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This study explored how undergraduate students and their tutors in an English Language Teaching Department of a Turkish university conceptualised a good research paper and whether there was a match between the conceptions of both parties. In line with this purpose, the study specifically sought answers to what the students’ concerns and what their tutors’ views were on students’ potential problems during the process of writing a research paper. The findings revealed a match between the students’ and tutors’ perceptions of a good research paper. However, the parties conceived the constructs valued and problems faced differently.

This study was conducted to identify and analyze some significant features that influence students and teachers about computer-based tests (CBT) and paper-and-pencil tests (P&P) at the context of the PAULEX Project. In order to do that, a large experiment has been developed at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Polytechnic University of Valencia), Spain, in which several students and professors have answered a validated questionnaire about their usage of technology, feelings and experiences. They also compared their preferences after doing two similar basic tests, CBT and P&P.

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in carbon information disclosure. This research aims to examine carbon reporting practices of Malaysian companies. Further analysis will be conducted to examine the influence of internal organizational factors on the carbon reporting practices. The relationship between carbon performance, carbon reporting and firm performance will be investigated. This paper also explores the moderating effect of the corporate governance quality on the relationship between carbon reporting practices and firm performance. The findings from this study have a significant contribution to carbon reporting literature, Malaysian companies, government and accounting regulation body.

d Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Abstract The recognition of training as an important development of human resource in implementing the quality of its human capital needs is no longer a new issue. However, despite several attempts trying to improve the success of training transfer onto the job, majority of the employees attending training had indicated that they had less successfully transferred the knowledge, skills and attitudes they have learnt and even further minimal change in behavior in their job-related performance. In this paper, the qualitative and quantitative investigation was conducted to examine the extent of training transfer knowledge activities (in compiling, gathering, collating and synthesising the employees experience, knowledge, skills and abilities) among executives at selected agribusiness and agro-technology based organizations. Final knowledge on training transfer performance and program were further formulated with feedback from training transfer expert. This paper contributes to the alternate model in favour of innovative and sustainable governance of a holistic agribusiness policy framework.

This conceptual research paper is about Malaysians’ perceptions toward products made in Malaysia versus products made in China. Local products are generally perceived as being of lesser quality compared to others. It is now common for most products to have the label “Made in China”; unfortunately, products made in China are also not renowned for their quality. With this in mind, what would Malaysians’ choices be? Products made in China are often cheaper compared to locally made products, mainly due to China's massive production industry. Apart from price, other factors that will be tested in this study are ethnocentrism and product quality (including aesthetics, performance and durability) that might affect consumers’ purchase decisions toward products made in China or Malaysia.

This paper reports on an on-going action research that enquires into the academic writing of a project paper by international post-graduate students enrolled at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Preliminary observations reveal that many of these students are underprepared for the task, citing cross-cultural limitations stemming from differences in teaching and learning styles vis-avis here and their home countries. They also claim that they are not prepared for the autonomy that is presented in the data collecting process and the writing of the paper. This action research aims to address the problem with a focus on the Statement of Problem. Data for the study were collected through semi-structured questionnaires, interviews and document analysis. The researchers believe that if intervention is provided at the early stages of the writing, these novice writers should be able to achieve academic socialization.

Negotiation is a pervasive feature of relationships among auditor-clients, buyer-sellers, as well as being a part of tax audits. Various forms of negotiations occur between the taxpayer and the tax authorities but nothing is mentioned in the literatures on the processes and procedures of how both parties arrive at a settlement that is amicable to both parties. This study reviews the literature on how concession timing negotiation strategies adopted by the tax authorities and the tax practitioners’ aggressiveness impact negotiation outcomes.

Ethics and communication with patients are basic transversal skills for the Degrees in Medicine, Physiotherapy and Nutrition. In this model, senior students use video to create simulated clinical cases with ethics and communication components, and conduct academic mentoring using these cases. To ensure quality video recordings, the students are introduced to visual language by students of the Master's in Communication, thus completing the learning cycle.

