on their categorization is acknowledged, as Aqaba Zone Advertising and Customer Oriented Classified Hotels have a significant effect on the coefficient of simple linear regression equation (0.605). As a result, hotel management may employ a specific predictive evaluation model to analyze their hotels websites from two perspectives: that of the management team and that of the consumers. For the first time, this analysis brings together claims from both perspectives (hotel managers and clients)

The Impact of Employee Management on Organizational Performance in Dubais Five-Star Hotel Sector

The paper investigates the relationship between employee management and organizational performance in Dubais five-star hotel industry. The social survey technique was used to collect, categorize, and analyze data in order to draw conclusions that meet the research objectives, as the questionnaire was administered to workers in five-star hotels in Dubai to gather data that answered the research questions. The researcher collected 283 copays from 500 surveys, but only 247 were complete and usable. To determine the reliability of the measurement items for each variable, an internal consistency check was performed. The study found that organizational performance is positively correlated with employee management, and that organizational systems, structure, and physical environment all have an impact on employee management, as well as employee management having an impact on organizational performance. Employee management is one of the strategies used by hotels to improve their performance. The health, success, and expansion of any business are heavily dependent on its employees ability to get along with one another. Positive interactions among coworkers increase workplace productivity

La relación entre la calidad del servicio, la satisfacción del cliente, el valor percibido y la fidelidad del cliente: un estudio de caso de Fly Emirates

Client loyalty is one of the biggest challenges for the airline industry and marketers are seeking information on how to build client loyalty. This study will explore the relationship between service quality, client satisfaction, perceived value and client loyalty in the airline industry. The purpose of this study is to develop and implement a method for airline to identify attributes that will increase client loyalty. 384 respondents participate in this study and questionnaires were distributed randomly to passengers traveling by Emirates. In particularly a deductive approach adapted to collect specific quantitative information to accept or reject the hypothesis. Current study applies Structural Equation Modeling SEM-PLS to investigate the relationship among the constructs in proposed model. This study found that service quality has appositive relationship on passengers’ satisfaction and client loyalty and negative relationship on perceived value and client loyalty. The results of this study indicated that service quality and passenger's satisfaction are important factors effect of client loyalty. In conclusion Emirates must be able to understand the importance of service quality and passenger's satisfaction to fulfill the client loyalty and improve the service quality that make most significant in airline industry.La lealtad del cliente es uno de los mayores desafíos para la industria de las aerolíneas. Por eso, los profesionales de marketing están buscando información sobre cómo desarrollar la lealtad del cliente. Este estudio explorará la relación entre la calidad del servicio, la satisfacción del cliente, el valor percibido y la lealtad del cliente en la industria aérea. El propósito de este estudio es desarrollar e implementar un método para que la aerolínea identifique atributos que aumentarán la lealtad del cliente. Unos 384 encuestados participan en este estudio y los cuestionarios se distribuyeron al azar entre los pasajeros que viajaban en Fly Emirates. En particular, un enfoque deductivo adaptado para recopilar información cuantitativa específica para aceptar o rechazar la hipótesis. El estudio actual aplica el modelo de ecuación estructural SEM-PLS para investigar la relación entre los constructos en el modelo propuesto. Este estudio encontró que la calidad del servicio tiene una relación positiva en la satisfacción de los pasajeros y la lealtad del cliente. Por otro lado tiene una relación negativa en el valor percibido y la lealtad del cliente. Los resultados de este estudio indicaron que la calidad del servicio y la satisfacción del pasajero son factores importantes que afectan a la lealtad del cliente. En conclusión, Fly Emirates debe ser capaz de comprender la importancia de la calidad del servicio y la satisfacción del pasajero para cumplir con la lealtad del cliente y mejorar la calidad del servicio que es más importante en la industria de las aerolíneas

Impact of Mitochondrial Genetic Variants in ND1, ND2, ND5, and ND6 Genes on Sperm Motility and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) Outcomes

