Business Commons^™

Comparing Variable Importance In Prediction Of Silence Behaviours Between Random Forest And Conditional Inference Forest Models., Stephen Barrett Dr, Geraldine Gray Dr, Colm Mcguinness Dr, Michael Knoll Dr.

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This paper explores variable importance metrics of Conditional Inference Trees (CIT) and classical Classification And Regression Trees (CART) based Random Forests. The paper compares both algorithms variable importance rankings and highlights why CIT should be used when dealing with data with different levels of aggregation. The models analysed explored the role of cultural factors at individual and societal level when predicting Organisational Silence behaviours.

Required Reading: The Role Of The Literary Scholar In Mapping Difference And Prompting Interest In Distant Destinations, Sue Norton

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Taking account of research into the relationship between the reading of narrative fiction and niche tourism, this article speculates on the role of the university lecturer of literature in shaping the touristic desires of students. It is especially interested in the influence of European based lecturers of American fiction as they stimulate the geographic imaginations of their learners. Since cultural capital accrues through the reading of serious works of literature, the influence of lecturers is likely to have some bearing on the eventual travel destinations of university graduates prompted to seek out the material locations that they have read about …

An Empirical Investigation Of The Relationship Between Business Performance And Suicide In The Us, Rawayda Abdou, Damien Cassells, Jenny Berrill, Jim Hanly

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Previous research suggests that mortality rates behave pro-cyclically with respect to economic growth, with suicides representing a notable exception that consistently increase in economic downturns. Over recent years, there is ample evidence in the literature that the working environment in the US has deteriorated significantly, suggesting that suicide rates may not necessarily behave in a counter-cyclical manner with business performance. Utilising recent suicide data, this study empirically tests the hypothesis that adverse working conditions over recent years may have resulted in a pro-cyclical relationship between business performance and suicide. Unlike previous studies, we use a stock market index, a leading …

A Proposal Digital Marketing Strategy For Marcheluzzo Srl: Training And Evaluating A Prediction Model For The Number Of Adv. Impressions, Charles Alves De Castro

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This research aims to describe a digital marketing strategy elaborated to be deployed in the MarcheluzzoSrl Company located in Italy. In addition, it intends to give a wide range of information to the company about its customers, target, competitors, market, digital marketing strategy, and potential recommendations. It is also important to highlight that this strategy is focused on the Brazilian market. Most of the information collected for the situational analysis and many other components for this research were gathered through the author`s perception during his internship in the company. The methodology includes secondary data collected through field observation in the …

Assessing The Market Niche Of Eurasian Rail Freight In The Belt And Road Era., Xu Zhang, Hans-Joachim Schramm

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This paper presents an overview of the recent development of Eurasian rail freight in the Belt and Road era and further evaluates its service quality in terms of transit times and transport costs compared to other transport modes in containerised supply chains between Europe and China.

A trade-off model of transit time and transport costs based on quantitative data from primary and secondary sources is developed to demonstrate the market niche for Eurasian rail freight vis-a-vis the more established modes of transport of sea, air, and sea/air. In a scenario analysis, further cargo attributes influencing modal choice are employed to …

Shareholder Theory/Shareholder Value, Maeve O'Connell, Anne Marie Ward

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Shareholder theory states that the primary objective of management is to maximize shareholder value. This objective ranks in front of the interests of other corporate stakeholders, such as employees, suppliers, customers, and society.Shareholder theory argues that shareholders are the ultimate owners of a corporate’s assets, and thus, the priority for managers and boards is to protect and grow these assets for the benefit of shareholders. Shareholder theory assumes that shareholders value corporate assets with two measurable metrics, dividends and share price. There-fore, management should make decisions that maximize the combined value of dividends and share price increases. However, shareholder theory …

Employing A Visual Representation Technique To Understand Undergraduates’ Perceptions Of Civic Engagement Across Countries, Sharon Feeney, John Hogan

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Purpose – This paper aims to present an interpretation of freehand drawings produced by a sample of final year degree level learners in response to the question: “What is civic engagement”? The aim in using this approach, with final year degree learners from different countries, but pursuing the same degree, was to compare and contrast their understanding of civic engagement.

Design/methodology/approach – Learners completed their drawings and then discussed their drawings in small groups. All of their drawings were initially examined quantitatively before a sample of six drawings were selected for in-depth qualitative examination.

