Business Commons^™

The Challenges Of Leading Change In Health-Care Delivery From The Frontline, Vivienne Byers

Articles

Aim: The public sector is facing turbulent times and this challenges nurses, who are expected to serve both patient interests and the efficiency drives of their organisations. In the context of implementing person-centred health policy, this paper explores the evolving role of front-line nurses as leaders and champions of change.

Background: Nurses can be seen to have some autonomy in health-care delivery. However, they are subject to systems of social control. In implementing person- centred policy, nurses can be seen to be doing the best they can within a constrained environment.

Method: A survey of nursing practice in person-centred health-policy …

An Entrepreneurial Context For The Theory Of The Firm: Exploring Assumptions And Consequences, Arturo E. Osorio, Paul Donnelly, Banu Ozkazanc-Pan

Articles

While entrepreneurship may be driven by personal interests and lifestyle choices, entrepreneurial actions are not only economically driven opportunity-searching processes but also enactments of social transformation that may or may not lead to socioeconomic benefits. We advance that exploring these entrepreneurial processes can inform a theory of the firm that may explain how socioeconomic processes shape the socioeconomic environment of communities while serving individuals. This article discusses several understandings of the firm, as theorized in extant literature. Guided by these different conceptualizations, we present a case study of an artist and artisan cluster in Western Massachusetts to demonstrate various understandings …

Beyond Beautiful*- Why Citizens Are Comparatively Happier, More Prosperous, More Peaceful, More Democratically Engaged And Less Selfish Living In Smaller States, Anthony Paul Buckley

Other

Half of all sovereign states in the world have a population of less than 6.2m (World Bank, 2014). The mainstream literature in most academic disciplines has chosen, by accident or design, to neglect the unique determinants of small state growth and development (Armstrong & Read, 2003; Read, 2014). These are extraordinary omissions when the collective evidence on the performance of smaller states on a wide range of economic, political, cultural and social indices is considered. Apart from the disproportionate representation that small states enjoy in the World Banks Upper-Middle and High Income categories, many small states also feature in the …

Towards Entrepreneurial Learning Outcomes In Business Education And Beyond – Next Practice? Design & Guidance, Anthony Paul Buckley

Other

High growth economies can be differentiated from low growth economies by their high investment in knowledge, low knowledge filter and high levels of entrepreneurial capital. These states help create entrepreneurial capital by providing their citizens with opportunities to learn to be more enterprising in their pursuit of value creation and capture. What should be taught, how and what are the appropriate learning outcomes of entrepreneurship education and training (EET) then become the relevant questions. This paper reviews the relevant EET literature, assesses current thinking and practice and concludes, in the absence of empirical evidence in favour of a particular pedagogical …

The Process And Problems Of Business Start-Ups, Natasha Evers

The ITB Journal

“… there is little known about the initial phases of the process (of entrepreneurship). The conception, birth and early development of new ventures are very much an uncharted territory”. (Reynolds and White, 1997:1). This paper sets out to examine the process and problems encountered by new business start-ups. A didactic overview, based on past and current literature in the field, identifies the most common theoretical frameworks frequenting the academic literature and assesses their contribution to explaining and understanding the Process and Problems of New Venture Creation. The founding of a new organisation is not instantaneous and the process is a …

Project Management In A Commercial Environment, Ann Murphy

The ITB Journal

Projects are proposed as a result of creative ideas and as responses to problems and planning. While relatively small projects can be managed on an informal basis, complex projects require formal project management in order to achieve specific objectives, obtain and allocate resources in an efficient and effective manner, meet allocated budgets, and ensure that critical time schedules are met. This paper examines the principal elements of project management by analysing the key roles which Project Managers play, the roles with which the Project Manager must interact, the methods available for the definition, monitoring, control and closure of the project …

Human Resources Management, A Dynamic Process Of Supporting An Organisation’S Development., Liam Lenihan

