Business Technology

Nowadays, value co-creation plays a vital role in acquiring new business and retaining customers in the competitive business world. Understanding customers and providing them with personalized experiences has become a trend. Value co-creation also plays a crucial role in brand development, as it contributes to brand equity, reputation, and credibility. These factors guide consumer decisions, determining whether they become loyal to a brand or switch to another. Despite its importance, the specific mechanisms through which value co-creation impacts non-financial performances in the life insurance sector in Sri Lanka have not been thoroughly explored. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to study the impact of value co-creation on the non-financial performances of life insurance policies in Sri Lanka. Dimensions of value co-creation, such as relational orientation, customer involvement, freedom of co-creation, and degree of collaboration, will be examined, along with the mediating effect of customer support tickets. A quantitative research strategy will be employed, utilizing data collected through surveys. The researcher has developed a scale based on previous literature to measure value co-creation and non-financial performances. Reliability and validity of the scales were tested using survey data. The study was conducted in a descriptive manner, allowing for natural settings and avoiding researcher interference. Primary data were collected from a convenient sample of 142 employees working in life top performing insurance companies residing in the Western Province. Regression and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships. The results revealed that all elements of value co-creation significantly impact the nonfinancial performances of life insurance policies, and the moderator and mediator effects supported the framework. Finally, the researcher presented several recommendations for marketing strategies based on the study's results. This research contributes to the existing literature and fills the practice gap, providing avenues for future researchers to explore potential areas. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of value co-creation in the life insurance sector, highlights its impact on non-financial performances, and offers valuable insights for marketing strategies in Sri Lanka.

The ubiquitous nature of mobile technologies and devices, present new challenges and opportunities for Deposit-Taking Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) as they integrate them into their processes with the hope of improving their performance. To enhance their performance, Deposit-Taking SACCOs have adopted and are using mobile communication services including mobile messaging, mobile call services, mobile email, mobile chatting and mobile conferencing services. However, the effect of these mobile communication services on performance of Deposit-Taking SACCOs has not been well studied. Even though some studies have indicated the positive potential of mobile communication services, other studies indicate that they have no effect on organizational performance. Given these contradictions, this study sought to investigate the effect of mobile communication services on performance of Deposit-Taking SACCOs in Kenya. Descriptive and explanatory research designs were adopted using quantitative and qualitative approach to data collection, analysis and reporting. The study used a sample of 86 Deposit-Taking SACCOs drawn from a target population of 110 Deposit-Taking SACCOs that were licensed by SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority as at 31 st December 2011. A structured questionnaire administered to two managers (from information technology and finance departments) in each SACCO was used to collect primary data. Inferential analysis revealed the exististence of statistically significant positive effect of mobile communication services on performance of Deposit-Taking SACCOs in Kenya. The study therefore recommends investments and increased utilization of mobile communication services within Deposit-Taking SACCOs in Kenya.

The ubiquitous nature of mobile technologies and devices, present new challenges and opportunities for Deposit-Taking Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) as they integrate them into their processes with the hope of improving their performance. To enhance their performance, Deposit-Taking SACCOs have adopted and are using mobile communication services including mobile messaging, mobile call services, mobile email, mobile chatting and mobile conferencing services. However, the effect of these mobile communication services on performance of Deposit-Taking SACCOs has not been well studied. Even though some studies have indicated the positive potential of mobile communication services, other studies indicate that they have no effect on organizational performance. Given these contradictions, this study sought to investigate the effect of mobile communication services on performance of Deposit-Taking SACCOs in Kenya. Descriptive and explanatory research designs were adopted u...

As the demand for technology and its problem-solving applications grows, more businesses are turning to workflow solutions to streamline processes. However, as this trend continues, future business leaders must consider if such technical solutions fit their long-term goals and create benefits for stakeholders across the board. Progress in today's climate often means revisiting traditional notions of leadership, financial planning, and customer service-all of which can suffer new complexities under digital transformation. An effective strategy that promotes growth beyond mere cost optimisation requires rethinking priorities from a strategic path towards greater resilience in the long run, including personnel development plans. In this paper, the researcher discusses how reshaping business strategies and leadership practices with tomorrow's trends can be critical to success, regardless of industry or sector.