Sperm mitochondrial dysfunction causes the generation of an insufficient amount of energy needed for sperm motility. This will affect sperm fertilization capacity, and thus, most asthenozoospermic men usually require assisted reproductive techniques. The etiology of asthenozoospermia remains largely unknown. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of mitochondrial genetic variants on sperm motility and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes. A total of 150 couples from the ICSI cycle were enrolled in this study. One hundred five of the male partners were asthenozoospermic patients, and they were subdivided into three groups according to their percentage of sperm motility, while forty-five of the male partners were normozoospermic. Genetic variants were screened using direct Sanger’s sequencing in four mitochondrial genes (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrogen (NADH) dehydrogenase 1 (ND1), NADH dehydrogenase 2 (ND2), NADH dehydrogenase 5 (ND5), and NADH dehydrogenase 6 (ND6)). We identified three significant variants: 13708G>A (rs28359178) in ND5, 4216T>C (rs1599988) in ND1, and a novel 12506T>A in ND5 with P values 0.006, 0.036, and 0.013, respectively. The medians of sperm motility, fertilization rate, embryo cleavage score, and embryo quality score were significantly different between men showing 4216T>C, 12506T>A, 13708G>A and wild type, Mann-Whitney P values for the differences in the medians were A, 12506T>A, and 4216 T>C variants in sperm mitochondrial DNA negatively affect sperm motility and ICSI outcomes

Elevated seminal protein carbonyl concentration is correlated with asthenozoospermia and affects adversely the laboratory intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes

Elevated concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the semen can lead to oxidative protein damage as they react with the amino acids' side chains in the protein, leading to the generation of carbonyl groups. This study aimed to investigate the effect of protein carbonyl (PC) concentration on sperm motility and the laboratory intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes. A total of 150 couples from the ICSI cycle were enrolled in this study and were divided into three groups (G) according to the PC concentration as following, G1 included samples with PC concentrations <0.65 nmol/mg, G2 included samples with 0.65≤PC≤2.23 nmol/mg and G3 included samples with PC>2.23 (nmol/mg). PC concentrations were measured in all semen samples, and the laboratory ICSI outcomes were evaluated for all injected oocytes. The Kruskal–Wallis p-values for the differences in the medians of sperm motility, fertilisation rate, embryo cleavage score and embryo quality score were <0.05. Furthermore, Dunn's post hoc test showed a significant difference between all groups, p-values <0.05, except for the medians of embryo quality score between G2 and G3. In conclusion, our results showed that sperm motility and laboratory ICSI outcomes are affected negatively by higher concentrations of PC in the semen

La relación entre la calidad del servicio, la satisfacción del cliente, el valor percibido y la fidelidad del cliente: un estudio de caso de Fly Emirates

