beSMART

Abdulaziz I. Almajed, Pam Mayhew

THE FINANCIAL ASPECT OF THE OPERATION OF NON-PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS (HEIs) IN POLAND

Elżbieta Janczyk-Strzała

Higher education institutions in Poland are currently operating in a very complex and dynamic environment, which greatly hinders their effective management. They cannot rely on subsidies to cover their costs. To survive and compete on the market, non-public schools must generate a positive financial result. They can therefore be considered as specific forms of enterprises operating in the market of educational services. The purpose of this paper is to present the basic financial categories of non-financial institutions in Poland over the last ten years.

IS THERE AN ARCTIC ECOSYSTEM EMERGING? OULU REGION’S PERSPECTIVE

Henna Hintsala, Sami Niemelä and Pekka Tervonen

Interest toward Arctic issues has been growing during the past years. This growing interest has not been followed by commonly shared definitions of the Arctic key concepts. This has led to a coexistence of a variety of definitions which sometimes are almost contradictory. The essence of the Arctic in the operational agendas is hard to find considering the high frequency of the term Arctic appearing in publicly expressed strategies. In this paper, the Arctic dimension and its relevance to key actors are investigated by applying an ecosystem approach. The studied case is from the Oulu region of Finland where there has been two consecutive projects aiming at the clarification of the role of the Arctic in the region. In addition to completed projects and their reports, the researched material in this paper consists of the preparation materials of the renewal process of the Oulu Innovation Alliance. This ecosystem approach offers an interesting alternative to deepening the understanding of the Arctic positioning of participating actors. Instead of analyzing separate strategic documents of individual actors, it is reasonable to study collaborative products of the members of the innovation ecosystem. However, an additional research step is introduced by this ecosystem approach – that is, that the existence of the ecosystem needs to be verified. As easily as organizations name the Arctic as their area of interest without explicating their interpretation of the Arctic, various collaborative forms of development are labeled as an ecosystem without validating the true nature of the co-operation. Therefore, in this paper the Oulu Innovation Alliance is first analyzed from the ecosystem perspective and after that the Arctic dimension is examined. According to this brief study, the Oulu Innovation Alliance fulfills the criteria of an innovation ecosystem – the key characteristics can be found in the preparatory documentation of the renewal process. Moreover, the plans for execution and operationalization of the Oulu Innovation Alliance seem to be sufficient to ensure the realization of the planned innovation ecosystem. Finally, the planned new Oulu Innovation Alliance cannot be interpreted as an Arctic innovation ecosystem – the Arctic dimension is addressed directly or indirectly in some of the sub-ecosystems, but it is not defined as a major factor. Compared to previous attempts to specify the true valuation of the Arctic dimension from the key actors’ perspective, the ecosystem approach offers a richer, deeper and more versatile view of the importance and weight of the Arctic issues. Hence, whenever it is suitable the ecosystem approach seems to be a justified research strategy when addressing these rather challenging issues.

Innovation ecosystem, Arctic context, Regional strategy

LOGISTICS INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF FLOUR IN NIGERIA

Joseph Adeniyi Kolawole , Cornelius Femi Popoola and Ezekiel Morakinyo Akinseye

This study investigated logistics information systems in the distribution of flour in Nigeria. A case study design was used and 50 staff of Honeywell Flour Mill was sampled for the study. Data generated through questionnaire were analysed using correlation and regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that logistic information systems such as e-commerce, interactive telephone systems and electronic data interchange positively correlated with distribution of flour in Honeywell Flour Mill. Finding also deduced that e-commerce, interactive telephone systems and electronic data interchange jointly and positively contribute to the distribution of flour in Honeywell Flour Mill in Nigeria (R=.935; Adj. R2= .642; F(3,47)=14.739; p<.05). The study therefore recommended that Honeywell Flour Mill should upgrade their logistic information systems to computer-to-computer communication of business transactions and documents, as well adopt new technology such as, tracking-and-tracing systems (Barcode-scanning for packages and palettes), tracking vehicles with Global Positioning System (GPS), measuring vehicle performance with ‘black boxes’ (containing logistic data) and Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI) into their systems.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES: CHALLENGES AND STRATEGY

Akinseye Ezekiel Morakinyo PhD, Cornelius Femi Popoola, Joseph Adeniyi Kolawole PhD

This study reviewed the HRM challenges in multinational Companies.  The study considered recruitment and selection, compensation and rewards, and performance management as major concepts of HRM in MNCs. The study identified political intrusion, cultural difference, language difference and communication skills, cultural adjustment and geographical locations as major factors affecting international recruiting and selection process in MNCs. The study also revealed political systems, laws and customs, labour union interference, economic climates and tax policies as major challenges facing MNCs in having best satisfactory reward and compensation. In addition, study revealed national culture, economic system, political system, legal system, organisational strategy, structure and culture as factors influencing best performance management in MNCs. The study proposed some significant strategies through theories and models for MNCs and recommended that HR managers should make sure that job descriptions are well writing, should ensure transparency at all stage of recruitment process and must guarantee confidentiality and practice of the same employment opportunity. MNCs should consider legal, socio-economic and cultural systems of a country when designing a balanced reward and compensation systems for their employees. Finally, HR managers should carry out weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual performance evaluations on each and every employees working performance.

Compensation, MNCs, Performance management, Recruitment, Rewards, Selection.

APPLICATION OF FIREWALL SYSTEM TO INTERNET SECURIT

Almost Every business today use an internet enabled facility for better communication, from individuals to corporate organization, this has raised a lot of concern on the security of every network or a single computer connected to the internet. Internet security has become a major issue in the current trend of things. And it’s like an evil which if left to spread will in no time have effects on us all. This study thus examined how firewall can be applied to internet security with a look at the various techniques and types of firewall and how it can help to secure the internet. The configuration procedure for firewall and how they could be turned ON or OFF were also discussed. It was observed that the application of firewall has played a significant role in curbing security threats that have increased on the internet and the need to proffer solutions to the situation and make the internet a safer place. However through this study, I advocate that internet security be improved upon in order to assure the users of the Internet of security and unauthorized access denied or set to self destroy any potential or anticipated threat.

Firewall, computer traffic, network, packet filters.

A STUDY ON USERS INTENTION OF USING MOBILE PAYMENT

This research explores how users are influenced to adopt the Mobile payment. The research employs the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine factors affecting the user’s attitude toward this emerging mobile technology and payment service. This study presents an extended technology acceptance model that integrates innovation diffusion theory to investigate what determine user mobile commerce acceptance, in which we explore the relationships among those following factors, namely, perceived ease of use, security, attitude toward using M-payment service and behavior intention to use M-payment

Perceived ease of use, Security, Attitude and Intention to use