Findings – Using learner-generated drawings enables …

Knowledge Management In The Pharmaceutical Industry: Between Academic Research And Industry Regulations, Ahmed Ramy, Mohamed Af Ragab, Amr Arisha

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The pharmaceutical sector is one of the pillars of the world’s economy. A significant proportion of its value lies in intellectual assets generated through continuous innovation and lengthy development cycles within a strictly regulated environment. The purpose of this paper is to address the gap between knowledge management (KM) as an expanding academic discipline in the pharmaceutical industry and at the same time a growing regulatory expectation. A systematic review of 137 refereed KM articles revealed six empirical research themes in the pharmaceutical industry. In a subsequent step, the discovered themes and subthemes were compared with the extant regulatory expectations …

Irish Agricultural Land Sales And Rental Prices, Frank Harrington

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There have been many commentaries on the Irish agricultural land market, but regrettably for those of us interested in it there have been limited reliable data to test our theories. Given the importance of agriculture to the Irish economy and society, it is surprising how little reliable primary data exists about the Irish agricultural land market. To help address this lack of data the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and Teagasc are publishing a 50-year dataset of agricultural land sales and rentals to complement the SCSI member survey data.

What Do Professional Drivers Think About Their Profession? An Examination Of Factors Contributing To The Driver Shortage, Chao Ji Hyland, Declan Allen

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A shortage of qualified and available professional drivers in the Freight, Transport, Distribution and Logistics (FTDL) sector is becoming an area of increasing concern in Ireland, and across the European mainland. This paper applies a two-stage research approach to address the issues causing the driver shortage and to analyse contributing factors. The findings reveal that remuneration and salaries are detrimental to recruitment and retention. While driver wellbeing in terms of physical and mental health is a major issue, little support is provided for training and education. There is a relationship between a driver’s age group and job satisfaction, and between …

Incentivizing And Re-Engaging Lapsed Health Club Members, Teresa Hurley, Corinne Faure, Seamus Kelly

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Purpose – This quantitative research paper examined factors influencing re-engagement intentions and re-engagement behavior of lapsed health club members and identified which sales promotion incentives are most effective in re-engaging this lapsed member market. While previous studies examined reengagement intentions and re-engagement behavior in isolation, no research could be located which examined both simultaneously and the impact of promotion incentives in the health and fitness industry.

Design/methodology/approach – Study A (mail survey) examined re-engagement intentions of one hundred lapsed members of a medium size suburban health club. Study B (an experimental field study) measured actual true re-engagement behavior using price …

Entrepreneuring After 50: The Liminal Identity Transitions Of Older Emergent Entrepreneurs, Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, Lucia Sell-Trujillo, Paul Donnelly

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Entrepreneurship has been proposed as a solution to extending working lives. However, little is known about how older (50+) entrepreneurs manage their personal transitions into entrepreneurship. In this paper, we propose to use a liminal identity work perspective to explore the identity paradoxes that older entrepreneurs experience during their transition into entrepreneurship and how they manage it. We use a qualitative study conducted over 14 months in the United Kingdom. Our analysis shows how older entrepreneurs confront identity paradoxes, interruptions and identity polarization in their attempts to shift from older identities and activity patterns into new ones. The entrepreneurs who …

Entrepreneurial Process Studies Using Insider Action Research: Opportunities & Challenges For Entrepreneurship Scholarship, Kisito Futonge Nzembayie, Anthony Paul Buckley

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This paper examines the opportunities and challenges of adopting Insider Action Research (IAR) in entrepreneurial process studies. It employs a critical reflexive and narrative approach in examining our own lived experience in a real-time digital entrepreneurial journey spanning three years while triangulating it with experiential knowledge in another role as dissertation supervisors. Our live case illustrates that IAR, when it combines reflective practice, cooperative inquiry and design science, represents a suitable but under-exploited methodology for entrepreneurship scholarship. We build on this knowledge to offer a model for incorporating this methodology in entrepreneurship research and education. Consequently, we contribute towards responding …

Unconditional Quantile Regression Analysis Of Uk Inbound Tourist Expenditures, Abhijit Sharma, Richard Woodward, Stefano Grillini

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Using International Passenger Survey (2017) data, this paper employs unconditional quantile regression (UQR) to analyse the determinants of tourist expenditure amongst inbound tourists to the United Kingdom. UQR allows us to estimate heterogeneous effects at any quantile of the distribution of the dependent variable. It overcomes the econometric limitations of ordinary least squares and quantile regression based estimates typically used to investigate tourism expenditures. However, our results reveal that the effects of our explanatory variables change across the distribution of tourist expenditure. This has important implications for those tasked with devising policies to enhance the UK’s tourist flows and expenditures.

