The objective of this study was to extend the prior literature and examine the link between the corporate management strategies in view of resource availability uncertainty with practices in civil aviation business. The collection of data for the analyses of the hypotheses has been gathered by interviews that were held with the high level executives from TAV Airport Holding: TAV companies practices have been investigated to expose the relationship between the resource dependence and the risk management practices. It has been concluded in the research that resource dependence and theories of transaction costs, especially in managing the uncertainty of sourcing are taken into account for development of the corporate risk strategies. In this study, it has been tried to obtain information about the practices in the sector with using semi-structured interviews from the qualitative techniques. Also, interviews were conducted with the senior managers of Sun Express Airlines and the Budapest Manager of Turkish Airlines and Fraport IC İ?taş Antalya Airport Terminal Investment and Management Inc., as well as the interview form was presented. Therefore, both airport station management and airline management were in the scope of the study. It has been tried to obtain the total original image with the leading representatives of the sector in the country and the perspective of enterprise risk management in the light of the hypotheses. The findings were proved that in order to achieve in business strategies, corporates should be find optimum way about providing scarce resources. Setting of resource dependency based strategies were find necessary for competitive differentiation and the institutional sustainability. What we were conclude is, manager?s strategies may changes according to resource uncertainty, the resource availability and its competitive qualifications. Key Words: Management and Strategy, Corporate Risk Management, Resource Dependence Theory, Resource Uncertainty, Risk Strategy.
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An Analysis of the Customer Satisfaction from the Service Quality of General Services of Saudi Airlines ZAID AHMAD ANSARI and FARAN AHMAD QADRI Pages: 1564-1571
The main objective of the study was to find out customer satisfaction from the services quality of general services of Saudi Airlines and to highlight the major areas of improvement to the Saudi Airlines Authority. A Structured close ended questionnaire was developed and distributed among the users of Saudi Airlines to collect the data for results. The researchers used Five point Likert scale to measure the satisfaction level. Six areas of general services representing general services of Airlines measured the satisfaction of users from general services. Data were collected from 400 users of Saudi Airlines Services including Saudi National and Non-Saudi Nationals. Users of Saudi Airlines in general are not satisfied with its general services. The results are statistically significant. It is high time for the management of the Saudi Airlines to focus on customer satisfaction, for all the six variables under study in this research, satisfaction is low and need improvement to gain customer satisfaction. Key Words: Airlines, Saudia, Customer, Satisfaction, Service Quality.
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Managers Perceptions of Ethics in Small and Medium Businesses in Iran SOHEILA DAROUIAN, JAMSHID SALEHI SADAGHIANI and PANTEA SALEHI SADAGHIANI Pages: 1572-1578
In todays complex world, speed of innovation and theories of human development is very high and every day many styles, methods and techniques in any field of science shows and important factor that maintains the procedures is ethical framework and human principles that makes survival and determine different theory. Thus, the aim of this study is intended manager perceptions of professional ethics in small and medium businesses. This study uses two methods to collect library records for collecting history of research and the questionnaire has been implemented. The statistical community is managers of small and medium businesses in Tehran Shams Abad Industrial Town, that number 150 were determined by using cluster sampling, Questionnaire has twenty questions about the research variables. Data from the questionnaire were analyzed by using analysis of variances. Among the hypotheses in this study assessed the hypothesis that a significant difference between managers perceptions of professional ethics in the age g
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Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Business Communication: Evidence from Sri Lanka R.M. KAPILA THARANGA RATHNAYAKA Pages: 1579-1587
Cross-cultural dimensions have become as an essential factor for understanding miscellaneous type of social, economic and business environments. It can be define as a learned system of knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, belief and norms which are shared among a group of people in different nations or cultures. This study examines the effect of the ethical corporate cultural dimensions on the business participation and activities in Sri Lanka. The survey directed over the 181 employees who belong to four ethnic groups provided the data for empirical investigation. In order to test the hypothesis, correlation and regression techniques were basically applied. The study result clearly shows that, workplace collectivism has a strong and significant effect on the business activities and participation rather other underlined variables. Key Words: Collectivism, Group Loyalty and Cross Cultural Dimensions.
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The Impact of Information Communication Technologies in the Strategic Management of Financial Institutions AGWU M. EDWIN, ATUMA OKPARA, AIGBIREMOLEN, O. MIKE and IYOHA O. FRANCIS Pages: 1588-1602
ICTs have contributed a lot in the strategic and operations management of financial institutions all over the world. Today, ICT is employed in all the departments of most financial institutions such as operations, customer services, marketing, administration, human resource, procurement, accounting, financial management, etc. The general consensus among various academicians is that ICTs have improved the processes of operations and management. It has also played significant roles in strategic and operational management and also determined the marketing mix, strategic decisions, ownerships, management and partnerships such as alliances and mergers. This study investigated the role of ICTs in the strategic and operational management of financial institutions using a qualitative research method involving the interview of top managements and operational staffs of four selected banks in the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Findings revealed that ICTs have indeed contributed a lot in improving the functioning of all departments of the selected banks such as marketing, operations, HR, finance, call centers, customer services, etc. The benefits gained by the various banks after the implementation of ICTs include better online and offline support for their customers, ROI justification, profitable sales volume, reduction of queues in the banking halls, and very interactive websites. There are however, many departments and other functional areas where ICTs have not been fully utilized. Moreover, many financial institutions have not fully adopted and applied ICT to all functional areas. The study recommends that these can be resolved through proper training, i.e. the provision of ICT related training to employees with respect to the strategic and operational management of the banks as well as exploration of the importance of the recruitment of external consultants who are specialized in their respective fields to render solid supports. Key Words: ICT, Financial Institutions, Customers, ROI, Value Added.