At the end of 2011, the Association of Lithuanian Serials initiated a survey, which aimed to ascertain whether Lithuanian journal editors, reviewers and authors encountered plagiarism, self-plagiarism and how they understood originality of a paper. Additionally, the survey looked at methods used for plagiarism prevention by editors and reviewers as well as ways, in which editors managed issues related to plagiarism. The survey suggests that no unanimous decision exists regarding the originality of a manuscript and that editors expect reviewers to identify plagiarism with little use of technologies. While answering to survey questions, respondents provided numerous comments. This demonstrates that plagiarism is a burning issue and scientific misconduct policy is needed in Lithuania. The survey was conducted during the period when the Lithuanian Research Council initiated the procedure for establishing the Ombudsman position. The Lithuanian Research Council funded several projects in 2012 and 2013, the aim of which was to familiarise the Lithuanian academic community with plagiarism prevention technologies and ethical aspects in academic publishing. The projects administrated by the Association of Lithuanian Serials provide research journal publishers and researchers related to journal publishing with a possibility of using CrossCheck system and discussing editorial policies.

The purpose of this work is to confirm theoretical findings in the field of management of higher education (institutions) and contribute with our own findings on the elements, mechanisms and instruments that affect the quality and effectiveness of managing and organizing higher education at the national and institutional level, and thus contribute to a more efficient and effective higher education. This work will also clarify interdisciplinary connections between various segments of the above mentioned management of higher education (institutions) field, which has not been explained yet. In the introduction of the paper, the impact of higher education on economic development and on knowledge society is explained briefly. Further on, the background of the work is illustrated and the definition of the working problem is explained, which basically refers to the inefficiency of (mostly) publicly-funded higher education and lack of proper managerial solutions and skills at higher education institutions. Furthermore, the role of higher education and major trends in higher education are introduced and discussed. The main contribution of the paper is the matrix of higher education objectives which have to be realized in order to implement a successful higher education and institutions, mainly from managerial and financial perspectives.

Changing technologies, where development time for a new work product must be decreased with each year due to a higher customer competition, also leads to a change in mindset in the way in which product development is currently done. Gamification models are one of this “game-changing” strategies that was considered suitable to also be implemented in the automotive software product development topic, but not only in this area. This paper describes the current situation in adopting on large scale the product development phases as gamified scenario, together with the presentation of the results of several questionnaires applied on automotive project team members. The aim of the paper is to present a procedure for obtaining a gamification application on an automotive project describing in detail each step which needs to be fulfilled in an iterative way. As a starting point for the model, the DMA (Design – Mechanics – Aesthetic) procedure was used, supported with elements from the PC/game console development, but also the existing tools/frameworks were taken into consideration. The obtained method can be applied on each automotive project, but there are the steps/iterations which still need to be performed, while also the positive and negative aspects are presented.

Cloud computing is today's edge of ICT, being present in quite all fields of economy, society and human life: education, medicine, industry, communication, etc., offering services and applications that are used daily by everyone connected to the internet. The quality of these services is a cutting subject for all stakeholders. This paper synthesizes some relevant researches focusing on quality management approaches in software services using remote assistance as tool and cloud as support of this service. As first step, the literature review focuses on cloud as being the most emerging and comprehensive subject on the deck, then extends the research on software services supported by cloud, identifying quality interventions in these cases and in the end, is looking for quality related demarches in remote assistance of these services. The research tries to identify how quality could influence cloud products in favor of the customer, targeting better cloud-connected services and applications. Proposing an exploratory research, the paper's intended contribution is placed mainly in clarifying the mentioned concepts and the way they are correlated in the practical world.

This scientific paper conducts a study meant to improve the quality management of the thermosonic welding process of gold wires in the automotive industry. Within the large amount of electronic products manufactured worldwide, the gold wire bonding is the preferred technology for creating the needed interconnections in the microelectronic industry. In this paper, the quality management improving starts with an experimental research in the automotive industry, based on the gold wire thermosonic bonding, in terms of: conformal structuring, robustness and integrity of the electrical contacts. The experimental research is based on the processing parameters and on the independent variables and objective processing functions. In order to highlight the impact which one or more factors have on the quality of the thermosonic bonding, the dispersion analysis method was used. According to this, the importance of each factor, but also each factor's optimization, was underlined. The final goal was to reach a high reliability and quality of the finished goods.