The main objectives of the study are to evaluate the customer satisfaction of the service quality and to assess whether bank services provided by the institutions are satisfactory to Bangladeshi customers especially in term of service categories like general banking, credit banking and foreign exchange banking services. The study also examines empirically the determinants of service quality in Bangladesh. A questionnaire for such purpose was designed and different statistical methods were applied to analyse the collected data. From the study it is found that the overall service quality in private commercial bank in Bangladesh is moderate, where service quality in general banking services is better than the credit banking services and foreign exchange services though its quality is not too bad . In addition, top ranked banks have high service quality in all categories of services and the lower raked banks are struggling seriously with credit and foreign exchange services. So, as poli...

Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model is one of the famous tools for analyzing an industry’s environment. According to this model, a company can achieve its existence and success in an industry only if it can overcome and sustain the competitive forces of the market within which it operates. Ceramic industry of Bangladesh is a booming sector and the growth potential of both domestic and local market indicates it may become one of the big foreign exchange earners for the country. Therefore, analyzing the industry environment of ceramic sector is of great concern to strategist since defending against the competitive forces of the marketplace and shaping them in a company’s favor are crucial to strategy formation. To address this issue, this paper analyzes the industry environment (competitive environment) of ceramic sector of Bangladesh by using Porter’s Five forces model. The analysis of five forces indicates that the collective impact of the competitive forces is moderate to weak; henc...

Culture is one of the greatest assets of a country, and it has the potential to become a source of income, if it is managed effectively. The handcrafts of the Albanian artisanry are a part of our culture, but still far from having an effective role in the development of tourism. Associating artisanry with tourism is of great interest for the present, as well as the future of the Region of Shkodra, and studies to this end are important.The objective of this paper is to study the effect of the growth of tourism in the increase of sale of handcrafts. First of all, the paper intends to ascertain whether the tourism peak season brings also higher sales of handcrafts; second, whether the craftsmen recognize the tourist-customer; third, whether the craftsmen try to adjust their handcrafts to the tourist-customer requirements; fourth, what do the tourists think of such handcraft; and fifth, to ascertain the sales channel of the handcrafts in order to have a clear picture of what it takes for the artisanry products to move for the craftsmen to the customers and to identify unexploited potentials that would strengthen this industry. This research is based on secondary data sourced from the official sites of government and non-government organizations, and on primary data sourced through semi-structured interviews with artisanry experts, as well as on two surveys: one conducted with the craftsmen and the other one conducted with tourists. The results presented in this paper would help to recognize and understand the present situation of the artisanry in the Region of Shkodra, as well as serve as basis for some recommendations to further vitalize and develop this industry.

This paper aimed to examine the impact of trust repair efforts on consumers repurchase intention of milk powder products affected by negative publicity in Sri Lanka. Consumer response to business entity’s effort to mitigate negative information are understudied in developing economies including Sri Lanka. A quantitative survey design was opted for this study. Data was collected from 140 consumers residing in the western province of Sri Lanka employing a questionnaire during the pandemic. The proposed hypotheses were analyzed using an OLS regression. Our findings revealed that functional repair efforts, affective repair efforts, and informational repair efforts have a significant and positive impact on repurchase intention. Among the three trust repair efforts, informational repair efforts were found to be the most important trust repair efforts that influence the repurchase intention. Based on the findings, milk powder producers in Sri Lanka should pay attention to strengthening tie...

This project-oriented work, is a pre-feasibility study of a pico-hydraulics plant, which has to be installed on an appropriate structure in UBTUniversity for Business and Technology at Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. It begins with the structural analysis of the designed laboratory, moving on through to the technical-economic study of the individual components, concluding with the definition of its effectiveness, based on the actual data of the plant. The purpose of the plant comes from the idea of fully exploiting the energy available in a public building, with special regard to what is daily discarded without being exploited. It will be analyzed the feasibility and the convenience of the recovery of the grey water potential energy from buildings of considerable height (100 – 200 meters) through a hydraulic turbine.

The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP), bank size, the level of risk in the bank and Advertising Intensity (ADINT) in the Commercial Banks in Bangladesh. Sample selection has been made as per the purposive sampling process. The study is based on the secondary data and uses quantitative analysis approach. Data are collected from "Review of CSR Initiatives in Banks" brought out by the Central Bank of Bangladesh, annual reports of the respective banks and reputed Journals. The study period has covered from 1 st July, 2012-30 th June, 2013. The study found that there is a significant relationship between levels of CSR and CFP, bank size, the level of risk in the bank and ADINT commercial banks in Bangladesh.

