Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adoption of Cloud Computing Services in an Illinois-Based Insurance Company

Adoption of Cloud Computing Services in an Illinois-Based Insurance Company by Nekerral Polk MS, University of Dallas, 2008 BBA, Middle Tennessee State University, 1994 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Information Technology Walden University May 2019 Abstract The decision to adopt cloud computing services should involve business units of an insurance company as well as information technology (IT) because cloud computing services are viewed as both a technology offering and business alternative. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the strategies used by IT architects of an Illinois-based insurance company when adopting cloud computingThe decision to adopt cloud computing services should involve business units of an insurance company as well as information technology (IT) because cloud computing services are viewed as both a technology offering and business alternative. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the strategies used by IT architects of an Illinois-based insurance company when adopting cloud computing services. The theory supporting this study was the technology acceptance model. The study’s population consisted of IT architects from an Illinois-based insurance company that have used strategies to adopt cloud computing services. This study’s data collection included semistructured interviews and review of organizational documents. Member checking with each participant increased the validity of this study’s findings. Four major themes emerged from this study: strategies to adopt cloud computing services, strategies to adopt cloud services models, strategies to adopt cloud computing models, and concerns affecting the strategies to adopt cloud computing services. The study findings may assist IT architects in developing effective strategies to adopt cloud computing services for their respective business unit. This study might serve as a foundation for positive social change by decreasing customer concerns regarding critical information being compromised when adopting cloud computing services. Adoption of Cloud Computing Services in an Illinois-Based Insurance Company by Nekerral Polk MS, University of Dallas, 2008 BBA, Middle Tennessee State University, 1994 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Information Technology Walden University May 2019 Dedication I am dedicating this study to the special education community and people with learning disabilities. There are many times when people with learning disabilities are overlooked or told they cannot do something. I want everyone in the special education community to continue moving forward and never backwards. There will be times when we need to sidestep to get around obstacles, but we must strive to do our best and keep
The Sheep Watching the Shepherd: Employee Representation on the Board and Earnings Quality

We investigate to what degree employee representatives contribute to the board’s monitoring of earnings quality. We argue that employee representatives have incentives to prevent earnings manipulations motivated by negotiation considerations. Furthermore, they seek risk reducing policies, have a long-term interest in their firm and possess firm-specific knowledge, which in turn can result in improved earnings quality. Employee representation also increases the diversity on the board, which can enhance the board of directors’ internal communication and monitoring. Using a sample of firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (2006–2014), we find lower abnormal accruals as well as less excessive R&D cuts in firms with employee representation, controlling for alternative model specifications and potential sample selection bias. Moreover, we find less income-decreasing abnormal accruals in firms with employee representatives during the 2010-2011 collective bargaining period. This study also reveals that earnings quality varies with the characteristics of employee representatives. Our findings contribute to the literature on boards’ monitoring and financial reporting quality, as it examines a less noticed aspect of board diversity, i.e. employee representation.
The Effects of Corporate Reputation and Compensation Disclosure on Investor Judgments

Regulators have increased the disclosure requirements of top executives as part of corporate governance reform. This study examines how trust arising from a firm’s corporate reputation will interact with top executive compensation disclosure to influence investor judgments. This study used a 2 X 2 between subjects experimental design, with corporate reputation (good versus bad) and pay ratio (high versus low) as independent variables to test the hypotheses. The key findings show that if the firm with a good corporate reputation discloses a high pay ratio, participants punished the good reputation firm more than the bad reputation firm, demonstrating a negative violation of expectations. On the other hand, if the firm with a bad corporate reputation discloses a low pay ratio, participants rewarded the bad reputation firm more than the good reputation firm, demonstrating a positive violation of expectations. The results of this study may be limited by its particular circumstances of corporate reputation and compensation disclosure, making generalizations of the findings to other settings difficult.
THE ROLE OF QUALITY ASSURANCE AND STANDARDS OFFICERS IN ENHANCING QUALITY EDUCATION AND STANDARD PERFORMANCE IN SELECTED PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF ISOKA DISTRICT.

vii CHAPTER ONE . 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 BACKGROUND . 1 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM . 5 1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY . 6 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY . 7 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY . 7 1.5. 1 General research question . 7 1.5. 2 Specific research questions . 7 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY . 8 1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY . 8 1.8 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY . 9 1.9 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . 9 1.10 DEFINITION OF TERMS . 11 CHAPTER TWO . 14 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW . 14 2.
How Information and Communications Technology Affects the Performance of Human Resources Management in the Higher Education?

