Business Commons^™

A System Dynamics View Of The Acute Bed Blockage Problem In The Irish Healthcare System, Waleed Abo Hamad, Wael Rashwan, Amr Arisha

Articles

Global population ageing is creating immense pressures on hospitals and other healthcare services, compromising their abilities to meet the growing demand from elderly patients. Current demand–supply gaps result in prolonged waiting times in emergency departments (EDs), and several studies have focused on improving ED performance. However, the overcrowding in EDs generally stems from delayed patient flows to inpatient wards – which are congested with inpatients waiting for beds in post-acute facilities. This problem of bed blocking in acute hospitals causes substantial cost burdens on hospitals. This study presents a system dynamics methodology to model the dynamic flow of elderly patients …

Religious Tourism Product Bundling An Innovative Approach To Destination Marketing And Visitor Experience Management: The Case Of Early Christian Sites In The East Of Ireland, Vreny Enongene, Kevin Griffin

Conference papers

Innovation has emerged as a re-occurring theme for the sustainability and competitiveness of the tourism and hospitality industry, and for faith-based tourism, the many and on-going changes within the demographics and purchasing behavior of the religious market in the past 10-20 years (Leisure Travel Group, 2013) calls for innovative approaches to enhancing the visitor experience, and attracting visitors. As Manson suggests, either you ‘innovate or die’. In so doing, Ireland is determined to foster an innovation culture for the sustainability of the tourism industry (Failte Ireland, 2009) based on the vision that the tourism industry is expected to continually play …

Responsible Sales And Service Of Alcohol For The Tourism, Hospitality And Retail Industries, James Peter Murphy

Books/Book Chapters

The safe service of alcohol is of vital importance to those in the food and beverage industry - failure to act responsibly can result in fines, loss of license and the potential closure of the business. Responsible sale and service of alcohol (RSA) is important for all levels of the hospitality, tourism and retail service industries to minimise the risk of alcohol-related problems associated with the use and abuse of alcohol by any person. Management and all staff who sell or supply alcohol must promote and support a safer environment for alcohol to be consumed in a professional and responsible …

Using Sequential Mixed Methods In Enterprise Policy Evaluation. Special Mixed Methods Edition., Anthony Paul Buckley

Articles

How might policy instruments contribute to indigenous firm growth and how can the effects of these instruments be evaluated at both firm and policy level? This paper illustrates how a mixed methods research design and data analysis strategy can pragmatically address the research questions outlined above. The advantages and challenges of employing quantitative research methods (what happened?) followed by confirmatory qualitative research methods (how and why did it happen?) in a multiphase sequential explanatory design is explored. The data analysis strategy is firstly to analyse the data generated from a ‘before and after’ quasi-experiment (with statistical controls), then data from …

Remote Risk Assessment: A Case Study Using Scope Software, Maria Chiara Leva, Farzad Naghdali, Noral Balfe, Marko Gerbec, Micaela De Michela

Articles

A thorough risk assessment requires input from experts in both safety analyses and the system under analysis. The cost of collecting together the required expertise for a short risk assessment may mean that for some small and medium enterprises (SME), the risk assessment is not deemed worthwhile or is completed using a generic form. This is despite the possible safety and performance benefits that can be identified via a thorough risk assessment. This paper presents a case study of a risk assessment on a rare periodic inspection & maintenance procedure planned by a LPG storage and distribution company in Slovenia. …

Derivatives Pricing With Accelerated Trinomial Trees, Conall O'Sullivan, Stephen O'Sullivan

Articles

Accelerated Trinomial Trees (ATTs) are a derivatives pricing lattice method that circumvent the restrictive time step condition inherent in standard trinomial trees and explicit finite difference methods (FDMs) in which the time step must scale with the square of the spatial step. ATTs consist of L uniform supersteps each of which contains an inner lattice/trinomial tree with N non-uniform subtime steps. Similarly to implicit FDMs, the size of the superstep in ATTs, a function of N, are constrained primarily by accuracy demands. ATTs can price options up to N times faster than standard trinomial trees (explicit FDMs). ATTs can be …

Performance Of Utility Based Hedges, Jim Hanly, John Cotter

Articles

Hedgers as investors are concerned with both risk and return. However when measuring hedging performance, the role of returns and investor risk aversion has generally been neglected in the literature, by its focus on minimum variance hedging. In this paper we address this by using utility based performance metrics to evaluate the hedging effectiveness of utility based hedges for hedgers with both moderate and high risk aversion together with the more traditional minimum variance approach. To examine this for an energy hedger, we apply our approach to WTI Crude Oil, for three different hedging horizons, daily, weekly and monthly. We …

Procurement In Property And Construction - A Review Of Practises Under Taken By A Medium Size Contractor In Ireland, Charles Mitchell

Other Resources

3B Contracting Limited is a privately owned building and civil engineering firm on the east coast of Ireland. The company works predominately within the east Leinster region. The company falls into the category of being a small to medium size contracting company.

The procurement function is carried out by a number of small departments. Procurement is a key function for securing value for money and ensuring the successful continuation of the company.

