Business Commons^™

Modeling The Retail Servicescape: A Second Order Factor Solution, Daire Hooper, Joseph Coughlan

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Personalised Role Playing Simulations, Eileen O'Donnell, Mary Sharpe

Other resources

This research explores the use of personalised role playing simulations to encourage active student engagement in the learning process. Personalised role playing simulations could provide educators with an alternative teaching methodology, and students with course content tailored to their needs. The personalisation of student learning resources could be based on: level of achievement; prior experience; learning preferences; relevance of learning resources to individual students’ requirements; and lecturers or students choice of direction through the units of learning provided. Some of the advantages of using personalised role playing simulations include: inexpensive to produce; easy to create; re-usable; not life threatening; engaging; …

Forex Trading Using Metatrader 4 With The Fractal Market Hypothesis, Jonathan Blackledge, Kieran Murphy

Conference papers

This paper reports on the results of a research and development programme concerned with the analysis of currency pair exchange time series for Forex trading in an intensive applications and services environment. In particular, we present some of the preliminary results obtained for Forex trading using MetaTrader 4 with a new set of trend indicators deigned using a mathematical model that is based on the Fractal Market Hypothesis. This includes examples of various currency pair exchange rates considered over different time intervals and use of the indicators in a live trading environment to place a buy/sell order.

Predicting Currency Pair Trends Using The Fractal Market Hypothesis, Jonathan Blackledge, Kieran Murphy

Conference papers

This paper reports on the results of a research and development pro- gramme concerned with the analysis of currency pair exchange time series for Forex trading in an intensive applications and services environment. In particular, we present some of the preliminary results obtained for Forex trading using MetaTrader 4 with a new set of trend indicators deigned using a mathematical model that is based on the Fractal Market Hypothesis. This includes examples of various currency pair exchange rates considered over di erent time intervals and use of the indicators in a live trading environment to place a buy/sell order.

Irish Business And Society: Governing, Participating And Transforming In The 21st Century, John Hogan, Paul Donnelly, Brendan O'Rourke

Books/Book Chapters

Irish Business and Society is a contemporary exploration of the wide-ranging debates surrounding the relationships between business and society in 21^st century Ireland, providing a context in which to question and inform our perspectives on both. The book consists of diverse and thought-provoking contributions from leading business researchers, economists, sociologists and political scientists from Ireland and abroad, which address five central themes:

-- The Making and Unmaking of the Celtic Tiger

-- Governance, Regulation & Justice

-- Partnership & Participation

-- The nature of Irish Borders within Ireland, Europe & the Wider World

-- Interests & Concerns in Contemporary …

The Wiki Way: Supporting Collaborative Learning, Kathleen Hughes

Conference papers

ABSTRACT:

Skills in working in teamwork are demanded from graduates, and these are ever more likely to be over the internet. Horizon (2011) calls for this need to be reflected in students’ project work. The use of Wikis has been posited as a tool for collaborative online knowledge creation, increasing engagement, and social constructivism (Wheeler and Wheeler, 2008). This study aims to contribute to the debate about the role of wikis and student group work, it should be of interest to instructors who use group work in their teaching, and those who wish to explore the application of web 2.0, …

Capacity Rationalisation And Exit Barriers In The Irish Printing Industry, Kathleen Hughes

Conference papers

Decisions regarding capacity and capital investment are among the most critical for firms, as reflected in the extensive literature devoted to this subject. However, substantially less work has been carried out on the decision to disinvest. This is unfortunate as in some situations, such as recessionary times, the main competitive moves pertain to disinvestment, rather than investment. This study aims to contribute to this subject, in particular it aims to identify why industries with a concentrated structure can when proactively rationalise when required, while fragmented ones cannot. Research methodology a case study approach, comprising in-depth interviews with six industry experts …

Identifying The Characteristics Of Key Account Managers That Drive Performance, Lesley Murphy, Joseph Coughlan

