Crisis Management and the Public Sector: Key Trends and Perspectives

A crisis is a situation approaching a dangerous phase, which requires urgent intervention to avoid harmful effects on the body of an organization in order to return to normal situation. It is a decisive and critical time for the organization, where the wrong decision can even cost its viability. This situation can shape political, legal, economic, and governmental impact on its activities. From different definitions of crisis, we seek to underscore key elements of a crisis that may threat a public organization and, also, to highlight both the elements of management responsiveness resulting in the loss of control in the organization, regarding the short time demand for decision-making. The key purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the basis available in the international literature, upon which public risk mechanisms can be reviewed and chosen in public sector organizations under the scope of their applicability

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes and Competencies of Health Professionals Attended an International Training Programme in Public Health

Background: Continuing education is a fundamental aspect of health personnel professional life. These enable health professionals improve patient-centred care, stay current and provide quality services.Objectives: To assess knowledge, attitudes and competencies from the interprofessional training programme in public health held in cooperation with WHO/EURO.Methods: A structured questioner for self-ratings on perceived seminar usefulness and implementation was placed on the internet followed by email notification to the 300 participants. We have received 128 completed questionnaires (42.5%).Programme effects were tested by categorical analysis using Pearson chi-Square or Fisher's exact test. Logistic regression was used to reveal correlation between implementation of competencies according to discipline and type of employer. All tests were considered to be significant at a 5% level. Analysis was carried out using SPSS 20.0. Findings: 85.9% (p = 0.021 <0.05) of the participants applied the knowledge they acquired in the seminar. The application of the competencies in public health services differed according to position (p<0.05). Supervisors achieved higher scores (81.4%) in the administration and management than the officers (48.5%). Health professionals felt that their performance has been improved and consequently the quality of the services (75%). Conclusion: The international programme gave them confidence that the acquired knowledge and skills were equal to those of their European colleagues and that they are able to deal with public health issues and to provide the respective services

Manufacturing SMEs Competitiveness against the Crisis: Management Characteristics and New Perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to study the drivers of competitiveness in sectors of the Greek manufacturing industry, both in the pro and post economic crisis era, based on firm level financial and qualitative data cover this gap, providing evidence about factors impact competitive dynamic of Greek manufacturing SMEs taking into account aspects of IT, knowledge management, training, innovation and financial ratios. The study is structured as follows: the next section presents a literature review on this subject, while section 3 highlight the methodology as well as the model approach of the study. In section 4, the empirical results of the study are presented and section 5 the main findings are discussed. Section 6 summarizes the empirical findings and draws the policy implications of the study

Determinants of Profitability in Aviation Industry of Europe and America

The civil aviation, is an industry evolving at exponential speed despite the significant problems that faces in the last decade (increase of oil price, terrorist attacks etc.) An important feature of aviation firms and generally all companies, is that their size reflects their efficiency and in general their economic growth. In this era of financial crisis, liquidity is a significant factor for the stabilization and growth of economic organizations. Therefore, the examination of cash flows as indicator of liquidity limitations is necessary for the measurement of firms profitability. In this study, we tried to see whether the efficiency of size of European and American airlines listed firms, depends on their growth and cash flows from investment activit

Recovery of silver from photographic waste: electrolysis behavior

Photographic waste is one of the wastes produced by the paper and printing industries. Photographic waste usually contains metal ions mostly silver, sodium, potassium and iron. Since silver is photosensitivity material and its valuable increasing price, people tends to recover the silver from photographic waste to reuse it in paper and printing industries. A lot of research had been done to effectively recover the silver from photographic waste. This research is to investigate the ability of electrolysis process to recover the silver from photographic waste. In the process of electrolysis, or commonly known as electrolytic silver recovery, a direct current is passed through a silver-rich solution between a positive electrode (the anode) and a negative electrode (the cathode). During the process, an electron is transferred from the cathode to the positively charged silver, converting it to its metallic state, which adheres to the cathode. There are two parameters that have been focused on; the effects of current supply to the electrolysis process on the yield of silver and the effects of distance between two electrodes on the yield of silver. The results show that the electrolysis is able to recover silver from photographic waste. For the current supply variable, the best current supply for the electrolysis process is 40 mA and variable of distance between electrodes contribute minor effect to the process. Electrolysis process is one of the cheapest processes since it is able to recover silver from photographic waste

