EOQ in a Just in Time (JIT) World: An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of EOQ Variables on Operating Profit: The Case of Nigerian Bottling Company Plc

With today’s uncertain economy, companies are searching for alternative methods to keep ahead of their competitors by effectively driving sales and by cost reduction. Big manufacturing companies – as well as other companies, do not stand a chance in today’s environment if they do not have an appropriate inventory control model intact. The Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) and Just in Time (JIT) have been used for many years, but yet some companies have not taken advantage of it. An Economic order quantity could assist in deciding what would be the best optimal order quantity at the company’s lowest price. Similarly JIT focuses on providing customers with stocks at the right time and with the right quantity thereby reducing in process inventory and carrying costs and maximizing profits at the same time (Gonzalez and Gonzalez, 2010). All these in place in any organization are known as its inventory management system which invariable needs to be as efficient as possible in other to reduce costs and translate in profit maximization. In recent times there has been a clarion call to abandon EOQ model in place of JIT.  Perhaps this is because of the perceived benefits of JIT which includes:  time reduction as well as improved flow of goods from warehouse to shelves which in turn leads to regular replenishment of stock amongst others.  However, one might be tempted to ask: is this call for abandonment justifiable? Using JIT does it actually reduce costs as well as lead to profit maximization in the organization?. This study looks at the relevance of EOQ Variables – Cost of goods purchased and overheads in impacting on the profitability of the firm. In doing this,  the relationship of increase in cost of goods purchased against Operating profit  as well as increase in Overhead against Operating profit  of  manufacturing  companies in Nigeria were compared. Using Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Plc as a case study, Twenty – Nine (29) Years financial statements (1980-2009) were analyzed and the relationships between these variables were compared using regression analysis.  It was found out that there is a relationship amongst these variables in NBC PLC.  This paper thereafter, suggests that rather than abandon EOQ for JIT, they should complement each other for effective inventory management and ultimately lead to profit maximization. Keywords: Economic Order Quantity (EOQ), EOQ Variables, Just In Time (JIT), Nigerian Bottling Company Plc and Regression Analysis

IMPACT OF INSTITUTION-COMMUNITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM (ICEEE) ON BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES’ JOBS CREATION IN OMOKU – RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA FROM 2017 TO 2019

This study examines the impact of institution-community entrepreneurship education ecosystem (ICEEE) on business education graduates’ jobs creation skill. A descriptive follow up study of 329 Business education degree graduate students in the year 2017 and 2018, using a questionnaire, mean, cluster mean of the responses, and multiple regression analysis revealed that the students learned product-production using the model as well-established small-scale businesses; although not many jobs were created. The effectiveness of the ICEEE model can be experimented in different fields of study to equip students with requisite knowledge and skills for self-reliance.  Article visualizations

Integrating E-Learning Technologies in Business Education Course Delivery During Covid-19 Lockdown in South-South Nigeria

This study investigates the acceptability of utilizing e-learning technologies for business education course-delivery during the period of tertiary institutions lockdown as a result of COVID-19 pandemic in south-south, Nigeria. Hinged on the theory of Technology Acceptance by Davis, F. D, a descriptive survey research design using quantitative and qualitative approach was adopted. Data was collected via questionnaire, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was used for the qualitative approach. The study revealed that business educators utilized e-learning technologies to a very low extent during the pandemic. Therefore, strategies to forestall such hindrances and difficulties were identified and discussed. Keywords: e-learning, academic staff attitudes, ICT, synchronous, asynchronous, COVID-19 DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-32-09 Publication date: November 30th 202

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON THE INFLUENCE OF EXPERIENTIAL INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN LEARNING ACTIVITIES ON BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS’ E-BUSINESS COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT

This study examined the influence of experiential instructional design learning activities proposed by Abdulkarim and Ordu (2018) on business education students’ electronic business (e-business) competencies development in Colleges of Education in Rivers State. To achieve the main purpose of the study, two specific purposes, two research questions and one hypothesis were posed. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design to obtain data on participants’ self-evaluation. The population of the study was made up of 22 part-time Business education NCE I students from Federal College of Education (Tech.), Omoku during the 2018/2019 academic session. A research designed questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha to obtain a reliability index of 0.72. Data collected for the study were analysed using mean and simple linear regression. The findings show that the students highly develop e-business competencies evaluated. The result of test of hypothesis showed that experiential instructional design learning activities has significant influence on business education students’ development of e-business competencies. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others business educators who want to bridge the gap should adopt experiential instructional design.  Article visualizations

Prevalence and determinants of use of traditional methods of infertility treatment among women attending infertility clinic in Southeast Nigeria