Client loyalty is one of the biggest challenges for the airline industry and marketers are see-king information on how to build client loyalty. This study will explore the relationship between service quality, client satisfaction, perceived value and client loyalty in the airline industry. The purpose of this study is to develop and implement a method for airline to identify attributes that will increase client loyalty. 384 respondents participate in this study and questionnaires were distributed randomly to passengers traveling by Emirates. In particularly a deductive approach adapted to collect specific quantitative information to accept or reject the hypothesis. Current study applies Structural Equation Modeling SEM-PLS to investigate the relationship among the constructs in proposed model. This study found that service quality has appositive relationship on passengers’ satisfaction and client loyalty and negative relationship on perceived value and client loyalty. The results of this study indicated that service quality and passenger’s satisfaction are important factors effect of client loyalty. In conclusion Emirates must be able to understand the importance of service quality and passenger’s satisfaction to fulfill the client loyalty and improve the service quality that make most significant in airline industry.RESUMEN: La lealtad del cliente es uno de los mayores desafíos para la industria de las aerolíneas. Por eso, los profesionales de marketing están buscando información sobre cómo desarro-llar la lealtad del cliente. Este estudio explorará la relación entre la calidad del servicio, la satisfacción del cliente, el valor percibido y la lealtad del cliente en la industria aérea. El propósito de este estudio es desarrollar e implementar un método para que la aerolínea iden-tifique atributos que aumentarán la lealtad del cliente. Unos 384 encuestados participan en este estudio y los cuestionarios se distribuyeron al azar entre los pasajeros que viajaban en Fly Emirates. En particular, un enfoque deductivo adaptado para recopilar información cuan-titativa específica para aceptar o rechazar la hipótesis. El estudio actual aplica el modelo de ecuación estructural SEM-PLS para investigar la relación entre los constructos en el modelo propuesto. Este estudio encontró que la calidad del servicio tiene una relación positiva en la satisfacción de los pasajeros y la lealtad del cliente. Por otro lado tiene una relación negativa en el valor percibido y la lealtad del cliente. Los resultados de este estudio indicaron que la calidad del servicio y la satisfacción del pasajero son factores importantes que afectan a la lealtad del cliente. En conclusión, Fly Emirates debe ser capaz de comprender la importancia de la calidad del servicio y la satisfacción del pasajero para cumplir con la lealtad del cliente y mejorar la calidad del servicio que es más importante en la industria de las aerolíneas.Palabras clave: Satisfacción; calidad del servicio; valor percibido; fidelización del cliente, líneas aéreas.1. INTRODUCTIONAirline industry is an increasingly growing industry and it has developed to become one of the most common means of travel (Law, 2017). Specifically, airline industry faci-litates tourism and contribution to the growth of businesses which depend on airlines, such as hotels, restaurants and car hire operators (Lupiyoadi and Putra, 2014). Currently, passenger’s loyalty in the airline industry is becoming ever important and relevant due to the fact that the delivery of high quality service is essential for airlines survival and crucial to the competitiveness of the airline industry (Ganiyu, 2016). To achieve client loyalty a high level of client satisfaction and high standard of service quality should be delivered by the service provider (Reshidi, 2013), since service quality is considered the basis for client satisfaction and client loyalty (Abu Rumman et al., 2013; Jawabreh, 2017a; Alananzeh et al., 2018; Clemes et al., 2008).Client loyalty plays a very crucial role for achieving competitive advantage in any organization. Olsen and Johnson (2013) found that client loyalty has an incredible impact on business profits. Azad et al. (2014) found that client loyalty is one major driver of success in tourism industry. Recently many studies have growing interest in research on client loyalty. Client loyalty defined by Oghojafor et al. (2016) as the adherence of client

Adsorption of -Dihydroxybenzene from Single, Binary and Ternary Aqueous Systems onto Activated Charcoal

The adsorption of para -dihydroxybenzene ( p -DHB) from aqueous multi-component systems onto activated charcoal was investigated. The study involved the adsorption of p -DHB from systems containing all combinations of p -DHB, phenol and 4-amino-1-naphthalene sulphonic acid sodium salt (ANSA) in aqueous solutions. Equilibrium isotherms were generated at three temperature values (30°C, 40°C and 55°C). As expected for exothermic physical adsorption, the adsorption of p -DHB from the single-component system and from the binary system containing ANSA decreased with increasing temperature. However, the adsorption of p -DHB from the binary system containing phenol increased with temperature. The effect of KCl and NaCl (at a concentration of 0.05 M) at 30°C was also investigated. The adsorption of p -DHB varied from one system to another. Both salts reduced the adsorption of p -DHB from the single and binary systems. The reduction in adsorption capacity (relative to the adsorption capacity in a salt-free system) attained only ca. 35% in the case of single-solute adsorption and ca. 20% and 33% from the binary systems containing p -DHB and phenol or ANSA, respectively. In contrast, the presence of KCl or NaCl had no appreciable effect on the adsorption of p -DHB from the ternary system

Investigating the managerial practices' effect on Employee-Perceived Service Quality with the moderating role of supportive leadership behavior

The current study investigates the effects of employee empowerment (EE) and work environment on Employee-Perceived Service Quality (EPSQ) and investigate the role of supportive leadership behavior (SLB) as a moderator. Particularly, the study addressed the mediating effect of job satisfaction (JS) on the relationship between (EE), work environment with (EPSQ). A survey distributed on a sample of 208 frontline employees working in the five-star hotels in Jordan. A statistical analysis was conducted using structural equation modelling with Smart-Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results reveal that (EE), work environment, and (JS) significantly impact on Employee-Perceived Service Quality. Also, results reveal that (JS) has a mediator role in this relationship. Quite surprisingly, we found no significant direct relationships between supportive leadership and (EPSQ) as a moderator. The practical and research implications of these findings are discussed as well as the justification of the rejected hypothesis. JEL classification: M1, C12, O15, Keywords: Empowerment, Job satisfaction, Leadership support behavior, Employee-Perceived Service Qualit