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon, characterized by higher urban temperatures compared to surrounding rural areas, is increasingly evident in Mediterranean cities like Tirana due to dense urbanization and reduced vegetation. This study assesses UHI intensity in Tirana through the integration of long-term climatic data and on-site measurements. Satellite-derived data from the Copernicus Climate Data Store, processed in Google Earth Engine, produced thermal maps for June-July 2025, revealing spatial temperature variations. Field measurements were conducted at nine representative sites, including suburban, historical, and highly urbanized zones, using a calibrated Testo 435 climate meter to record air temperature, relative humidity, and CO₂ levels at pedestrian height. Measurements were repeated on three different days during a short period at midday to capture thermal inertia. ANOVA results showed no statistically significant differences in temperature, humidity, or CO₂ levels across the monitored locations, indicating broadly uniform microclimatic conditions during the measurement period. Despite the absence of statistically significant differences in the ANOVA, measured temperature patterns indicated differences of about 2 °C between urban and suburban areas, with new hotspots emerging in Paskuqan and the City of Students
in addition to those in the city center.

In the modern scenario, this technology is largely used by different businesses to improve their position in the saturated market. The power of automation is extremely beneficial for an organisation. The research paper has properly analysed the ways in which Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (IRPA) service is integrated within the various enterprises. The study has analysed the multiple benefits that can befall an organisation if they use the automation technologies of IRPA through the SAP Business Technology Platform. Most importantly, the paper has evaluated how SAP IRPA can aid an enterprise in formulating innovative strategies in their business practices.

The readymade garment RMG industry in Bangladesh has experienced an unprecedented growth .over the last three decades and become a fast growing industry in Bangladesh. This industry plays a vital role in the economy in terms of export earnings, employment generation ,poverty alleviation and empowering the woman. For development of this sector, Bangladesh needs to emphasize on the factory working environment, social issues, labor relations and compliances with codes of conduct. This paper is based on descriptive and inferential research. The paper suggests the improvement of factory activities through compliances and finds out a close relationship between compliance and productivity.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbt.v5i2.9936  Journal of Technology (Dhaka) Vol. 5(2), July-December, 2010 71-87  

Globalization is a potent force in the current dynamic environment. In current environment, global media is consistently redefining itself and expanding its activities. In this paper, we trace the evolution of global media. Then, we discuss the transformation happening in journalism. It emerges that the traditional journalism is giving way to new media journalism. The new form of journalism utilizes digital technologies, promotes open standards, encourages mass participation, undermines centralized control and is self- ...

The development of entrepreneurship in Bangladesh is very challenging and cumbersome especially for woman. It is barred by a number of factors concerned with social, economic, motivational, environmental, and personal in nature. Women who are enjoying favorable environment in this regard have the chance to be entrepreneurs. The present study was tested (i) To explore psychosocial correlates of women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh, (ii) to find the economic status and factors that motivated women to go into entrepreneurship, (iii) to investigate whether there is any relationship with self-efficacy and locus of control in women entrepreneurs. A questionnaire package comprising of the Bangla version of self-efficacy, and locus of control scale along with a Personal Information Form (PIF) were administered on purposively selected on a group of 60 women entrepreneur of different organization in Bangladesh. The age range was 22-45 with an average age of 32 years. For the analysis of the obtained data frequency count and percentage of responses made by the women entrepreneur about their psychosocial and motivational factors were calculated. The findings have been interpreted in the light of past studies.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) compose the fundamental platform for a number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, especially those related to the environmental, health, and military surveillance. While being autonomous in power supply, the main challenge in node’s processing and communication architecture design remains the energy efficiency. However, this goal should not limit the main functionality of the system which is often related to the network coverage and connectivity. This paper shows the implementation of the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing algorithm in an XBee based platform. As shown, the network can achieve low power consumption per node primarily due to the energy efficiency of the wireless transceivers and the due to the capability of the firmware to enable different operation modes. On the other hand, while inheriting the advantages of flooding-based route discovery protocols, the implemented AODV algorithm further minimizes the data and proces...