Entrepreneurial Process Studies Using Insider Action Research: Opportunities & Challenges For Entrepreneurship Scholarship, Kisito Futonge Nzembayie, Anthony Paul Buckley

Articles

This paper examines the opportunities and challenges of adopting Insider Action Research (IAR) in entrepreneurial process studies. It employs a critical reflexive and narrative approach in examining our own lived experience in a real-time digital entrepreneurial journey spanning three years while triangulating it with experiential knowledge in another role as dissertation supervisors. Our live case illustrates that IAR, when it combines reflective practice, cooperative inquiry and design science, represents a suitable but under-exploited methodology for entrepreneurship scholarship. We build on this knowledge to offer a model for incorporating this methodology in entrepreneurship research and education. Consequently, we contribute towards responding …

The Relationship Between Financial Distress And Well-Being: Exploring The Role Of Self-Employment, Jenny Berrill, Damien Cassells, Martha O’Hagan-Luff, André Van Stel

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No abstract provided.

Exploring The Relationship Between Immigrant Enclave Theory And Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurial Opportunity Formation, Osa Godwin Osaghae Dr, Thomas M. Cooney

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Immigrant Enclave Theory (IET) investigates the concentration and localisation of immigrants in a specific geographic area. Some IET studies have highlighted the resilience of these communities and described such enclaves as sources of mutual support, collective political power and beneficial social relationships. Other studies have examined the influence of IET on immigrant entrepreneurial activity within these geographic areas, although some of these studies have highlighted IET as a contributor to low profit margin businesses due to over-representation of immigrant enterprises within the same sector and geographic locality. This article considers the potential for Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurship (TDE) as an alternative …

Reflections On Post-Bailout Policy Analysis In Ireland, Mary Murphy, John Hogan

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This short article reflects on observations from the forthcoming volume Policy Analysis in Ireland, edited by Hogan & Murphy. The volume forms part of the International Library of Policy Analysis series, which covers more than twenty countries, published by Policy Press and edited by Michael Howlett and Iris Geva-May. While various themes emerge from the Irish volume, this article focuses on only one core question: whether and how the 2008 economic crisis contracted and expanded the capacity for policy analysis in Ireland. The troika of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and the European Commission are associated with policy …

Blockchain And Insurance: A Review For Operations And Regulation, Richard Brophy

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the operational and regulatory positions of the employment of Blockchain in the insurance industry. Blockchain technology has attracted wide interest from various stakeholders. Many theorists are predicting that this technology will disrupt financial services, including insurance. As stated that the development of blockchain is dependent on regulatory acceptance of this technology, it is essential to establish the current state of play with regard to the application and use of blockchain from a commercial and regulatory standpoints.

The Capm, National Stock Market Betas, And Macroeconomic Covariates: A Global Analysis, Michael Curran, Adnan Velic

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Using global data on aggregate stock markets, this paper finds that the capital asset pricing model fares much better than suggested previously. At shorter time horizons, our results also show that the positive risk-reward relation can collapse during times of high volatility. Compared to other countries, we retrieve evidence of lower systematic risks across frontier equity portfolios. We find that countries characterized by higher levels of openness, exchange rate volatility, and larger economic size are exposed to higher systematic covariances with the world stock market. Conversely, we obtain an inverse link between international reserves and systematic risks in national equity.

Greenbury Report (Uk), Maeve O'Connell, Anne Marie Ward

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The Greenbury Report on Directors Remuneration (1995) (hereafter called the Greenbury Report) was one of the first comprehensive governance codes directly addressing executive and director remuneration. The Greenbury Report was commissioned by the Confederation of British Industry in response to public concerns over recently privatized public utilities and the salaries and bonuses earned by executives, while they implemented job cuts, and service price increases.

The Greenbury Report recommended an independent remuneration committee, linking executive pay to corporate financial and operational performance measures, and increased the requirements for disclosure and transparency on directors’ remuneration. However, the credibility of the Greenbury Report …

Brent Crude Oil Prices Volatility During Major Crises, Miroslava Zavadska, Lucia Morales, Joseph Coughlan

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Volatility patterns in Brent crude oil spot and futures prices are examined during four major crises that significantly affected the oil markets: the First Gulf war 1990/91; the Asian Financial crisis 1997/98; the US terrorist attack 2001; and the Global Financial crisis 2008/9. The selected crises arose due to different triggers having diverse implications for oil market participants. The outcomes reveal higher levels of volatility during crises that was directly associated with oil supply/demand disruptions and higher volatility persistence during financial/economic crises, indicating that volatility persistence is a key issue when uncertainty is derived from global economic and financial instability.