In today’s business, effective human resources management (HRM) plays an important role in organizations to cope with competition. Human capital plays a significant role in achieving competitive advantage. Hence, it is recommended for organizations to adapt HRM practices to reach the optimal level of employees’ performance. On the other hand, the information and communications technology (ICT) has become the backbone of numerous modern organizations in processing their business operations and activities. HRM has also been affected by the tremendous increase of ICT usage within the organization. The World Wide Web has transformed the human resources practices, for example, human resource planning, recruitment, selection, performance management, work flow, training, and compensation. This paper investigates the impact of ICT on HRM performance in the higher education sector in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). In doing so, an empirical study based on survey questionnaire is conducted to gain a clear overview of where the higher education institutions stand in KRI in terms of the usage of ICT in the HRM field. The overall finding is that ICT may havea positive impact on the performance level of HRM staff in the higher education institutions in KRI. Furthermore, the level of ICT usage in KRI is not in a level where the individuals of HRM are well aware of ICT developments and E-HRM as well as the usage of computerized HRM.
EFFECT OF CONSUMER FACTORS ON STORE BRAND CHOICE IN THE RETAIL INDUSTRY IN KENYA: A SURVEY OF SELECTED SUPERMARKETS IN NAIROBI COUNTY

Abstract: This study set out to investigate the effect of consumer factors on store brand choice in the retail industry in Kenya. A cross-sectional explanatory design was used. The target population in this study was 10,535 registered customers in selected supermarkets in the Nairobi County Business District. Convenient sampling was adopted to select the supermarkets and proportionate random sampling was conducted to select the 385 respondents. Data was collected from primary sources using structured questionnaires. The study analyzed data with assistance of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20 as a tool to process and analyses data. The study established that store brand choice in the retail industry was moderate. The study found out that in terms of Store Image Perceptions on Store Brand Choice; store arrangement make it easier to do self-selection, staff always available to assist where need be, shopping environment makes shopping enjoyable and store owned by foreigners who care about quality. The study revealed that in terms of Store Brand Price- Image on Store Brand Choice; the store offers competitive prices across product ranges. Customers have never come across differences between price label and till price in this supermarket, shopping experience is good value for money and the store uses price baiting to attract customer. The study further found out that in terms of Store Brand Perceived Value on Store Brand Choice; store has wide range, stores private brands are sourced from reputable manufacturers, store stocks high quality products, the company’s own brands such as milk, bread are my first choice other brands second and store assures customers about quality of brands and in terms of Store Brand Attitude on Store Brand Choice study revealed that store offers wide product categories as well as store offers good quality products. The study also found out that store image perceptions, store brand price-image, store brand perceived value and store brand attitude accounted for 24.3% of the variation in store brand choice in the retail industry in Kenya. The model exhibited a joint significant relationship between all independent variable and dependent variable. Individually Store image perception and Store brand price –image were significantly related to store brand choice in the retail industry in Kenya. The study concludes that the proposed framework of the study was able to demonstrate moderate explanatory power. Notably the study provides evidence for the influence of consumer factors on store brand choice in the retail industry in Kenya as suggested by the literature. Store image perception emerged as the stronger predictor of store brand choice followed by Store brand price –image, Store brand attitude and Store brand perceived value respectively. The study further concluded that the established regression model was moderately significantly good for forecasting and could be used for prediction.
STRATEGIC PLANNING OF INDONESIAN SKINCARE CLINICS

Business activity is one of the important activities within the company. The tendency of an effort to be superior to the competitors is the main target of all business units. We need strategic planning that can support the achievement of company goals. Good management of this business creates a high-profit business; therefore the business strategy development is needed. To determine and develop the strategy, SWOT analysis is needed. The unit of analysis of this research is Rafa health and beauty lifestyle aesthetic clinic in Bandung. The method used is qualitative descriptive by analyzing the business environment from internal and external aspects. The internal analysis uses McKinseyâs 7S and external analysis using Porterâs five forces. After that, the analysis technique uses the SWOT matrix with the EFAS and IFAS approaches. The results show that the Rafa aesthetic clinic is in Quadrant II, which is the right strategy implemented is a turn-around strategy (retrenchment) that is designed to strengthen the basic competencies of a unique organization.
Empirical analysis of the intelligent influence factors of social network services effectiveness in e-commerce based on human learning behaviors