The computer communication paradigm is moving towards the ubiquitous computing and Internet of Things (IoT). Small autonomous wirelessly networked devices are becoming more and more present in monitoring and automation of every human interaction with the environment, as well as in collecting various other information from the physical world. Applications, such as remote health monitoring, intelligent homes, early fire, volcano, and earthquake detection, traffic congestion prevention etc., are already present and all share the similar networking philosophy. An additional challenging for the scientific and engineering world is the appropriateness of the alike networks which are to be deployed in the inaccessible regions. These scenarios are typical in environmental and habitat monitoring and in military surveillance. Due to the environmental conditions, these networks can often only be deployed in some quasi-random way. This makes the application design challenging in the sense of cov...

While Information and Communication Technology (ICT) trends are moving towards the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile applications are becoming more and more popular. Mostly due to their pervasiveness and the level of interaction with the users, along with the great number of advantages, the mobile applications bring up a great number of privacy related issues as well. These platforms can gather our very sensitive private data by only granting them a list of permissions during the installation process. Additionally, most of the users can find it difficult, or even useless, to analyze system permissions. Thus, their guess of app's safety mostly relies on the features like rating and popularity, rather than in understanding context of listed permissions. In this paper we investigate the relationship between the features collected from Android Market API 23 (such as Popularity, Total Number of Permissions, Number of Dangerous Permissions, Rating and Package Size) to app's privacy violation. To show the influence of each feature we use linear regression and R squared statistics. The conducted research can contribute to the classification of mobile applications with regards to the threat on user's privacy.

The assessment of the performance of the Islamic banks is still an unexplored area, and there is a limited perspective of performance evaluation, which affects the level of Islamic banking performance and remains arguable. This study has tried to conceptualized Kaplan & Norton's (1996, 2001) Balanced Scorecard and its comparison with the current presentation calculation structure of the Islamic banks. This study has introduced guidelines to the better output of Islamic banks for Shariah Compliance by using BSC measures. This study has found a useful connection among BSC estimates, attributes of Shariah Compliance, and Islamic banks' performance. Tremendous improvement has been seen by Banks, which used both; the BSC and Shariah estimates. The research was limited in its scope of investigation for implementation and applicability of the stabilized Scorecard theory (Kaplan and Norton, 1992) in the Islamic Banking Sector only due to time constraints. For future researchers, thi...

The study examines the impact of earnings announcements on stock return volatility, with a focus on how market participants respond to new information regarding a firm's financial performance. The research focuses mainly on the large-cap companies covering 13 different sectors in the Nifty 50 index. The present study uses the stock price data from June 2019 to June 2024 covering 21 quarterly periods. GARCH methodology was used for estimating the variance series for returns volatility. Variance series of returns volatility of stocks were used to check the impact of results announcement. findings of the study reveal that earnings announcements significantly impact daily return volatility with differing impacts on PAT margin during upward and downward movements. For downward movement in PAT, the results indicate increased return volatility than that in case of up movement suggesting that negative financial news triggers stronger investors reactions. The study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on how corporate disclosures change the market dynamics offering insights into the relationship between Investor behaviour and stock price volatility during corporate events such as earnings announcements. The results have a real-word inferences for the stakeholders marking it for better understanding of the market reactions to disclosures.

Complex control systems that operate in not entirely predictable environment have to deal with this environment in an autonomous manner using adaptability, the ability to predict environmental changes, and to maintain their integrity. Elements of the system must be able to find a new solution in a dynamic way. In this paper, we present the modeling of a traffic lights’ control system using a multivalent system. This is a large-scale distributed system, consisting of autonomous and rational traffic light agents, in which there is no centre imposing an outcome. Multiagent system brings another kind of organization of the distributed control. The information is distributed over the agents. The behavior of the other agents is incorporated into the making decision process of the agent. We apply different control algorithms in our multiagent simulation environment and show that using multiagent systems in dynamic and unpredictable environment the control will be adoptable.

This paper focuses on the treatment of intelligent systems and their application in the financial area. Types of intelligent systems are numerous, but we will focus on those systems, which based on their ability to learn, are able to predict. The concept of inductive reasoning, how these systems learn and reason inductively, the role and their integration in financial services are some of the concepts that will be addressed. The second and the main part focuses on the application developed in the design of an artificial neural network for financial forecasts. Recognizing the need for better predictive models, not just traditional statistical model, we considered with interest the development of an application that will predict currency exchange rates, USD-ALL, given the time series of real data in years 1995-2012. We test some of the learning algorithms in our system and conclude that one of them is most suitable for this problem. This intelligent system reached to create a relation...