The paper explores the higher education institution experience activities regarding minors’ protection against abuse and exploitation within the international framework of the challenge under study. The research stands on the comparative analysis of the Lanzarote Committee documents, explored Parties’ replies to Question 2 (Education for children) of the Thematic Questionnaire and Question 8(a) (Education, awareness raising and training), first indent, of the General Overview Questionnaire. The analysis also took into account Academia's publications on the issue under study. The Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) faculty members’ participation in the Lanzarote Committee work also contributed to the research. The paper highlights qualitative analysis findings that cover such issues as the education contexts for preventive information delivery, their contents, tools and forms of disseminating preventive information, terminology used, parents’ engagement, situations of risks, etc. The above aspects are considered through the lenses of university engagement in the analysis. The paper argues that the university can contribute to capacity-building measures for minors’ education to prevent their abuse and exploitation; the university capacity to perform the relevant activities rests on its multiprofiled structure, comprehensive nature, and opportunities to collaborate with various agencies and engage specialists in pedagogy, law, medicine, psychology and psychiatry, etc. The research findings reveal that the university might play a significant role in shaping information, bridging institutional responses, coordinating the legislation, government policies and the public initiatives to promote action plans towards the nation-wide and international levels to protect minors and combat against their abuse and exploitation.

The paper examines the potential of flipped classroom applying in foreign language teaching. The authors look back at the history of emerging of the method, analyse its advantages over other traditional approaches. Among the advantages it should be mentioned time extension between the teacher and the student; increase of responsibility and self-reliance of the latter; personified approach to each learner; teacher's capability to create authorized mini lectures, taking into account the peculiarities of vocationally-orientated teaching, as well as age peculiarities and other features of each learning group; possibility for each student to work according to his/her personal pace, using time more effectively relative to the students and the teacher; increasing creativity and critical thinking; potential for permanent data archiving; positive transformation of teacher/students’ role relations when a student becomes a protagonist and creator of his/her own knowledge, at the same time the teacher becomes the guide and councilor; advancement of the learner's motivation; improvement of the atmosphere in the classroom that becomes more friendly and comfortable; chance for better concentration in the classroom. The paper describes flipped classroom method in graphics and proposes some practical examples of its application.

This paper revisits the existing literature on the concept of citizenship in digital age. It provides a detailed discussion on the proponents and opponents of technological determinism. The paper should be read as an effort to reinitiate an important debate in the scholarship, which has been largely undermined while studying the Internet phenomenon in the information age. Thus, instead of offering a solution-oriented conclusion, the paper sets the stage to invite mass media and communication scholars’ attention back to revisit the important ideological concepts, so as to evolve and improve our existing theories on communication and change in the society.

This paper aims to examine the influence of business intelligence on organizational agility through Partial mediating variable Empowerment. The statistical population of the study is consisted of Tehran Construction Engineering Organization (TCEO) and ETKA Organization Industries co. 102 questionnaires have been distributed among managers and stakeholders of information systems and these have been analyzed via SPSS and Smart PLS software. Within this paper the Popovic business intelligence questionnaire (2012), Sharifi& Zhang Organizational Agility and Spreitzer Empowerment have been used. The hypothesis of study is: Business Intelligence has direct and indirect influence through empowerment on organizational agility. Secondary hypothesis seek to examine the impact of business intelligence on organizational agility, business intelligence on empowerment and examining the impact of empowerment on organizational agility. Research studies imply the confirmation of study primary and secondary hypothesis.

This paper presents some of the results of a broader research project on how formative assessment affects the development of specific and generic competences in teacher training subjects at higher education level. The aim of the paper is to describe the impact of formative assessment on the development of learning-to-learn skills, in a sample of 143 students on teacher training bachelor's degrees at the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia. The results are from a quasi-experimental pre-post study, without a control group and follow-up, that used a quantitative method. Formative assessment was implemented in four subjects of the bachelor's degrees in Teacher in Primary Education (MEP) and Teacher in Early Childhood Education (MEI), in the second semester. At the start and end of each subject, students were asked to complete an ad hoc questionnaire to assess the effect of formative assessment on various competences, including learning-to-learn. The degree of independence and awareness that students perceived about what they had to learn increased significantly, but there were no significant differences in the level of demands on themselves. Therefore, the results suggest that formative assessment could increase students’ independence and awareness about learning.