Background: It is crucial for companies to understanding users’ choices and learning behaviors, and the corresponding influencing factors and cognitive patterns regarding social network services to communicate with potential customers. Methods: In this study, a casual structural model was constructed and developed to model and characterize the relationships between problems to be resolved as antecedent variables and success factors as consequent variables with the intermediary variables based on human learning behaviors, whereas the concept of social network service was introduced to summarize the current issues of social network services and empirically factors affecting effectiveness of social network services. Discussion: This study highlighted the corporate need to examine the intelligent role and learning effectiveness of social network services when studying social creativity and intelligence in a social networking environment. Firstly, the framework and hypotheses of social network services were introduced to summarize the current issues of social network services and the main influencing factors affecting the working patterns of social network services. Subsequently, the empirically established model was further tested to explore the possible meaningful relationships among those variables used. Results: The study revealed that the social network services provider and the customer should improve their social creativity and community collaboration; these could be expanded and enhanced by increasing the social intelligence to raise the social network services’ effect and the customer’s externalization. Furthermore, social intelligence, community collaboration, and customer externalization were factors significantly influencing customers’ social creativity, while the customer externalization and community collaboration were the two important factors affecting social intelligence. Conclusion: The study implied that social network services providers should provide more and more intelligent and inspiring services for their customers.
Technology innovation diffusion at the University of Botswana: A comparative literature survey

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influence adoption and diffusion of information and communication technology in developing countries through a thorough review of past and current literature, focusing on the case of University of Botswana. Despite the value in adoption and diffusion of technology innovation in the developing world, universities are faced with problems, and studies show that generally, use of accessible and available technology implementation is not successful. The Rogers (2003) concepts social systems, compatibility of technology and early adopters and factors, are complex. This includes organizational characteristics focusing on policies, faculty support through professional development and training, time, beliefs, and workload. The article concluded that (a) the social system (university administration) develops policies, which accounts for little when the technology plan is not concrete for implementation, (b) technology is not compatible with faculty traditional teaching practices, and (c) university administration does not consider understanding the faculty (early adopters) in context. The study suggests that developing countries need to understand the faculty as early adopters from a bottom-up approach instead of top-down, and should not base success on outcomes, but rather, strategies based on the context.
Organizational Resilience and Performance: Analysis of the Relevance of Suppliers' Trade Credit and Bank Diversification in the Spanish Construction Industry

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of relevant variables related to strategic sources of financial resources — in our case, suppliers’ trade credit and use of financial institutions — over performance among Spanish construction firms. By analyzing a large dataset including information for 3590 Spanish construction businesses during 2004-2011, the results of the longitudinal analysis reveal that trade credit granted by suppliers constitute a relevant source of liquidity and financial resources that positively impacts economic performance. During the period of economic downturn that affected Spain after 2008, those construction firms that benefited from longer average payment periods from their suppliers reported superior performance levels. Additionally, we find that bank diversification is conducive to performance but only during the crisis period: performance is significantly higher in businesses that work with a greater number of financial institutions.
Disruptive Innovation by Emerging Multinational Latecomers: The Mechanisms Underlying the Trajectories of Catching-Up And Leapfrogging

Despite the growing interest in the emerging-economy multinational enterprise (EMNE), there is little knowledge about the underlying mechanism for EMNEs as latecomers to catch up with and even leapfrog the traditional MNEs as early-movers. The cross-fertilization between the research streams on disruptive innovation (DI) and the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) provides a great opportunity to shed light on the key issue. To take advantage of this “missed” opportunity, I integrate the two reframed constructs of DI and BOP and also develop a typology of four ideal-typical innovations toward a theory of latecomer innovation as a special DI by EMNE at BOP to provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the trajectories of catching up and leapfrogging. Built upon latecomer innovation, EMNEs at BOP can emerge as the most disruptive challengers to the MNE incumbents at TOP. The implications of reframed constructs, integrative typology, and emerging theory for research and practice are also discussed.
Mobile Money and Socioeconomic Development: A Cross-Country Investigation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Over the past decade, mobile money, as a disruptive financial services innovation, has been widely adopted in Sub-Saharan Africa where the majority of population was financially excluded. Despite the transformative role of mobile money, the macro-level socioeconomic implications have been weakly examined so far. To fill the research gap, this paper explores the theoretical and empirical links between mobile money and socioeconomic development. Drawing on the theory of technology affordances and the emerging mobile money literature, this paper argues that mobile money, when adopted on a massive scale, has the potential to lead to socioeconomic development at the societal level. Results of Difference-in-Differences analysis show that mobile money, when widely adopted, has a positive effect on a country’s economic growth. Additional analysis reveals that the positive effect is found to increase as mobile money spreads into a society over time. This paper contributes to the emerging mobile money literature by documenting the positive relationship between mobile money and socioeconomic development at the societal level.
Skill Shortages and Skill Mismatch in Europe: A Review of the Literature

