Business Commons^™

Bridging The Gap Between Academics And Industry, Colm O'Kane

Conference papers

The benefits of close collaboration with industry for undergraduate design students have been repeatedly emphasised in the literature. This paper describes the operation of a design competition as a collaborative project between the DIT School of Manufacturing and Design Engineering and an external company. Small groups of design students were set a design brief and guided through the year by company representatives and by their academic supervisors. Along with giving an example of problem-based learning and showing how academic projects can remain relevant to the commercial design field, this paper gives an example of what approaches can be taken to …

Supply Chain Learning In The 3pl Industry: Lessons From An Irish Case, Pietro Evangelista, Alfonso Morvillo, Renato Passaro, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

The logistics service market is currently going through a fundamental transition. Globalisation of industrial and trade activities, mergers, acquisitions and alliances and the increasing role of ICT are rapidly transforming the 3PL industry and demanding new strategic perspectives of companies in the industry. Becoming closer to customers and continuously adapting products and services, represent potentially successful approaches to the development of competitive edge – by understanding changing market dynamics allows 3PLs to develop innovation in the services offered and leads to improved profitability. To this end knowledge resources and learning processes increasingly represent key elements within the evolving framework of …

An Investigation Of The Irish Road Haulage Industry’S External Environment, Eoin Plant, Declan Allen, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

The movement of goods is of critical importance to an economy, especially one, which is dependent on international trade such as Ireland. Considering Irelands distribution of manufacturing and other organisations throughout the country, many firms are dependent upon road haulage effectiveness and efficiency.

In recent times there has been somewhat of a growing unease in the road haulage industry in relation to increasing cost, squeezing profit margins even tighter. An understanding of the Irish road haulier’s business environment would undoubtedly shed greater light onto their situation. The paper addresses this issue with an analysis of the industry’s competitive environment.

The …

The Role Of Academic/Industry Partnerships In The Development Of Supply Chain Managers, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

The need for improvement in the logistics and supply chain management capability of companies in Ireland is becoming increasingly recognised. One of the main bottlenecks currently is the shortage of supply chain management professionals. Education and training has a fundamental role to play if the supply of suitably qualified human resource is to be addressed in a meaningful way. Recent research indicates that demand for people with the right knowledge and skills greatly exceed supply. There are numerous techniques and technologies which can facilitate improvement in a company’s supply chain capability. However, experience has shown that these tools alone can …

Tourism: A Soft Touch For Increased Taxation, Frank Mcmahon

Conference papers

This paper reviews the changes which are taking place internationally in the taxation of the tourism industry and the reasons why tourism is especially susceptible to increased taxation. It compares VAT rates in European countries and assesses the relationship between those rates and increases in international tourism receipts, concluding that there is not the direct, negative relationship which hotel associations frequently cited in their submissions to government. The canons of taxation, first devised by Adam Smith are applied to current tourism taxation: some distortions caused by taxation are identified. Finally, some topical taxation controversies are outlines, examples of positive taxation …