Conference papers

A conceptual model of the factors that are linked to the performance of a Key Account Manager has been developed. There is a paucity of research in the correlation between the Key Account Manager’s personal and behavioural characteristics and their influence of the individual and organisation performance. A review of the literature underlines that the Key Account Manager can described as a strategic orchestrator or lynch pin and their key role is to coordinate activities with other members of their organisation. As a result, their individual characteristics will be tested against trust, collaboration and communication which are essential for the …

An Integrated Framework To Assess ‘Leanness’ Performance In Distribution Centres, Amr Mahfouz

Doctoral

The theory behind lean philosophy is to create more value with less. Effective lean management enables organisations to exceed customer expectations while reducing costs. Despite the fact that numerous practices and approaches are used in the process of implementing lean philosophy and reducing waste within supply chain systems, little effort has been directed into assessing the leanness level of distribution and its impact on overall performance. Given the vital role of distribution units within supply chains, this research aims to develop a comprehensive lean assessment framework that integrates a selected set of statistical, analytical, and mathematical techniques in order to …

The Winding Stair Dinner Menu, March, 2011, Winding Stair Restaurant

Menus of the 21st Century

The Winding Stair Restaurant is located at 40, Lower Ormond Quay Dublin on the north side of the river Liffey beside the Ha’penny Bridge. The proprietor is Elaine Murphy. The Winding Stair started life as a bookshop and café which was a popular meeting spot in Dublin during the 1970s and 1980s. The café closed in 2005 and in 2006 the current proprietor re-opened it as a restaurant.

“The bookshop, located on the ground floor, was retained as were many of the old bookshelves, photos and memories. The room retains its timeless charm with stripped wood tables and floors, and …

Trends In The Food And Beverage Sector Of The Hospitality Industry, Detta Melia

Conference papers

The hospitality sector in Ireland represents an important part of the tourism industry and comprises hotels, restaurants, pubs and clubs, guesthouses and self-catering operations. The largest component within the Irish hospitality sector is hotels. In addition to hotels, food and beverage operations comprise a significant proportion of the industry. These businesses operate in a highly competitive environment as a consequence of a number of factors. First, there is a downturn in the global and domestic economies with a corresponding decrease in business across the tourism industry (Failte Ireland, 2010; Pitta, 2010). Second, there has been a rise in market demand …

David Lysaght (Ireland), Thomas M. Cooney

Case Study

No abstract provided.

Distributed Supply Chain Simulation Portal: Design And Implementation, Amr Arisha, Ayman Tobail, John Crowe

Conference papers

The emerging paradigm of eLearning is becoming increasingly in evidence across many academic disciplines acknowledging the concept that learning processes no longer support traditional teaching methods alone. It can be argued that today’s third level education students are part of a new virtual era where the blackboard has been replaced with an interactive whiteboard. To assist in the transition from traditional learning to eLearning, more interactive and virtually orientated teaching aids are needed. A simulation-based learning framework that integrates web-based simulation and a web content management hierarchy model is the key objective of this paper. Using the highly complex subject …

Work Placement In Third-Level Programmes, Roadmap For Employment-Academic Partnerships, Irene Sheridan, Margaret Linehan

Reports

No abstract provided.

Critical Success Factors In The Re-Engineering Of 21st Century Supply Chains, Edward Sweeney

Practitioner Journals

No abstract provided.

Strategic Planning In Irish Quantity Surveying Pracitces, Roisin Murphy

Other Resources

The role and usefulness of strategic planning has been well documented over several decades of strategic management research. Despite the significant body of existing knowledge in the field of strategic planning, there remains a paucity of investigation into the construction sector, specifically in Professional Service Firms (PSF’s) operating within it. The aim of this research was to ascertain the type, scope and extent of strategic planning within Irish Quantity Surveying (QS) practices and to ascertain the extent to which such processes correspond to strategic planning literature.

