The Influence of Managerial Forces and Users’ Judgements on Forecasting in International Manufacturers: a Grounded Study

Despite the improvements in mathematical forecasting techniques, the increase in forecasting accuracy is not yet significant. Previous research discussed various forecasting issues and techniques without paying attention to users’ forces and behaviours that influence the construction of forecasts. This research investigates this gap through examining the managerial forces that influence the judgements of different users and constructors of forecasts in international pharmaceutical companies. A qualitative research applying Grounded Theory methodology is used to explore the concealed forces in forecasting processes by interviewing different constructors and users of forecasts in international contexts. Using the Coding Matrices, the research identifies the forces which induce users’ judgements, and consequently lead to conflicts. The research adds value by providing assessment criteria of forecasting management in future research

Attitudes Toward Business Ethics in Different Contexts: a Cross-Cultural Comparison between professionals in Jordan and UK

Understanding the attitude and perception of business professionals towards ethics, in an era of dynamic globalisation is important for investors to make strategic decisions. We explore this manifestation of business ethics across cultures in terms of ethical perceptions, moral philosophies and ethical judgments, by focusing upon the attitudes of professionals towards ethics, in two culturally and institutionally different countries: Jordan and the UK. We base our theorisation on Hofstede's Theory of International Cultures, selected business philosophies and incorporate individual and situational factors influencing ethical perception to develop our hypotheses, which were then tested by applying ATBEQ and EPQ. Our findings show significant differences in between in professionals’ views to Social Darwinism and ethical relativism in Jordan and UK. This difference was detected in based on variations between Muslims in UK and Jordan in their views to business ethics. Collectively our study shows that but the culture and societal factors have the higher effect when compared to religion. Moreover, weighing the views toward Ethical Relativism by using of Attitudes Toward Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) and Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) is inconsistent in the current research, which can be an opportunity to develop a new measures for attitude toward business ethics

International Learning Development and the International Student Experience

The International Learning Development (ILD) programme is the University of Huddersfield Business School’s customised and unique support provision for its international student body. The key objective is the development of undergraduate and postgraduate taught students’ academic skills with the overall aim of continuous improvement in terms of achievement and the international student experience

COVID-19 and diabetes in 2020: a systematic review

Attempts were made to review the literature on diabetic patients who experience complications when they contract COVID-19, and to determine whether ethnicity and other risk factors play an important role in the development of symptoms and their severity, as well as responding to medications. A literature search was performed using fve keywords, namely COVID-19, diabetes, ethnicity, medications, and risk factors between January 2019 and December 2020 using electronic databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Springer Link, and Scopus. Forty studies were included. The review indicated that diabetes was a signifcant risk factor for poorer outcomes and increased mortality associated with COVID-19. There were several risk factors for diabetic patients that increased their likelihood of poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19. These included black and Asian ethnicity, male sex with high BMI. In conclusion, patients with diabetes of black or Asian origin with high BMI, male sex, and older age had an increased risk of poorer outcomes associated with COVID-19. This highlights the importance of considering the history of the patient in prioritising care and treatment

An Evaluation of the Potential of Bayesian Sales Forecasting in Improving the Long-term Marketing and Management Performance of UK Pharmaceutical Firms

Management needs to deal with increasing uncertainty of environmental changes to make critical and important decisions about the future in the present time. Sales forecasting is fundamental to management's ability to plan, budget and control. It is not a question of whether managers should forecast or not; but the main question is how they are to do so, and this fact is applicable to all organisations in all industries. Understanding of forecasting approaches and tools is crucial to carry out managerial activities such as data acquisition, data audits, links with formal planning procedures and other management systems, maintenance of existing applications, and identification and implementation of new applications. The latest studies indicate that defects with forecasting do not lie in technical areas but in the gap between forecasters (producers) and managers (users); which is mainly because the forecasters might not be able to understand the managers' needs, and the managers are not capable of understanding the forecasting techniques especially complicated ones. Consequently, this has led to a gap in communication that caused ill-matched forecasts and unavoidable results

Pharmerging Countries in the Middle East: a Spotlight on Jordan

The pharmaceutical industry is considered the most growing business. It has a huge profit margin and high investment in Research and Development to create new products to treat new diseases in addition to high investment in the marketing projects and sales power. Objectives – there are three main objectives of this paper: first purpose is to examine the globalisation in the pharmaceutical business, second purpose is to examine the opportunities in the Middle East pharmaceutical markets as a Pharmerging market and the third purpose is to examine the Jordanian pharmaceutical market as a future emerging market from a strategic point of view. The authors analyse the advantage / disadvantage ratio to penetrate the pharmaceutical Jordanian market. The authors suggest that penetrating Jordanian pharmaceutical market could be the gate to the whole Middle East region. Purpose: is to provide information for the pharmaceutical companies the latest data about the Pharmerging countries in the Middle East and long-term strategic decision in the region. Originality / Value – the article addresses the strategic importance for the pharmaceutical companies to consider when penetrating the MENA countries (Middle East and North Africa

Huddersfield team says “we have an impact while we are learning”

This article introduces a mutual project initiative between a team from the University of Huddersfield and Pontis Foundation. The team comprised of selected 2015 / 16 first-year students studying ethical and social impact issues on the Business and Environment module, and headed by the author of this article and module leader, Radi Haloub. The intent of this collaboration was to interact with an existing fair trade company, Ten Senses, in Kenya, one of Africa’s developing countries, in order to contribute towards improving teaching and learning experiences in Kenya and the UK

Assessment of Forecasting Management in International Pharmaceutical Companies: A Grounded Theory Study

Despite the improvements in mathematical forecasts and teh creation of new formulas in forecasting, the increase in the accuracy forecasts is not yet significant, thus, leading to an increase in the size of the gap between academia and practice. Furthermore, Applying mathematical forecasting techniques alone is not sufficient in light of the existing lack of knowledge about forecasting, which, thus, gives rise to the importance of judgements and the possible contributions they may add to the forecasting management process