Corporate Governance, Measurement Of, Maeve O'Connell, Anne Marie Ward

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The increased focus on good governance and the development of best practice guidelines, often supported by legislation, has been in response to corporate scandals, such as Enron and Worldcom in the early 2000s, and the 2008 banking crisis. Good governance is increasingly recognised as a process where the ‘best practices' of yesterday become the standard practices of today. This increased focus has also coincided with a worldwide movement for corporate reporting on sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues and a growing demand within the investment industry for investment products that are socially responsible (Benn and Dunphy 2013). Sustainable development …

Analytical Framework And Student Perceptions: Assessing The Quality Of Doctoral Education In Accounting In Ireland, Anne Marie Ward, Louise Gorman, Niamh M. Brennan

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To examine the quality of doctoral education in accounting in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland, we develop an analytical framework from the relevant literature and the principles of quality doctoral education included in the Higher Education Authority’s (HEA) National Framework for Doctoral Education (NFDE). Our analytical framework identifies 16 measurable indicators of quality doctoral education classified into four dimensions: context, inputs, processes and outcomes. Compliance with the quality indicators is verified by coding HEI websites and prospectuses. Deeper insights on the indicators of quality doctoral education are obtained from semi-structured interviews with accounting doctoral students. Our findings shed valuable …

Risk Management And Hedging Approaches In Energy Markets, Jim Hanly

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Energy based assets are showing increased susceptibility to volatility arising out of geo-political, economic, climate and technological events. Given the economic importance of energy products, their market participants need to be able to access efficient strategies to effectively manage their exposures and reduce price risk. This chapter will outline the key futures based hedging approaches that have been developed for managing energy price risk and evaluate their effectiveness. A key element of this analysis will be the breadth of assets considered. These include Crude and Refined Oil products, Natural Gas, and wholesale Electricity markets. We find significant differences in the …

Interest Rate Volatility And Macroeconomic Dynamics: Heterogeneity Matters, Michael Curran, Adnan Velic

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We examine the relation between real interest rate volatility and aggregate fluctuations for a diverse sample of countries. Compiling a new dataset including emerging and advanced countries, the substantial variation in our data yields novel results: (a) stochastic volatility outperforms Markovswitching in representing interest rates, (b) some advanced economies can be more volatile than emerging markets, and (c) creditors take on more debt following volatility shocks. We show how an equilibrium business cycle model with uncertainty shocks can generate these facts. Sample heterogeneity produces significant parameter differences, playing an important role in distinguishing the effects of volatility shocks.

Uses And Gratifications Of Generation Z Within Social Networks: A Dialectical Investigation Into The Facebook Domain, Ryan O'Carroll, Tara Rooney

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To date, little research has considered how various types of gratifications operate within SNSs such as Facebook (LaRose et al. 2001; Quan-Haase and Young, 2010; Wang, 2015). To address this gap, we explore Generation Z’s motivational behaviour through the lens of Uses and Gratifications Theory. Additionally, we investigate the types of gratification obtained by Generation Z through Facebook. The research adopted an interpretivist philosophy and employed a qualitative approach. The data collection method used semi-structured interviews, in conjunction with qualitative digital diary research. Research participants were requested to record emotions, behaviours and opinions in their digital diaries over a consecutive …

The Wild Atlantic Way: A Tourism Journey, Kevin A. Griffin, Gerard Dunne

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The Wild Atlantic Way is possibly the most celebrated, high profile tourism initiative to be launched in Ireland in recent years. It consists of a defined touring route along the western seaboard, one of the most scenic, remote, and sensitive stretches of Irish landscape. This paper presents the principal findings from a survey of 341 tourism and hospitality product providers along the Wild Atlantic Way. The main aim of the research was to investigate the perceived impacts (economic, environmental, and socio-cultural) of this new tourism initiative on the local areas through which it passes. The results paint a generally positive …

Stakeholder Engagement And The Future Of Irish Public–Private Partnerships, Gail Sheppard, Matthias Beck

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Building on recent works that stress the importance of stakeholder engagement in partnerships, we propose a novel benchmarking framework for the evaluation of public–private partnerships. This framework describes mutuality and the preservation of organisational identity as the ideal characteristics of partnerships because they, in turn, encourage stakeholder support for public–private partnerships. Applying this framework to infrastructure public–private partnerships in Ireland, we note that mutual accountability has been weakened following the financial crisis. Meanwhile, con-sultation with clients such as key public–private partnership stakeholders, which would help articulate organisational identities, remains patchy across the education, justice
and health public–private partnership that we …

American Option Pricing: Optimal Lattice Models And Multidimensional Efficiency Tests, Qianru Shang, Brian Byrne

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We introduce a set of lattice techniques to the Leisen‐Reimer and Tian binomial models with a view to accelerating computation time and improving accuracy of American Option valuation. A level of accuracy and efficiency combined can be achieved that surpass commonly used analytical analogues. We compare these efficient lattice models with analytical formulae for pricing different groups of options according to the deepness of American quality and moneyness. Our results reveal that counter to received wisdom, lattices constructs produce greater speed and accuracy for all option categories relative to the best performing closed form American analogues.