The ITB Journal

Human Resources Management is a situation specific process focused on a strategic corporate approach to people. Given the diversity of people in the work context and the particular time bound events/issues that define an organisation, human resources management provides customised management responses. Every organisation, be it public, private, a service organisation or a manufacturing organisation is at a unique stage in its own development at any point in time. Such uniqueness merits/evokes customised human resources management approaches. A start-up company is very different from a mature organisation, while the profit-making organisation is very different from the voluntary, not-for-profit organisation. All …

Who Wants To Be An Entrepreneur?, Maura O Connell

The ITB Journal

So you want to be an Entrepreneur? What does it take? Are you suited to entrepreneurial life? Have you got the required personality characteristics and what social factors influence whether or not you become an entrepreneur? While many studies have tried to answer these questions the results are somewhat mixed.

Virtual Credit Card Processing System, Geraldine Gray, Karen Church, Tony Ayres

The ITB Journal

The virtual credit card processing system is an e-business system we have developed which provides a secure and universal mechanism for making purchases over the Internet. The system uses Remote Method Invocation (RMI), Java Server Pages (JSP), Java Servlets and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC). We also look at the possibility of implementing the system using the Web Services architecture.

Knowledge And Value Development In Management Consulting, Fionnuala Darby, Geraldine Lavin

The ITB Journal

The relationship between management consultants and their clients plays a key part in the success of consulting firms. To develop an understanding of the dynamics of the clientconsultant relationship, the authors reviewed literature in the areas of intangible professional services, impression management, perception and the interaction process. A model is proposed and the authors use a case study to emphasise areas highlighted by the literature. The authors contend that impression management, aided by positive perception and the development of the client-consultant relationship, is an important motivational force in securing consulting projects. It upholds the model for understanding the client-consultant relationship.

The Role Of Cryptography In Security For Electronic Commerce, Ann Murphy, David Murphy

The ITB Journal

Many businesses and consumers are wary of conducting business over the Internet due to a perceived lack of security. Electronic business is subject to a variety of threats such as unauthorised access, misappropriation, alteration and destruction of both data and systems. This paper explores the major security concerns of businesses and users and describes the cryptographic techniques used to reduce such risks.

Market Orientation: The Implementation Of The Marketing Concept, Maura O Connell

The ITB Journal

The marketing literature has provided little guidance in relation to creating market driven organisations. It has traditionally provided pieces of the puzzle i.e. the product life cycle, segmentation etc, but it has fallen short of demonstrating how to put the pieces together to complete the picture i.e. creating a market oriented organisation. As a result marketing has largely been confined to ‘overseeing and co-ordinating activities directly involved with the outside - such as sales, promotion and delivery’ (Witcher B J, 1990). This has led to a situation where many organisations have reservations about the success achieved with the implementation of …

National Hospitality Conference 2016: A Report, James Peter Murphy

Reports

The 2015 National Hospitality Conference took place recently at the Intercontinental Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin. The main theme of the 2015 conference was ‘Challenges and Opportunities’ , DIT Bar Studies students from the School of Culinary Arts & Food Technology joined delegates in debating and discussing the significant issues surrounding the conference theme. This report highlights the issues discussed.

Purchased Goodwill And Its Accounting Treatment, Terence Sheridan

The ITB Journal

When a company decides to purchase another company or enterprise, the consideration paid will, in many cases, exceed the total of the separate valuation of each of the assets and liabilities of the company or enterprise being purchased. The extent of the premium paid is sometimes dependent on the growth potential of the company in question. In other cases, the premium is linked to the possibilities for cost-cutting when synergies between the existing and new companies are exploited. Occasionally, the fact that a company has an established reputation or an established customer base will result in a considerable premium being …

Using Sequential Mixed Methods In Enterprise Policy Evaluation: A Pragmatic Design Choice?, 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 …

Analysing The Promotional Effects That Open Source Software Has For Paid Editions: A Dual Mediation Hypothesis Approach For An Emerging Software Business Model, Ernesto Ongaro