There seems to be a common understanding that the Norwegian construction industry faces challenges concerning the presence of delays and defects in the handover process. However, little research has been found regarding countermeasures to avoid these problems. This paper forms a part of a research project on handover processes in Norwegian construction projects, initiated by the municipality of Trondheim. It is supposed to work as a pilot study for further research, and examines: 1) Consequences of delays and defects, 2) the causes of them and 3) potential countermeasures that can be implemented. The case studied was the expansion of a shopping centre in Norway, a complex project, both structurally and organisationally. In addition to a literature review and a documentation study, nine semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. All of the interviews were case-specific, with client, contractor and user representatives respectively. The consequences of delays and defects were severe and resulted in additional costs, lower quality on the final product and psychological strain for the involved actors. Short construction period, diffuse contractual relationships, lack of quality assurance and a high degree of alteration work are found to constitute the most crucial causes. On the basis of the observed challenges different countermeasures are suggested. Building commissioning, realistic project plans, control on deliveries and independent control are recommended as countermeasures. The findings indicate a great potential for improvement by keeping the control throughout the whole project. Further experiments are needed to substantiate the recommendations of this paper.

This paper presents some of the results of a broader research project on how formative assessment affects the development of specific and generic competences in teacher training subjects at higher education level. The paper describes and discusses the impact of participatory and non-participatory assessment techniques on the attainment of learning outcomes in four different subjects. The sample was comprised of students (n=118) on teacher training bachelor's degrees at the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia. Data were gathered on the lecturers’ activities in each subject and on the students’ final grades. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to assess the effect of formative assessment on students’ final grades for a subject. Statistical analysis shows that students who took subjects that were assessed by participatory techniques had a significantly (p

Modern classrooms see many innovative practices in facilitation. Most facilitators prefer using presentations animated videos and multimedia to better explain their content. Campuses are Wi-Fi enabled and students use tablets, laptops and smartphones to capture the essence of a lecture. However the one area where technological innovation is still lagging behind, in an academic setup, is in assessment. This paper looks at the perception of students to the use of clicker technology as a form of paperless assessment. Clicker technology was introduced as a tool for conducting formative and summative assessments to a first year electrical engineering subject, Digital Systems 1. The paper first elaborates on the significance, types and the methods of academic assessments. It then discusses the pros and cons of assessments using clicker technology. Thirdly it sheds light on the research methodology used in acquiring data for this research. Finally the results are analyzed which among others show that that 71% students enjoyed using clickers in class for formative assessments while only 52% appreciated its use in summative assessments. One of the reasons touted for this decrease is student anxiety. The key recommendation from this research is to increase the use of these assessment techniques within a formative assessment environment so as to familiarize students to eventually use it with confidence in summative assessments.

This paper analyses the current situation of small businesses, their outlook and their problems in Europe and in Russia. The number of small businesses opened, legislative system, number of self-employed without employees, influence of bureaucratic system on small business's life, unemployment and corruption are considered in this study. The object of this paper is understanding what can modify the life of small companies. Thus the analysis of every factor is useful to understand how the economy could change, what is correct and what resolutions make the life of small businesses better. The analysis is made using data from Eurostat, Rosstat, and Fedstat (an OECD institutional website), studying how values of indicators have changed during recent years. The results clearly show that the development of small companies is correlated with the development of good institutions, a sane community and trust and optimism in economy and small business sector.

Malaysian Small Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is largest business establishment and vital component of the country's economic development. However, limited studies were examined on their development, challenges and future green prospects, especially in service sector. Therefore this article examines the development of SMEs in Malaysia, challenges and opportunities of green practices among SMEs which is play a vital role in the nation growth. The uniqueness of this paper focuses on green practices which is important for SMEs to progress and competitive in domestically and globally. The key messages from these studies examined in this paper are that Malaysian SMEs contribute to the largest business establishment in Malaysia especially service sector and majority of them are in micro size establishment. Nevertheless, there are wide recognition in the literature about the factors hinder SMEs from expanding, this is mainly because high cost of raw materials, high initial cost of investment and shortage of skilled labour. The concept of green environment is still at infancy stage in Malaysian SMEs. Environmental management literature mostly published in the developed countries has proven that ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) implementation has a positive and significant relationship with SMEs performance. This study is important indicator to encourage other SMEs which has no green practices in place to consider joining the green bandwagon, especially SMEs service sectors. The studies focused are conditioned by the search strategy used. In addition, other key words could be including in future studies such as performance, customer satisfaction, financial performance, environmental and green supply chain management in order to expand this search. The main contribution of this paper is to identify the development of SMEs in Malaysia and future research proposals with regards to the benefit of the green practices (ISO 14001 standards) in Malaysian SMEs service sector.