Infertility, an obstacle to healthy living, makes its victims patronize traditional methods of infertility treatment (TMIT) in spite of associated complications. They turn to hospitals when this method fails. This is actually a serious issue because the presence of contaminated herbal products and the relationship between the use of TMIT and noncompliance with biomedical treatment regimens constitutes a major concern in medical practice. And the use of traditional methods of infertility treatment has been correlated with severe and fatal consequences. Therefore, the study assessed prevalence/determinants of TMIT use among patients visiting the gynaecology clinic at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA). Descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted for the research. Only 263 women took part in the study. The research instrument was questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that 95.4% of these women have used traditional methods for infertility treatment and factors influencing infertile women’s use of TMIT are demographic characteristics, infertility duration, husbands’ relatives’ pressure and cheap cost of traditional medical treatment. Again, inability of infertile women to disclose TMIT use to healthcare providers makes effective treatment difficult. Therefore, these impediments expose infertile women to use TMIT. The result is a guide to healthcare providers who are expected to know the extent of their parents’ use of TMIT

Anthropometric Study of the Cephalic and Nasal Indices of Ogu and Ikwerre People of Nigeria

Abstract: The aim of this study is to provide a baseline data of cephalic and nasal index of Ogu and Ikwerre people of southern Nigeria. Cephalic index is used to measure the size of the head while nasal index is used to measure the size of the nose. A total number of one thousand subjects (1000) comprising five hundred (500) from each tribe were selected for this study. To obtain the nasal index, the nasal length was measured from the nasion to the point where the nasal septum merges with the skin of the upper lip (nasospinale), while the nasal breadth was measured from ala to ala using a vernier caliper. For the cephalic index to be obtained, the head length was measured from the glabella to the external occipital protuberance (opistocranium), while the head breadth was measured from the transverse diameter of the head (biparietal diameter) using a spreading caliper. The results obtained showed that the Ikwerre males and females have a mean nasal index of 93.8 and 95.8 and a cephalic index of 74.9 and 74.8, respectively while the Ogu males and females have a mean nasal index of 95.8 and 87.34 and a cephalic index of 74.83 and 74.8, There was a significant difference in the nasal index of both Ikwerre and Ogu males and females (p<0.05), while the cephalic index showed no significant difference (p>0.05). This study has shown that the Ikwerre and Ogu people are both platyrrhines and their cephalic index indicated that they are dolicocephalic

Redes de conectividad entre empresas tecnológicas a través de un análisis métrico longitudinal de menciones de usuario en Twitter

