Business Commons^™

The Importance Of Foreign Direct Investment Within The Life Science Sector For Employment And Economic Development In Ireland., Gordon Matthews

Masters

From protectionism to globalisation, the success of the Irish economy over the last 100 years cannot be understated. At the centre of this growth has been a highly educated workforce employed by large volumes of foreign owned companies that have been attracted to Ireland for many reasons, including the country’s favourable Corporate Tax rate. Despite the success of the economy, Ireland’s approach to attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is often criticised and cited as one of the root causes for the financial imbalances in the world today. This new study examines Ireland’s unique relationship with FDI with a particular focus …

Public Perceptions Of Hydrogen As An Energy Vector And Aid To Decarbonisation In The Republic Of Ireland, Colm Delaney

Masters

In the face of global commitments to decarbonise society by 2050, there is growing excitement surrounding the potential of hydrogen to emerge as a solution to many decarbonisation challenges. A transition to hydrogen as an energy vector in place of fossil fuels such as natural gas will require a significant transformation of existing energy policy, infrastructure, and regulations. While the technical aspects of a potential transition to hydrogen as an energy vector are undergoing large scale research, much of which is moving into the trial phase, it is widely presumed that a transition would be met with the widespread acceptance …

Harvesting A New Synergy: Exploring ‘Smart And Green’ Hotels Within The Context Of The Irish Hospitality Industry, Yi Sheng Tan

Masters

Hospitality emphasizes the ability for exchange of friendly and generous reception between businesses, guests and strangers. The complex nature of future travel and tourism industry directs the converging forces towards the hospitality industry to develop progressive strategies in response to increasing economic turbulence. Within the hotel sector, particular emphasis on emerging opportunities like sustainability and digitization are quickly shaping the strategic agenda in this competitive sector. It is envisaged that the hospitality industry will differ completely from today, owing to developments in artificial intelligence and smart technology. This research has explored the key components of the overall ‘smart and green’ …

Is The Irish Immigration Policy Delivering The Best For Its Economy Through Its Non-Eu Dependent Immigrants. An Empirical Study, Pai M.J Arjun

Masters

The Emerald Isle is fast becoming the next big hotspot for highly skilled migrants aspiring to relocate to the last English-speaking nation within the European Union [EU]. The transition from the state of being an emigrant country to an immigrant nation poses complex opportunities for the country, its people, and the immigrants who relocate in making Ireland their home. Despite a consistent inflow of skilled immigrants migrating into the country since the last few decades, policy reforms adopted in Ireland towards dependent immigrants remain reactive, lacks the backing of studies in evaluating the utilization of available skilled dependent immigrants in …

Exploring The Role Of Irish Local Authorities In Tourism Development: A Senior Management Perspective On Tourism Development In Cork County Council, Monica Moisuc

Masters

In an Irish context, the government's engagement in tourism and its role in developing the sector is acknowledged across most Irish government publications. However, despite efforts made to highlight the major role of the government in tourism, the number of studies that seek to understand how Irish local governments are engaging in tourism is limited. In an attempt to fill this knowledge gap, this study brings a new contribution to the current relevant literature by exploring the role of the government in developing tourism within a local Irish context.

Using a qualitative case-study approach, the particular entity under investigation is …

Designing Narrative Artefacts, Jennifer Dempsey

Masters

This thesis documents an investigation that explored the use of narrative and material culture to present aspects of women’s lives from eighteenth-century Cork city to a twenty-first century museum audience. There were two objectives of this research. The first was to create a catalogue of elements from material culture through which these women’s lives would be revealed. The second was to use narrative to make this information accessible and engaging.

This research is linked with Nano Nagle Place, a heritage centre in Cork city that opened in 2017. The centre documents the life of Nano Nagle, an eighteenth-century philanthropist who, …

Value Of Exemption From Professional Examinations: Opinion Of Third-Level Accounting Students And Graduates, Lorraine Cashman Rahilly

Masters

In Ireland (and the UK) becoming an accountant usually involves a dual qualification system: a third-level degree followed by training and professional examination. This is commonly conceptualised as learning through knowing followed by learning through doing (Wilson, 2011; Apostolou & Gammie, 2014). Much debate exists about where the responsibility for the development of knowledge and skills lies. Third-level accounting degrees have been criticised for focusing too much on gaining exemptions from professional examinations, with employers feeling that graduates are not work ready (Albrecht & Sack, 2000; Jackling & De Lange, 2008; Pan & Perera, 2012; Bayerlein & Timpson, 2017). However, …

The Impact Of Entrepreneurship Education On Graduate Employability: A Cross Country Comparison, Rebecca Victoria Robinson

Masters

This thesis identifies and addresses a major gap in Entrepreneurship Education (EE) research. Specifically, it focuses on the entrepreneurial skills and attitudes embedded in employability skills. It tests the widely accepted assertion that employers desire more well-rounded graduates who possess entrepreneurial skills. Pittaway and Cope (2007) highlight an absence of evidence in the literature establishing a link between EE and employability skills.