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Impact of Micro and Small Business Entrepreneurship on Poverty Reduction in Ibadan Metropolis, South Western Nigeria ADEBAYO, NATHANIEL ADEYEMI and NASSAR, MOSHOOD LANREWAJU Pages: 1603-1626
The main objective of this study was to assess impact of Micro and Small business entrepreneurship on poverty reduction in Ibadan metropolis, South Western Nigeria. The study population was drawn from a register of relevant trade associations and published government documents, which yieded a total of 383 enterprises. The study used proportional sampling method. The main Statistical tool was the Counterfactual or Difference-in-Difference model of impact assessment. With exp (β3) = 1.385, the empirical results indicated that the odds of individuals in micro and small business entrepreneurship in Ibadan metropolis to earn more than US$1.25 per day increased by 39 %. The study found that the impact could have been more pronounced but for some socio-economic, infrastructural and management challenges. Study recommends strengthening of youth entrepreneurship, increased publicity of government Business Development and Support Services, liberalization of access to and usage of business premises, reduction in cost of production, improvement of infrastructural facilities among others. Key Words: Entrepreneurship, Micro and Small Enterprises, Counterfactual Model, Poverty Reduction, Nigeria, Informal Business Sector.
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The Impact of Investor Sentiment on The Tunisian Stock Market ADEL BOUBAKER and MARIEM TALBI Pages: 1627-1644
Investor sentiment is a key concept in behavioral finance, it has attracted the interest of many researchers over the last decade. The present study develops a new measure of investor sentiment which includes indirect indicators. Our main objective is to test the impact of investor sentiment on returns on the Tunisian stock market. We construct the composite sentiment index using indirect indicators measuring sentiment (the performance index, the number of IPO, the average profitability of the first days of the firms newly introduced, the volatility premium, the Premium Dividend and finally the turnover rate) and based on the analysis of the principal component. Using a VAR model, we record a strong negative relationship between investor sentiment and future returnsaccording to the test results of the Granger causality and impulse response function. In addition, we find that of all past actions with different characteristics are not factors that explain the sentiment indicator. Key Words: Investor Sentiment, Stock Return, Market Timing, Var Model.
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Adapting Higher Education through Skills to the Professional Needs SANTANDREU-MASCARELL, CRISTINA and CANOS-DAROS, LOURDES Pages: 1645-1659
This article aims to show the importance of studying on the part of universities to acquire the skills they need workers in companies today that these are innovative, are constantly changing and constantly adapt to the environment. Universities have a key role in the training of future employees and recycling of these. Therefore must know what capabilities should train their students to these meet the needs of todays business environment. Universities should be continuously updated and adapted to the needs of their customers, companies. At this time the universities must be aware of the business needs to innovate and therefore should pay special attention to train entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Therefore, in any grade must have skills that make their estuddiantes to be innovators, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Key Words: Higher Education, Innovation, Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs, Innovation, Competences and Skills.
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Line Managers Involvement in HRM Activities: A Malaysian Case Study NIK HAZIMAH NIK MAT and PATTANEE SUSOMRITH Pages: 1660-1670
Despite evidence on greater line managers involvement in many HRM activities, the overall picture of their HRM role is still blurred especially in terms of their coverage and depth of involvement in HRM activities. For line managers to deliver their HRM role effectively, it must be clearly defined so they can enact the role according to the expectations of their role evaluators, who include the line managers supervisors, employees and HR specialists. The expectations of role evaluators are important because the assessment of line managers performance depends on what the role evaluators perceive as valuable. However, the expectations of the role evaluators change and this is a factor that contributes to variation in the HRM role of line managers. This paper presents the preliminary findings of a study conducted in Malaysian airports. A qualitative study through case study was conducted at three airports. Drawing on role theory concepts, interviews were conducted with senior managers and HR representatives at these airports to explore their perceptions of the HRM activities of line managers. Content analysis was employed to interpret the interviews data for themes related to role theory. Results indicate differences on the perceived HRM activities of line managers between airports as they differed in terms of airport category, size and operation. This finding has important implications in developing the line managers HRM role as the structural differentiation is likely to influence the expectations of role evaluators, which is crucial in achieving consensus between the intended and actual implementation of line managers. Key Words: Line Managers, HRM Role, Role Theory, Malaysia.