This research was an exploratory study, undertaken in two phases in line with mixed …

Dublin's Future: New Visions For Ireland's Capital City, Lorcan Sirr

Books/Book Chapters

This is a book about the future of Dublin. Its authors, styles, interests and of course visions are diverse and sometimes divergent. They represent the range of competing voices, dreams, influences and ideas that weave together in a constant battle of power, persuasion, aspiration and occasionally co-operation which en mass determine the future of any cit. Each individual chapter, not only in content, but also in style, is a reflection of the way different people and groups perceive the future and how it may be determined.

The Move From Protectionism To Outward-Looking Industrial Development: A Critical Juncture In Irish Industrial Policy?, Paul Donnelly, John Hogan

Articles

This paper utilises a new framework for examining critical junctures to help us understand whether the changes to Irish industrial policy at the end of the 1950s constituted a critical juncture, breaking cleanly with what came before, or were a continuation of policy pathways previously established. The framework is made up of three elements, which must be identified in sequence, for us to be able to declare a critical juncture. Irish industrial policy is examined here, as it constitutes a core tenet of wider economic policy.

Risk Management Trends: Currency Trading Using The Fractal Market Hypothesis, Jonathan Blackledge, Kieran Murphy

Articles

We report on a research and development programme in financial modelling and economic security undertaken in the Information and Communications Security Research Group (ICSRG, 2011) which has led to the launch of a new company - Currency Traders Ireland Limited - funded by Enterprise Ireland. Currency Traders Ireland Limited (CTI, 2011) has a fifty year exclusive license to develop a new set of indicators for analysing currency exchange rates (Forex trading). We consider the background to the approach taken and present examples of the results obtained to date. In this ‘Introduction’, we provide a background to and brief overview of …

Password-Based Authentication And Phishing, Edina Hatunic-Webster, Fredrick Mtenzi, Brendan O'Shea

Conference papers

The most common mechanism for online authenti- cation is the username-password. Majority of e- commerce applications are designed to provide pass- word authentication via an HTML form, with the assumption that the user needs to determine if it is safe to enter the password. In order to avoid phish- ing attacks, the user is expected to distinguish be- tween a phishing and a genuine website by checking the browser security indicators. Alternative authentication models suggest using images for authentication, introducing variations of Password Authenticated Key Exchange (PAKE) pro- tocols into TLS, using digital objects as passwords. Some authentication models suggest …

Virtual Ed: Utilisation Of A Discrete Event Simulation-Based Framework In Identifying "Real-Time’ Strategies To Improve Patient Experience Times In An Emergency Department, Waleed Abo Hamad, John Mcinerney, Amr Arisha

Articles

Objectives and Backgrounds Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding and associated excessive Patient Experience Times (PETs) have proven deleterious impacts on patient mortality, morbidity and overall length of hospital stay. Health systems constantly seek cost-effective organisational strategies to reduce ED crowding and improve patient outcomes, but complex change implementation is constrained by the necessity of maintaining concurrent safe patient-care. Computer modelling in a “virtual reality” has been successfully utilised in industries outside medicine, in providing innovative “real-time” solutions to outdated practices. Therefore a bespoke “Virtual ED” computer model, based on a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) -Based Framework was constructed to determine the …

Questioning The Currency Of Marketing Planning Today, Sarah Browne, Laura Cuddihy

Articles

While marketing planning has received considerable scholarlv
attention from academics, particularly on how it should be approached,
extant research does not explicate in any great detail how this process is actually performed in practice. The limited existing empirical research suggests a lag between theory and practice in terms of marketing planning and strategy making. Therefore, in order to 'market' marketing in B2B organisations, and close this apparent academic-practitioner divide, a greater awareness of who is actually involved in marfceting planning and strategy making processes is needed. The emphasis in this paper thus is to place the 'how' and 'who' in …