Efficiency and Ship Class of Shipping Companies: The Case of Greek-owned Shipping Companies

Transport industry is a very importantfactor for countrys development in various fields.One of them is economic, since the development oftransport reinforces the trade relationships betweencountries and companies. This helps countries andfirms to utilize the competitive advantage which mayhave. Therefore, the volume of transport carried outby countries could reflect their growth. This studyaims to examine the efficiency (by ship class) ofGreek-owed shipping companies, listed on New Yorkstock markets. The analysis was performed via BCCmodel of Data Envelopment Analysis (inputsorientation)

Exploring the Behavioral Intentions of Food Tourists Who Visit Crete

Food tourism has been growing globally in recent years. Food tourism is considered as special interest tourism, attracting tourists who have a great interest in food. Tourists spend a significant percentage of their budget on the purchase of local food products and related food activities, contributing to the sustainable development of the touristic destination in the process. This survey took place in Crete, Greece, throughout the touristic period of 2021, and 4268 valid questionnaires were completed by international tourists. For the data analysis, the Structural Equation Model and an extended Theory of Planned Behavior Model, based on subjective norms, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and satisfaction, were used to better understand the consumers’ intentions to revisit and recommend the region of Crete. The outcomes of the research pinpointed that the perceived quality and perceived value of local foods positively influenced satisfaction, which, in turn, evoked favorable intentions to revisit and recommend Crete as a touristic destination. Moreover, while satisfaction, attitude, and subjective norms seem to be the most significant drivers affecting positive behavioral intentions, perceived behavior control seems to have had no significant impact. The implications and limitations of the survey, as well as future recommendations, are also discussed

The Impact of Dow Jones Sustainability Index on US Dollar Value

The scope of this study is to address the impact of stock index returns on exchange rate. In particular, it aims to fill the literature gap regarding the determinant role of socially responsible companies on the exchange rate Trade Weighted U.S. Dollar Index to Major Currencies as a proxy for US dollar value. For this reason, the Dow Jones Sustainable Index World (DJSIW) as a proxy for the world's leading companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria. A generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model is employed over US dollar value to major currencies for the period January, 1999 to May, 2016 using monthly data. A number of control variables were introduced in the proposed model, namely Oil prices, US interest rate, US supply money, trade balance and consumer confidence. The empirical results revealed the negative impact of stock returns of socially responsible companies on US dollar value inconsistent with proposed empirical literature. The results have significant implications for investors, portfolio managers and policymakers hedging on diversification strategies for their portfolios. Keywords: Exchange Rate, Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Returns JEL Classifications: G1, F2, Q40, M2

Attitudes and views of citizens regarding the contribution of the trail paths in protection and promotion of natural environment

In recent decades, large sections of trail paths throughout Greece have been maintained, revived, and marked, creating a wide network with a total length of approximately 3500 km. The trail paths are one of the main levers of tourism development as they contribute to the preservation, protection, and promotion of the countryside, cultural heritage, and tradition, to the more effective protection and management of areas of exceptional natural beauty and sensitive ecosystems with wildlife. This paper investigates the view of the citizens of the regional unit of Evros, Greece, on the contribution of the trail paths to the protection and promotion of the cultural and natural environment. The research was conducted with the use of a structured questionnaire and through personal interviews. The data were collected and analyzed with the use of descriptive statistical methods as well as multivariate analysis techniques. The results of the research show that the attitudes of citizens to the contribution of paths in the protection and promotion of the cultural and natural environment are directly or indirectly influenced by various factors. In particular, age directly affects the view of citizens towards the trail paths, with the younger ones having more positive views. Other important predictors of citizens’ views were the type of activity in the trail path, with citizens using them for leisure activities or using the easy roots having more positive views towards them