Bahasa Indonesia:
Konveksi Fajar Indah adalah usaha konveksi pakaian yang masih menggunakan sistem pemesanan manual, yang menyebabkan banyak kendala seperti kesalahan pencatatan dan keterlambatan produksi. Penelitian ini bertujuan membangun sistem pemesanan digital berbasis desktop dengan pendekatan metode Waterfall. Tahapan pengembangan meliputi analisis kebutuhan, desain sistem, implementasi, pengujian, dan pemeliharaan. Hasil implementasi menunjukkan sistem ini mampu meningkatkan efisiensi dan akurasi, serta mempermudah pelacakan dan pengelolaan pesanan pelanggan.

Bahasa Inggris (optional untuk jangkauan global):
Fajar Indah Convection is a clothing production business that still uses a manual ordering system, which often causes issues such as order errors and production delays. This study aims to develop a desktop-based digital ordering system using the Waterfall development method. The development process includes requirement analysis, system design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. The implementation results show that the system significantly improves efficiency and accuracy in managing and tracking customer orders.

Bahasa Indonesia:
Konveksi Fajar Indah adalah usaha konveksi pakaian yang masih menggunakan sistem pemesanan manual, yang menyebabkan banyak kendala seperti kesalahan pencatatan dan keterlambatan produksi. Penelitian ini bertujuan membangun sistem pemesanan digital berbasis desktop dengan pendekatan metode Waterfall. Tahapan pengembangan meliputi analisis kebutuhan, desain sistem, implementasi, pengujian, dan pemeliharaan. Hasil implementasi menunjukkan sistem ini mampu meningkatkan efisiensi dan akurasi, serta mempermudah pelacakan dan pengelolaan pesanan pelanggan.

Bahasa Inggris (optional untuk jangkauan global):
Fajar Indah Convection is a clothing production business that still uses a manual ordering system, which often causes issues such as order errors and production delays. This study aims to develop a desktop-based digital ordering system using the Waterfall development method. The development process includes requirement analysis, system design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. The implementation results show that the system significantly improves efficiency and accuracy in managing and tracking customer orders.

The increased usage of mobile phones and the rapid developments in mobile communication technologies present a surge for m-commerce. While m-commerce has been implemented in many countries in both the developed and developing world, it remains an unexploited area in some African countries, including Malawi. This paper investigates the problems that Malawi could face in the implementation of m-commerce and the stakeholders to drive m-commerce implementation in the country. The research has established that banks, mobile phone operators and the central bank, among other institutions, are the key stakeholders to play a leading role in the implementation of mcommerce in Malawi. The paper has further identified a number of possible m-commerce applications in the country including m-banking, m-shopping and m-health. However, the implementation of these applications will face technical, business and policy problems. These have been discussed and analyzed. The results of the research are expected to help in directing the focus of researchers, policymakers, technical implementers, service providers and other stakeholders, as Malawi joins the race for mobile payment systems.

High concentration of fine particles, the primary concern of worsening air pollution in Prishtina is believed to be fast paced economic and infrastructural growth in the capital of Kosova. This study is mainly focused on measuring the fluctuations of one constituent of air pollution, P.M. 2.5 (which are particles ranging from 2.5 to 10 micro-meters suspended into the environment). The measurements were done in Prishtina, mainly in the parts more frequented by people. Exposed to mixed combustion emission from roads with traffic, construction areas, and/or burning trash are a case of peculiar concern to people near those places. However, due to Kosovo's continental climate, the fluctuations of these micro particles vary during different seasons throughout the year. The results have shown that during winter the levels of P.M. 2.5 skyrockets, due to the heating systems used by individual households; on the other hand. During summer, these levels appear normal, under the international standards. Consequently, from measuring the maximum and the minimum of P.M. 2.5, we can infer the causes of the increase and decrease during different seasons.

Total Quality management (TQM) is a philosophy management method, the importance of which continuously has been growing after '90. There is relatively short time since Kosovo Public Institutions are practically doing their activity as a part of an independent Country, and as such day by day they are facing with different management challenges which continuously are becoming more rough and tough towards the EU integration process. Total Quality Management within Public Institutions, is leaded by the phase of establishment and implementation of Quality management Systems based on ISO 9001. In this process, through a deep empiric study in three Kosovo Public Institutions, we have tried to identify the advantage and disadvantage factors towards the successful implementation of quality management system in time, as a consequence of TQM. Moreover, we were focused on the organizational culture. Analyses over norms, trusts, principals that do characterize the organizational culture of Kosovo Institutions, its crossing with the political context and the Public Administration law will serve to model changes that should be projected in order to successfully implement the TQM. In the function of the disadvantage factor analyses, organizational cultural elements, and the changes model, there will be used a number questionnaires and interviews with relevant people.