The Diffusion Of Microgeneration Technologies.: Assessing The Influence Of Perceived Product Characteristics On Home Owners’ Willingness To Pay, Marius Claudy, Claus Michelsen, Aidan O'Driscoll

Articles

This study presents empirical insight into willingness to pay (WTP) for microgeneration technologies and the relative influence of subjective consumer perceptions. First, we apply a double-bounded-contingent valuation method to elicit Irish home owners’ willingness to pay for micro wind turbines, wood pellet boilers, solar panels and solar water heaters. Utilizing findings from the adoption of innovation literature, in a second step, we assess the influence of different antecedents on WTP for each of the four technologies, including (1) home owners’ perception of product characteristics, (2) normative influences, and (3) socio demographic characteristics. Our results show that WTP varies significantly between …

Integrating Balanced Scorecard And Simulation Modelling To Improve Emergency Department Performance In Irish Hospitals, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo-Hamad, Khaled Ismail

Conference papers

In the healthcare sector, there is a requirement for innovative solutions in managing the high levels of complexity and uncertainty within Emergency Departments (EDs). Simulation modeling is currently seen as a competent means of analyzing EDs, which allows changes effects to be understood and predicted more easily. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), well-known performance management concept, has become a steering method in approaching new improvement cycles. This paper presents a methodology that integrates BSC and simulation modeling to improve the performance of ED in a University Hospital in North Dublin. BSC design began with understanding patient's needs, ED activities, as well …

Basic Insight; It’S All About People But Technology Gets You Closer, Patrick Horan, Andrew Frew

Conference papers

After three years of difficult trading conditions Irish tourism needs to move towards recovery. Given that we are waiting next month for one of the toughest budgets in the history of the state, talk of recovery might seem a little premature. Nevertheless we know that economic conditions in some of our key source markets abroad continue to improve, and so consumer sentiment in these countries is likely to recover faster than here at home. In order to position itself for recovery, tourism will need to do two things. Firstly it will need to continue to offer value to a weakened, …

National Hospitality Conference 2010: A Report, James Peter Murphy

Reports

Theme of the Conference – Seizing the Opportunities

Plucking The Hissing Goose : Taxing Residential Property, Tom Dunne

Other Resources

No abstract provided.

Dialogue And Roles In A Strategy Workshop: Discovering Patterns Through Discourse Analysis, Martin Duffy

Masters

Strategy workshops are frequently used by Executive management teams to discuss and formulate strategy but are under-researched and under-reported in the academic literature. This study uses Discourse Analysis to discover participant roles and dialogic patterns in an Executive management team’s strategy workshop, together with their effect on the workshop’s operation and outcome. The study shows how the workshop participants adopt different roles through their language and content. It then identifies a dialogic pattern in the workshop discourse, with the emphasis on achieving shared understanding rather than winning the debate. The workshop facilitator’s role is shown to bring discussion as a …

Application Of The Fractional Diffusion Equation For Predicting Market Behaviour, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

Most Financial modelling system rely on an underlying hypothesis known as the Eficient Market Hypothesi (EMH) including the famous BlackScholes formula for placing an option. However, the EMH has a fundamental flaw: it is based on the assumption that economic processes are normally distributed and it has long been known that this is not the case. This fundamental assumption leads to a number of shortcomings associated with using the EMH to analyse financial data which includes failure to predict the future volatility of a market share value. This paper introduces a new financial risk assessment model based on Levy statistics …

Engaging With Employers In Economic Downturn, Lyndsey El Amoud, Joan Buckley

Conference Papers

There has been an increasing focus on personal transferable skills by universities (Albrecht and Sack 2000). This has led to considerable growth in the number of placement programmes in undergraduate courses in Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). As noted by Paisey and Paisey (2009) relatively little research has been carried out in this domain. This paper explores the state of non-clinical placement programmes in third level institutes in Ireland. It presents the results of the first comprehensive survey of placement in Irish. The survey reveals the scale and scope of work placement programmes in undergraduate courses in Ireland. With more …