Most projects tendered are done so using the traditional method of design-bid-build and as a result the subsequent sub-contract packages are secured in a similar manner. All plant …

Evaluating Hrd Programmes, Sue Mulhall

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Technology-Enhanced Learning: Towards Providing Supports For Phd Students And Researchers In Higher Education., Eileen O'Donnell, Liam O'Donnell

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Learning Theories: Epedagogical Strategies For Massive Open Online Courses (Moocs) In Higher Education, Eileen O'Donnell, Mary Sharp, Seamus Lawless, Liam O'Donnell

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter reviews various learning theories about e-pedagogical strategies for the effective use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in higher education. E-pedagogical strategies refer to the various teaching methods or approaches used by educators when encouraging students to engage with online learning. An up-to-date broad knowledge of learning theories is required by educators to inform and inspire their teaching approaches. Before developing lesson plans, educators should have a clear idea of the learning outcomes which they hope the learners will achieve by engaging with the lessons, be they delivered on or off line. By knowing the desired learning outcomes …

An Action Plan For Implementing Responsible Management Education In Business Schools In The Uk And Ireland, Maeve O'Connell, Lorraine Sweeney

Other resources

Recent corporate scandals have resulted in criticism of business schools for graduating students who put too much emphasis on shareholder value and profit maximisation but neglect the broader social and environmental context in which businesses operate. The Principles for Responsible Management (PRME) are a set of voluntary standards developed in 2007 under the coordination of the UN Global Compact, to address weaknesses in ethical education. This paper reviews the context of the PRME principles and UK and Irish school signatories’ approaches to implementation through a review of their reports to PRME to outline the range of options available to a …

‘Enterprise Engagement In Education (Eee) Pathways And Supports Project, Anushree Priyadarshini

Reports

The EEE Pathways and Supports Project is a collaborative initiative between CEEN and HECA, focused on promoting enterprise engagement within the HEI, to both inform and contribute to the delivery of entrepreneurship education. From a teaching and learning perspective, enterprise engagement is integral to the development of activity based pedagogies; a critical component of ‘learning by doing’ entrepreneurship education approaches. Working across HEI partners, the project seeks to map and document approaches to enterprise engagement across the CEEN/ HECA networks.

A Review Of Knowledge Management In The Public Sector: A Taxonomy, Paul J. Mc Evoy, Amr Arisha, Mohamed Ragab

Conference papers

Purpose – Public organisations today face management challenges to cope with current markets in what’s known as a knowledge era. They primarily face adaptive challenges. Changes in communities, markets, business behaviour, competition, and most importantly technology around the globe are forcing all organisations to clarify their strengths, develop knowledge strategies, and learn new ways of managing their human capital. Governmental organisations also exhibit tendencies towards unusual and bureaucratic cultures mired in hierarchical structures, which create peculiar challenges that confront Knowledge Management (KM) efforts within the public sector. As public firms attempt to effectively manage their knowledge, organisational culture and structure …

An Action Plan For Implementing The Principles For Responsible Management Education In College Of Business Programme Learning Outcomes, Maeve O'Connell, Lorraine Sweeney

Teaching Fellowships

Recent corporate scandals have resulted in criticism of business schools for graduating students who put too much emphasis on shareholder value and profit maximisation but neglect the broader social and environmental context in which businesses operate. This research fellowship set out to review current literature of ethics education in third level universities and institutions to determine best practice in the area. It also set out to review the reports of the signatories of PRME (Principals for Responsible Management Education) to develop an understanding of the range of options available to the College of Business to embed principles for responsible management …

Students In Action Initiative, Theresa Ryan, Ziene Mottiar, Bernadette Quinn, Catherine Gorman, Kevin Griffin, Ruth Craggs, Deirdre Quinn

Teaching Fellowships

The Students in Action Project in the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism was established in 2012 as a way of engaging students and working with stakeholders in a destination. The overall aim of the project was to immerse students in an active collaborative learning environment within the destination to identify ways in which tourism could be enhanced. In the 2014/2015 academic year the project involved over 300 students from a variety of programmes and modules working with local stakeholders in Wexford Town. To date the project has been successful in its aims to develop staff, student and community engagement …

Taking A Step Back From The Individual Social Entrepreneur, Ziene Mottiar

Conference papers

An investigation of how a national tourism policy resulted in the emergence of new social entrepreneurs in destinations across Ireland.

The Mink Framework: An Integrated Framework To Assess Individual Knowledge In Organisational Context., Mohamed Ragab

Doctoral

Knowledge is the currency of the global economy, the foundation of wealth creation, and the sole antecedent of sustainable competitive advantage in today’s markets. In the current business environment, success of organisations is dependent upon their ability to develop and implement resilient Knowledge Management (KM) strategies to leverage and exploit their knowledge assets. Yet, knowledge is intrinsically linked to individuals and their exclusive abilities to create, share and apply knowledge thereby creating value for their organisations. Knowledge holders are without doubt the valuable assets which lead the increasing velocity of organisational transformation in order to cope with market pressures and …

Understanding The Dynamic Behaviour Of Three Echelon Retail Supply Chain Disruptions, John Crowe, Mohammed Mesabbah, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

It is often taken for granted that the right products will be available to buy in retail outlets 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Challenges in achieving this continued on-shelf availability range from recession hit demand patterns to cost reduction driven strategies. Irish government initiatives to brand the country as a sustainable, reliable provider of food retail supply chains has resulted in increased importance on decision maker accuracy. The vulnerability of retail supply chain’s (RSC) to disruption is another catalyst in the complexity of the decision making process and a more robust understanding of disruption behavior is needed. …

An Integrated Lean Assessment Framework For Tyre Distribution Industry, Amr Arisha, Amr Mahfouz

Conference papers

Given the vital role of distribution units within the supply chains, this research aims to develop a comprehensive lean assessment framework that integrates Modelling and Simulation with Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess the ‘leanness’ level in distribution business. The framework is applied on a distribution centre of a leading European company in the tyre manufacturing and distribution business. The framework helps decision makers to evaluate the effect of two lean distribution practices – Pull Order Replenishment and Class-Based Storage Policy – on company’s performances and is also used as a leanness Self-Assessment Tool.