Management accounting is the process of preparing management reports and accounts that provide accurate and timely, financial and statistical information to assist in management decision making. It is also known as the process of identifying, measuring, accumulating, analyzing, preparing, interpreting and communicating information to help managers fulfill the organization's objectives. Management accounting practices are used by organizational managers at various levels and at the same time, it gives managers the freedom of choice as there are no constraints, other than the cost of information collected relative to benefits of improved management decisions. Studies have found that there are factors that may affect management accounting practices. Literature has indicated that factors such as-organization size, intensity of market competition, level of qualification of accounting staff and advanced production technology-may affect management accounting practices. The objective of this research is to study the impact of these factors on management accounting practices in Malaysia. A total of 200 respondents from Klang Valley, Malaysia were involved in the survey using purposive sampling. The results of the study revealed that organization size and advanced production technology have significant relationships with management accounting practices.

Although, the economy of Bangladesh is primarily dependent on agriculture, Ready-made Garment (RMG) industry has emerged as the largest earner foreign currency of Bangladesh in recent years. More than 75% of foreign earnings are coming through export from this very important sector of Bangladesh. In study of Islam & Chowdhuri, presently more than four million workers are working in 4,500 RMG companies of Bangladesh in which 90% are illiterate women who are from the rural areas of the country. The policymakers and the employers of this sector claim that the growth of garment sector has helped employing a huge number of rural women that has subsequently developed their socioeconomic. But, it is a concern of the national and internal observers that the compliance like factory laws, industrial relations laws, employment laws, payment of wages laws, ILO standards, ethics applied in this sector are hardly followed by the RMG companies that make the lives of the workers very misery. Sometimes, the female workers are exploited by employing more hours a day without the payment of overtime by capitalizing their illiteracy and submissiveness. Hence, this paper aims at identifying the level of application of the labor laws and the compliance in RMG industry of Bangladesh that is the only protective measures of the large number of female workers of this sector of Bangladesh. A total of 238 workers of this sector were interviewed in this study with a structured questionnaire. Multivariate analysis techniques such as, Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to analyze the data. Results show that in case of measures for protecting sexual harassment there is a severe problem of the use of the labor laws in this sector followed by physical movement and access control, exit and access path of the company, working hours, and counseling arrangements in the company. This study suggests that the ready-made garment companies should address the sexual harassment issue seriously so that the workers will feel safe at their work. They also should focus more on the safety issues, working hours, and counseling of the workers in order to make the working environment more favorable to the workers.

This study examined the effect of executive perks on performance of quoted consumer goods firms in Nigeria using secondary data obtained from the annual reports of such firms. A sample of (15) selected consumer goods firms were used for the period of 10years spanning 2010 to 2019. The study was predicated on Ex-post facto and longitudinal research design and used secondary data for the analysis. Four objectives and hypotheses were formulated to guide this study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Correlation Matrix and Panel Least Square regression. The result revealed that social cost and health care cost have positive and significant effect on performance of consumer goods firms which was statistically significant at 1% and 5% level of significant respectively while a negative and insignificant relationship was documented against executive perks in form of staff loan and performance of Nigerian consumer goods firms. The finding shows that about 41.7% approximately of the system variation in performance of consumer goods firms were jointly explained by all the independent variables of our sampled firms over the 10 years period while about 58.3% of the total variations were unaccounted for, hence captured by the stochastic error term. The study therefore recommends among others that consumer goods firms should pay attention to social cost and healthcare cost in order to boost the morale of both the management and the staff and should not do executive perks activities only when they have made extra normal profit. Rather it should be approached from humanitarian perspective knowing that there are also financial benefits accruable from these expenditures. In addition, consumer goods firms should be mindful of the fact that they owe duty of care to employee and not only the business owners. They should dearth from parochial objective of only owners' welfare.