This paper reviews the recent economic literature on skill mismatch and skill shortages with a focus on Europe. The review starts with a conceptual overview of skill mismatch and skill shortages and how to measure them. An issue discussed in the first section is the measurement of job requirements, i.e. a demand side variable, that some authors compute using surveys of individuals, which typically collect information on the supply side (educational attainment, foundation skills). Individuals, however, do not often have a reliable view of job requirements, and may actually have an incentive to inflate them. Another issue is whether skill shortages stated by employers reflect the lack of suitable candidates among job seekers or are due instead to the wage and working conditions being offered. The second section looks at how skill shortages and mismatch are affected by cyclical and structural factors. Whether mismatch is pro or counter-cyclical depends on the relative strength of cleansing effects (poor matches are destroyed in a recession) and sullying effects (in a recession skilled workers are willing to accept unskilled jobs as jobs are scarce). Structural factors contributing to skill mismatch and shortages in Europe include "megatrends", notably globalisation, digitalisation and ageing. In addition, institutional factors shaping labour markets, skill utilization and formation at national and European level can work to reinforce or mitigate skill shortages and mismatches and are an important factor mediating the impact of structural trends. The third section discusses the economic costs of skill mismatch and shortages. Mismatch not only affects individuals but can also reduce average productivity by leading to an inefficient allocation of resources across firms. The final section considers policy implications, including how responsibilities for skill development can best be shared and what role EU policies can play to better address skill shortages and mismatches.
Analysis of State Investments into Human Capital in Slovak Republic

This article is focused on state or government investment into human capital and on investments into universities, which are supposed to lead to an increase in wages of individuals after fi nishing such education. That part of income of graduates which is exceeding incomes of people with completed high school education, i.e. income bonus is, on one hand, a motivational factor for individual to study at university and on the other hand it is an opportunity for the state to achieve higher tax incomes in absolute terms due to graduates with higher salaries. The main goal of this article is to analyse investments into the human capital from the point of view of the amount of investment and its profi tability, as well as from the point of view of the payback period for state investments in education. Quantitative analysis was provided by plugging in data into seven ratios/formulas. The data were from the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic. Results are addressing the issue of globalised education, where the fi erce competition will lead to changes that will inevitably require a change in investment schemes as well as a change in behaviour and attitude towards education as such. Paper strives for achieving an advantange that is to stimulate debate on human capital in its broad sense as described in the opening of the paper. The context of this humble research is framed by technology changes in global value chains that effect economy in its structure that is turning to be more dynamic then ever.
Audit Committee Characteristics and Earnings Management Practices

This study revisits the effectiveness of the audit committee independence and expertise in preventing earnings management practices. Studies in other countries that have relatively stricter regulations showed the audit committee independence was effective to prevent earnings management. Arguably, the practice may be different in Indonesia whose regulation is considerably more lenient. On the other hand, studies related to audit committee expertise is rarely done in Indonesia. This study utilized two of the earnings management models namely the Modified Jones Model and the Performance-Adjusted Modified Jones Model. This study was limited to Indonesian listed manufacturing companies from 2009 to 2011. Consistent for both earnings management models, the results show that audit committee independence is effective to prevent earnings management. However, the results showed that audit committee expertise did not affect earnings management practices. Although only approximately 39 percent of the audit committee members in Indonesian listed manufacturing companies were independent, the existence of those independence members enabled the audit committee to effectively conduct its monitoring role, especially in preventing earnings management. Nevertheless, accounting and/or financial expertise might not determine the effectiveness of the audit committee’s monitoring role.