Masters

Attracting new leads to use a software product can be costly for a software vendor. One way to secure more leads is to offer trials and unpaid editions, but their use should not be arbitrary. The emerging business model of commercial open source allows a vendor to promote its software for free while converting some of the users to paid; but does the free community edition actually serve as promotion for the commercial edition? This promotional effect is measured through the user’s attitudes and cognitions towards the advertisement and their subsequent purchase intentions. Survey results from 134 users of a …

Rent Certainty Is Not Rent Control, Tom Dunne

Reports

The housing crisis and the debate about rent control should result in a beneficial change to the regulation of the sector but the opportunity could be lost for want of clarity of thinking about the nature of rent certainty and the distinction between it and rent control. At present rent is regulated by the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 (RTA 2004) which provides that rent can only change once a year and cannot be more than the market rent. Many argue a greater degree of rent certainty is required and that rent should not be allowed to increase by more than …

Ox : Lunch Menu, Ox, Belfast

Menus of the 21st Century

In March 2013 two long standing friends, each passionate about their craft, each with a desire to bring something new to the Belfast restaurant scene combined forces and opened OX overlooking the River Lagan.

Belfast-born Stephen and Brittany native Alain met while working in L’Arpège, the iconic, world-famous restaurant of radical talent Alain Passard in Paris. Having gone on to work in various other influential and inspirational restaurants they have honed their skills, developed their talents and percolated ideas to put into practice against the backdrop of their own relaxed riverside restaurant.

http://oxbelfast.com/index.php

Food & Wine Magazine Winner, Best Restaurant …

Ox : Tasting Menu, Ox, Belfast

Menus of the 21st Century

In March 2013 two long standing friends, each passionate about their craft, each with a desire to bring something new to the Belfast restaurant scene combined forces and opened OX overlooking the River Lagan.

Belfast-born Stephen and Brittany native Alain met while working in L’Arpège, the iconic, world-famous restaurant of radical talent Alain Passard in Paris. Having gone on to work in various other influential and inspirational restaurants they have honed their skills, developed their talents and percolated ideas to put into practice against the backdrop of their own relaxed riverside restaurant.

http://oxbelfast.com/index.php

Analysing The Performance Of Economic Discourses, Joseph Fitzgerald, Brendan O'Rourke

Conference papers

We focus on the methods used in analyzing broadcast interviews with economists on Morning Ireland, a prominent Irish radio news programme. Few would doubt that economists have taken a prominent role as experts on policy issues (Carrick-Hagenbarth and Epstein 2012, p.45) and some contend that no other social science discipline has gained such prominence (Schneider and Kirchgassner 2009, p.324). This paper comes from a larger research project, which uses a tailored methodological approach, incorporating a number of analytical methods. Keller (2011, p.63) has argued that a tailored methodological approach is often required to give special consideration to the ‘knowledge side’ …

Green Supply Chain Management In Chinese Electronic Manufacturing Organisations; An Analysis Of Senior Managements’ Perceptions., Eoin Plant, Yusen Xu, Gareth R.T. White

Articles

Green supply chain management and reverse logistics has emerged as a key area of research interest. Recent environmental regulations have also stimulated interest in this field. However, information sharing is a pre- requisite to efficient and effective logistics utilisation. Manufacturing organisations in China were argued to be 10-20 years behind their Western counterparts in relation to information sharing in their supply chains (Li and Yuan, 2009). This barrier needs to be addressed if China is going to maintain and grow its manufacturing position in the world, attempt to address green supply chain issues and their negative externalities. A systematic literature …

Exploring Alternative Approaches To Entrepreneurial Exporting Growth – Government Intervention Or ‘Self-Help’?, Norah R. Cussen

Reports

This study is exploring the untapped potential of entrepreneurs to ‘self-help’ when seeking to enter new markets through exporting. This research is exploring the concept of effectuation as a ‘self -help’ theory. In doing so, the researcher hopes to begin to determineif this ‘self-help’ nature of entrepreneurs could be cultivated and potentially produce an alternative approach to entrepreneurial exporting growth. In order to explore this topic the researcher has engaged with exporting entrepreneurs and has drawn on their personal experiences and thoughts. This provided the researchers with vital data from ‘grassroots’ level perspective. This data was then analysed and provided …

Campagne Restaurant : A La Carte Menu, Campagne Restaurant

Menus of the 21st Century

No abstract provided.