This study examined the effect of executive perks on performance of quoted consumer goods firms in Nigeria using secondary data obtained from the annual reports of such firms. A sample of (15) selected consumer goods firms were used for the period of 10years spanning 2010 to 2019. The study was predicated on Ex-post facto and longitudinal research design and used secondary data for the analysis. Four objectives and hypotheses were formulated to guide this study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Correlation Matrix and Panel Least Square regression. The result revealed that social cost and health care cost have positive and significant effect on performance of consumer goods firms which was statistically significant at 1% and 5% level of significant respectively while a negative and insignificant relationship was documented against executive perks in form of staff loan and performance of Nigerian consumer goods firms. The finding shows that about 41.7% approximately of the system variation in performance of consumer goods firms were jointly explained by all the independent variables of our sampled firms over the 10 years period while about 58.3% of the total variations were unaccounted for, hence captured by the stochastic error term. The study therefore recommends among others that consumer goods firms should pay attention to social cost and healthcare cost in order to boost the morale of both the management and the staff and should not do executive perks activities only when they have made extra normal profit. Rather it should be approached from humanitarian perspective knowing that there are also financial benefits accruable from these expenditures. In addition, consumer goods firms should be mindful of the fact that they owe duty of care to employee and not only the business owners. They should dearth from parochial objective of only owners' welfare.

This study examined the effect of executive perks on performance of quoted consumer goods firms in Nigeria using secondary data obtained from the annual reports of such firms. A sample of (15) selected consumer goods firms were used for the period of 10years spanning 2010 to 2019. The study was predicated on Ex-post facto and longitudinal research design and used secondary data for the analysis. Four objectives and hypotheses were formulated to guide this study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Correlation Matrix and Panel Least Square regression. The result revealed that social cost and health care cost have positive and significant effect on performance of consumer goods firms which was statistically significant at 1% and 5% level of significant respectively while a negative and insignificant relationship was documented against executive perks in form of staff loan and performance of Nigerian consumer goods firms. The finding shows that about 41.7% ap...

The 21st century has ushered in a new era of business characterised by rapid technological advancements, globalisation, and evolving consumer behaviours. This environment has fundamentally reshaped the way organisations operate, compete, and innovate. I
To stay competitive, businesses must develop robust strategies that are agile, innovative, and adaptable to the shifting digital and global marketplace.
This paper explores the key characteristics of the 21st-century business environment and discusses the importance of crafting business strategies that respond effectively to technological disruptions, market dynamics, and consumer preferences.
By examining these factors, organisations can create sustainable competitive advantages, foster growth, and ensure long-term success in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.

State-of-the-art security frameworks have been extensively addressing security issues for web resources, agents and services in the Semantic Web. The provision of Stream Reasoning as a new area spanning Semantic Web and Data Stream Management Systems has eventually opened up new challenges. Namely, their decentralized nature, the metadata descriptions, the number of users, agents, and services, make securing Stream Reasoning systems difficult to handle. Thus, there is an inherent need of developing new security models which will handle security and automate security mechanisms to a more autonomous system that supports complex and dynamic relationships between data, clients and service providers. We plan to validate our approach on a typical application of stream data, on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In particular, WSNs for water quality monitoring will serve as a case study. The paper describes the initial findings and research plan for building a consistent security model for s...

In the present study is analyzing the case of the application of solar energy with vacuum tube collectors for heating water for sanitary needs in hotels of Durres areas. In recent years there has been a special interest by the leading authorities to the EU countries and the U.S., for the use of renewable energies in general and solar energy in particular. This is mainly related with the reduction of environmental pollution from gas CO2, which directly influences the greenhouse effect and global warming. Unlike other forms of renewable energy, like wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and biomass usages, the use of solar panels for hot water, constitutes a reliable source in Albania. In the study were analyzed the types of solar panels used in our country and the world. Collector with vacuum tubes is selected for heating water, which constitute a new technology with an efficiency 40% higher than other types. For this case study were obtained tourism hotels in the coastal area of Durrës...

The difficult problem of modeling Complex Dynamic Systems (CDS) is carefully reviewed. Main characteristics of CDS are considered and analyzed. Today's mathematical models and approaches cannot provide satisfactory answers to the challenging problems of the society. The key problem of complex dynamic systems and control theory consists in the development of methods of qualitative analysis of the dynamics and behavior of such systems and in the construction of efficient control algorithms for their efficient operation. The purpose of control to bring the system to a point of its phase space which corresponds to maximal or minimal value of the chosen efficiency criterion is reviewed and analyzed. The reasons for using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) in modeling Complex dynamic Systems are provided. The basics of FCMs are briefly presented. An illustrative example is considered and interesting results are presented and discussed.