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es identificar y describir (mediante un análisis cibermétrico de menciones de usuario) la intensidad y evolución de las relaciones establecidas entre compañías de un determinado sector industrial (tecnología) a través de sus correspondientes cuentas corporativas de Twitter, con el propósito de comprobar el valor que un análisis métrico de estas características puede tener a la hora de determinar la conectividad entre dichas compañías. Para ello se han contabilizado las menciones, tanto directas (MT) como ReTweets (RT), entre las cuentas de Twitter de una muestra de 50 compañías internacionales durante un período de seis meses. Los resultados indican que el grado de interacción entre las 50 empresas tecnológicas es débil (tanto si contamos el número de conexiones establecidas como si cuantificamos la intensidad de estas conexiones), estable, concentrado en unas pocas relaciones específicas y de carácter marcadamente asimétrico. Se concluye que, dada la baja interactividad detectada, las cuentas corporativas de las empresas tecnológicas en Twitter no son suficientes para analizar desde un punto de vista métrico la conectividad web establecida entre éstas, aunque sí útiles para conocer las políticas de comunicación oficiales entre ellas.This work has been carried out in the framework of the research project with reference APOSTD/2013/002, funded by the Regional Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (Generalitat Valenciana, Spain).Azorín-Richarte, D.; Orduña Malea, E.; Ontalba Ruipérez, JA. (2016). Redes de conectividad entre empresas tecnológicas a través de un análisis métrico longitudinal de menciones de usuario en Twitter. Revista española de Documentación Científica. 39(3):1-20. https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2016.3.1316S120393Adamic, L. A., & Huberman, B. A. (2001). The Web’s hidden order. Communications of the ACM, 44(9), 55-60. doi:10.1145/383694.383707Barabási, A.L. (2014). Linked: how everything is connected to everything else and what it means for business, Science, and every day life. New York: Basic Books.Barabási, A.-L., & Albert, R. (1999). Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks. Science, 286(5439), 509-512. doi:10.1126/science.286.5439.509Bollen, J., Mao, H., & Zeng, X. (2011). Twitter mood predicts the stock market. Journal of Computational Science, 2(1), 1-8. doi:10.1016/j.jocs.2010.12.007Carim, L., & Warwick, C. (2013). Use of social media for corporate communications by research-funding organisations in the UK. Public Relations Review, 39(5), 521-525. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.08.006Case, C. J.; King, D. L. (2010). Cutting edge communication: microblogging at the fortune 200, twitter implementation and usage. Issues in information systems, vol. 11(1), 216-223.Del-Fresno-García, M. (2014). Haciendo visible lo invisible: visualización de la estructura de las relaciones en red en Twitter por medio del análisis de redes sociales. El Profesional de la Informacion, 23(3), 246-252. doi:10.3145/epi.2014.may.04Gentle, A. (2009). Conversation and community: the social web for documentation. Laguna Hills; XML Press, p. 342.Huberman, B., Romero, D. M., & Wu, F. (2008). Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope. First Monday, 14(1). doi:10.5210/fm.v14i1.2317Jansen, B. J., Zhang, M., Sobel, K., & Chowdury, A. (2009). Twitter power: Tweets as electronic word of mouth. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(11), 2169-2188. doi:10.1002/asi.21149Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241-251. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005Ordu-a-Malea, E.; Aguillo, I.F. (2014). Cibermetría: midiendo el espacio red. Barcelona: UOC.Orduña-Malea, E., Delgado López-Cózar, E., Serrano-Cobos, J., & Romero, N. L. (2015). Disclosing the network structure of private companies on the web. Online Information Review, 39(3), 360-382. doi:10.1108/oir-11-2014-0282Orduña-Malea, E., Torres-Salinas, D., & Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2015). Hyperlinks embedded in twitter as a proxy for total external in-links to international university websites. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(7), 1447-1462. doi:10.1002/asi.23291Ortega, J. L., & Aguillo, I. F. (2011). Social Network Tools for the Assessment of the University Web Performance. Social Media Tools and Platforms in Learning Environments, 185-201. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-20392-3_11Luis Ortega, J., & Aguillo, I. F. (2013). Network visualisation as a way to the web usage analysis. Aslib Proceedings, 65(1), 40-53. doi:10.1108/00012531311297177Paniagua, J., & Sapena, J. (2014). Business performance and social media: Love or hate? Business Horizons, 57(6), 719-728. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2014.07.005Romero-Frías, E. (2011). Googling Companies-a Webometric Approach to Business Studies. Leading Issues in Business Research Methods, vol. 1, 93- 106.Romero, D. M., Galuba, W., Asur, S., & Huberman, B. A. (2011). Influence and passivity in social media. Proceedings of the 20th international conference companion on World wide web - WWW ’11. doi:10.1145/1963192.1963250Rybalko, S., & Seltzer, T. (2010). Dialogic communication in 140 characters or less: How Fortune 500 companies engage stakeholders using Twitter. Public Relations Review, 36(4), 336-341. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2010.08.004Shu, Z. (2015). How do technical companies use microblogging?. Twente; University of Twente, p. 300.Stieglitz, S.; Krüger, N. (2011). Analysis of Sentiments in Corporate Twitter Communication –A Case Study on an Issue of Toyota. 22nd Australasian conference on information systems - ACIS 2011 Proceedings, pp. 1-11 [paper 29]. Sydney, Australia: ACIS. http://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2011/29 [fecha de consulta: 12-03-2015]Thelwall, M. 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Reformar el imperio: el proceso de la toma de decisiones en la creación de las intendencias americanas (1765-1787)

The establishment of the intendencia system in the West Indies was a complex process. An analysis of the decision-making process enables us to highlight some of its major characteristics. We argue that decision-making was not only limited by royal approval, but involved strategic, tactical and operational aspects. The creation of intendencias was adapted to the local circumstances of the particular region of the West Indies. This flexibility also transformed the nature of intendencias, since those created by the Marquis of Esquilache did not have the same objectives as those created by José de Gálvez. On the whole, these new jurisdictions implied a new vision of Superior Gobierno.La implantación del sistema de intendencias en las Indias resultó ser un proceso complejo. Su análisis desde el punto de vista de la toma de decisiones nos permitió subrayar algunas de sus características. La toma de decisiones no se limitaba únicamente a la aprobación real, sino que era un proceso que tenía dimensiones estratégicas, tácticas y operativas. En cada territorio de las Indias el proceso se adaptó a las realidades locales. Esta flexibilidad también implicó transformaciones en la naturaleza de las intendencias. Las intendencias creadas por el marqués de Esquilache no tenían los mismos objetivos que las que fueron creadas por José de Gálvez. Estas nuevas jurisdicciones conllevaban una nueva visión del superior gobierno