Does An Embedded Wind Turbine Reduce A Company’S Electricity Bill? Case Study Of A 300 Kw Wind Turbine In Ireland, Tony Kealy

Articles

In recent years, a growing number of small-to-medium-enterprises are embracing wind turbine projects not only as part of their cost reduction strategy but also to actively play their part in the global fight against climate change. However, it would appear there are currently limited empirical studies carried out in this emerging industry. This case study analyses the cost effectiveness of one such wind turbine initiative by a company in the Republic of Ireland, who invested in a 300 kW embedded wind turbine project at the end of 2013. The research methodology which is primarily a case study analysis included comparing …

Issue 3(1) Conference Calls

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Medieval Architectures For Religious Tourism And Hospitality Along The Pilgrimage Routes Of Northern Italy, Silvia Beltramo

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Sacred spaces are, and have always been, places of reception: hospitality is in fact a precept of God. Many biblical passages remind us of this, such as the one (Gen 18, 4-5) in which Abraham welcomes three guests, washes their feet and offers them a piece of bread and a place to rest under a tree. Saint Benedict too, in chapter 53 of the Rule, insisted on the need to honour pilgrims and travellers, who should be welcomed with a charitable service ready for devotion and stated that all guests who entered the monastery should be received as …

Forms Of Pilgrimage At The Shrine Of Khāled Nabi, Northeastern Iran, Mehdi Ebadi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage (religious tourism) is one of the fastest growing forms of tourism. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between abstract theory and empirical research about this form of tourism in the literature. This dearth of tourism studies is even more glaring in the field of Ziyārat or pilgrimage in Islam which in spite of its importance and wide extended practice have been mostly ignored in tourism and geographic literature. The present study features one such area that is (almost) unknown within the community of tourism and geography researchers. In Iran, religious pilgrimage has a long tradition. Numerous sacred places with …

Religious Tourism And Event Management: An Opportunity For Local Tourism Development, Stefania Cerutti, Elisa Piva

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religious events represent one of the ancient forms of encounter and should play an important role in enhancing tourism in the areas in which they take place. The aim of the study is to investigate the role of religious events as a key component of local tourism development. The adopted research methodology is primarily based on the gathering and interpretation of qualitative data. The paper considers small and medium sized religious events, analysing their event management process. It focuses on two case studies in northern Italy: the Devotional and Cultural Tourism Exchange of Oropa and the Passion Play of Sordevolo.

Walking The Spiritual Ways – West Of Ireland Experience Of Modern Pilgrimage, Rosemary Power

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper considers the modern phenomenon of pilgrim walking along routes in the west of Ireland county of Clare. It relates it to possible medieval practice; to traditional practices by local people on one hand and the reconstruction of the international medieval pilgrim routes to places like Compostela. It suggests the reasons why people may walk in search of spiritual growth and experience, the resources they may wish for, the ways in which the contemporary search functions in a largely post-Catholic manner, and the position of those from other Christina, or religious traditions

Pilgrimage Experience And Consumption Of Travel To The City Of Makkah For Hajj Ritual, Razaq Raj Dr., Dino Bozonelos

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In modern society which, by definition is increasingly secular and culturally motivated, the Hajj is considered the culmination of each Muslim's religious duty and aspiration. It is stated in the Holy Qur'an, that every physically and financially able Muslim should make the Hajj to the Holy City of Makkah once in his or her lifetime.

This paper explores what people do during their pilgrimage, providing a brief description of the principle rites and experiences and their meaning to an individual participants travelling from the USA. The paper will draw upon previously published literature as well as an analysis of findings …