The urgent need for energy consumption reduction and trends of global warming leads toward exploring possibilities to “hide” living space from explosion to climate changes as a result of global warming. This paper aims to present benefits of underground houses, underground living space. Housing is elementary process of mankind life that was performed from the existence of life in different forms, shapes, levels and social developments. House, as one used to get protected by phenomena of the nature, historically used in different shapes, levels and materials, created mentality that one percept as protective, and isolated space, for life activities. This paper treat possibilities, and priorities, of underground housing and construction of underground house in current development of technology, climate development impact, current development of mentality of society and approach of society toward energy efficiency, as underground house is one of the contribution. Paper as well analyze a...

An innovative solution to the corrosion problem is the use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) as an alternative reinforcing material in concrete structures. In addition to the non corrodible nature of FRP materials, they also have a high strength-to-weight ratio that makes them attractive as reinforcement for concrete structures. Extensive research programs have been carried out to investigate the flexural behavior of concrete members reinforced with FRP reinforcement. On the other hand, the shear behavior of concrete members, especially punching shear of two-way slabs, reinforced with FRP bars has not yet been fully explored. The existing provisions for punching of slabs in most international design standards for reinforced concrete are based on tests of steel reinforced slabs. The elastic stiffness and bonding characteristics of FRP reinforcement are sufficiently different from those of steel to affect punching strength. In the present study, the equations of existing design standa...

Business IT alignment has consistently been ranked at the top of the most important topics from the perspective of business executives. Over the years, many models and IT management frameworks have been proposed to address this issue. The purpose of this study was to develop comprehensive understanding of business IT alignment phenomena based on live experiences of IT leaders working in FMCG companies based in the UK. To achieve the goal of the study, a descriptive phenomenological method was employed. Live experiences of eleven participants from FMCG companies were used as the primary source of data. Phenomenological analysis of the data obtained from interviews revealed twenty-two sub-themes grouped into four main themes. Four main themes identified during the study are: leading topics, IT trends, IT management frameworks influencing business IT alignment and future improvement. The leading topics theme gathers current most important areas being discussed between senior IT and business leaders. The IT trend's theme points to all technological trends that draw the attention of companies. In particular, three categories were discovered: technologies to automate and optimize, digital technologies, and disruptive technologies. The IT management framework theme tackles all frameworks contributing to business IT alignment. The logical chain of sequence could be observed due to speed of changes and customers moving to online channels (leading topics), and because digital technologies are spreading (IT trends) supported by organizational changes (IT management frameworks). The last theme aggregates recommendations for improvement in business IT alignment based on participants' suggestions.

Liquidity risk may arise from diverse operations of financial intermediaries, facilitators and supporters as they are fully liable to make available liquidity when required by the third party. Incase of Islamic Banks additional efforts are required for scaling liquidity management due to their unique characteristics and conformity with Shariah principles. The objective of this study is to look into the liquidity risk associated with the solvency of the financial institutions, with a purpose to evaluate liquidity risk management (LRM) through a comparative analysis between conventional and Islamic banks of Bangladesh. This paper investigates the significance of Size of the Firm, Net Working Capital, Return on Equity, Capital Adequacy and Return on Assets (ROA), on Liquidity Risk Management in conventional and Islamic banks in Bangladesh. The study has taken six mid-size banks- three conventional and three Islamic banks as samples. It is based on secondary data which are collected fro...

The paper is about risk management practices of commercial banks in Bangladesh based on five commercial banks operating in Bangladesh. The number of respondents was 25, five from each bank. While collecting the requisite data, five points Likert Scale has been used. The objective of the study was to critically examine risk management practices of Bangladeshi banks i.e., types of risk facing a bank, procedure and techniques used to minimize the risk etc. The study also examines how far the banks follow the guidelines of Bangladesh Bank regarding risk management. The study reveals that credit risk, market risk and operational risk are the major risks to the bankers which are managed through three layers of management system. The Board of Directors performs the responsibility of the main risk oversight, the Executive Committee monitors risk and the Audit Committee oversees all the activities of banking operations. In the context of opinions regarding use of risk management techniques, ...