It is the intersection of EE and graduate employability that provides the context for this study. This study examines the knowledge, skills and attitudes resulting from education and, in particular, from EE and ascertains the extent to which …

Examining The Potential Of Design Thinking For Marketing Students In The Context Of Workplace Learning And Performance Challenges, Christina Pinkaow

Masters

Design thinking, which initially emerged in the 1980s, has notably been recently receiving increased attention, particularly in business communities, as a process that enables rapid, innovative, and user-centric problem solving (Lockwood, 2010). As the forthcoming generations of marketing graduates enter this ‘Consumer Age’, they will be forced to think innovatively and empathetically in order to adjust to constant and rapid changes in our environment (Hanttu, 2013). Design thinking equips modern marketers with the opportunity to become consumercentric and effectively generate innovative solutions on a constant basis to complex challenges that exists (Mohr, 2015).

While the concept is gaining increasing hold …

Exploring The Leading Factors Associated With Absenteeism And Presenteeism In A Call Centre, Keith O'Mahony

Masters

High absenteeism levels, which have become synonymous with the call centre industry, have a detrimental impact on the delivery of contractual requirements, as well as the quality of service provided to customers. Conversely, presenteeism has less of an established association with call centres, primarily due to it being a relatively recent phenomenon. It is recognised, however, that both constructs have a negative effect on productivity and cost. Furthermore, presenteeism presents an incredible opportunity to reveal the unknowns that exist between absenteeism, no productivity, and maximum work engagement. This thesis focuses on identifying the leading factors correlated with absenteeism and presenteeism …

Generation Y Perceptions Of The Traditional Career Model, Aoife Kelliher

Masters

Generation Y will be expected to play the most significant role in the work place as their careers develop and older generations retire. Much of the research carried out on their work related values and career progression to date has relied on the viewpoints of Generation Y as undergraduates, prior to gaining substantial experience in the work place. This study responds to Ng and Gossett’s (2013) call for further research into the values, attitudes and expectations of young people as they will emerge as leaders of tomorrow. The purpose of the study is to examine if the traditional career model …

Flexible Working: What Does It Mean To The Worker And The Workplace?, Paul Kent

Masters

Separation of work and personal life is becoming more difficult. With the advances in technology, the use of personal devices for work, the mobility of work devices and the ability to remotely work for many, this research poses a question. What does Flexible Working mean to the worker and the workplace? Legislatively, Irish workers are protected by the Organisation of Working Time Act (1997). From the evidence in this study, however, this is often a law that is disregarded and has questionable applicability in modern working life. The study looks at how the current worker manages their time and contrasts …

Designing Museums For Participation, Collaboration And Social Interaction, Martin Mccarthy

Masters

This thesis documents the design and development of novel interactive experiences that explored concepts aimed to enhance the visitor experience to Cork Butter Museum, Cork, Ireland.

The context to the work is that in recent years, museums and cultural institutions are increasingly motivated to apply creative strategies to engage visitors who come for recreational, social and sometimes educative purposes. Novel museum exhibits designed to cater for such needs often involves the integration of new media technologies in response to rising expectations visitors have with regards to being actively engaged during their visit. This often requires a higher level of participation …

An Empirical Investigation Of The Development Of Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) Systems Education For Third-Level Business Students, Maurice O'Brien

Masters

This study is an empirical investigation of the development of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) education for Business students. It uses Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) as its case study to determine the benefits of practical ERP education, the challenges faced by third-level institutions and how ERP education should be provided to Business students. The researcher used observation, review of documentation, and semi-structured interviews of fifteen academics as the research techniques.

As well as being beneficial for students, employers and ERP vendors, this study finds that the provision of practical ERP education has reciprocal benefits for the third-level institution. By …

Is There Sufficient Guidance To Detect, And Obtain A Conviction For, Occupational Fraud In Ireland?, Carmel Buttimer

Masters

There has been an increased focus in the Irish media on fraud, particularly since the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank in 2007. There has however been little academic research undertaken into occupational fraud in Ireland. This study will examine whether or not the current guidance to detect and convict occupational fraud in Ireland is sufficient.

This study achieves its objective by examining the content of press articles reporting thirty-five occupational fraud cases convicted in Ireland in the period 2002 to 2013. It categorises the content of the articles using a framework developed by Cohen et al. (2010), which combines the …