The main aim of this paper is to assess and analyse how sustainable public transit (SPT) services contribute to building living cities in emerging economies through value network and resource integration/value co-creation, which is embedded on societal and environmental perspectives. The main theoretical and empirical challenges are how to understand public transport as dynamic and transformative values based service eco-system for living city regions to develop and implement a feasible and proactive tool for changing the mind-set, which is embedded on societal and environmental perspectives. The objective is to look deeper on how these emergent and fast growing cities are put together STP for building cities for people by focusing on societal and environmental issues, which value network of SPT are integrated and value is co-created within the service system. The paper has an explorative nature. It is built around three concepts - (i) SPT and value network (ii), resilient living cities in emerging economies and (iii) Societal and environmental perspectives. The paper illustrates these concepts with four different cases from Cape Town - South Africa, Buenos Aires – Argentina; Singapore - Singapore, and Jakarta - Indonesia. The study has identified the challenges of transforming emergent and fast urbanized cities, and understanding the role of public transport services from the cities perspective in an international context by embedding social and environmental perspectives. The challenges of transforming today's cities have created many new opportunities for prosperity through new ways of living and working in urban areas. The paper makes a contribution to the study of public transit services by explicitly linking the adoption of SPT value network in emerging economies based on sustainability, and resource integration/value co-creation for building resilient living cities.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the service quality transformation opportunities currently offered to rural areas of ASEAN through innovative approaches in training and through widespread use of internet support. More than half of the population of ASEAN lives in rural areas, which have long been marginalized and left at the periphery of the recent economic development of the region. Despite multiple programmes and policies aimed at fostering tourism development opportunities, the gap remains between the tourism potential of the rural areas and the lack of service management expertise. Capacity building is seen as a crucial step towards the development of a trained labour force. This study explores different tourism capacity building cases across the ASEAN region. It reviews how innovative approaches have managed to connect the local community needs with the global tourism expectations. It analyses secondary data from three cases in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, looking at the relationship between the community, the capacity building process and the impact on tourism in the local area. The findings show contrasted results that nevertheless share common patterns where innovation has enabled participation and positive service involvement towards tourism. The paper argues for an integration of tourism service management capacity within a wider set of competences which actually empower the community while paradoxically providing higher satisfaction. This study refers to innovative practices initiated by specific community training projects that enhance socio-economic development of the community and appropriate positively tourism and build entrepreneurs. The results of this reflection and comparison provide researchers and practitioners, a matrix of initiatives that could be extended to other rural areas of the ASEAN region.

The continuous increase in the level of education in the EU countries is one of the fundamental objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy. Taking into consideration the fact that the economical efficiency is significantly influenced by the quality of the human resource, the level of education of the active population is an important variable in the process of the economic growth. The current different politics applied in the EU28 countries 20 years ago had a big structural diversity as a direct consequence concerning the level of education of the active population. Based on these findings, the paper analyses the evolution of the characteristics of the active population in the EU28 countries on the level of education in the last 10 years, a period which includes the economical crisis. The analyses based on official databases show the tendency of increasing the share of the active population with tertiary education and the relative stability of those with upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education. At the same time the fact that the difference between the countries with high shares of the tertiary education attainment level and those with still low shares is continuously increasing is emphasized, the process still being divergent. The paper also investigates the convergence in terms of the structure of the active population in EU countries.

Creating quality and sustainable urban environments has always been a challenge for urban planners and designers. The modern perception of urban planning is directed towards promoting pedestrian movement and, at the same time, limiting the excessive use of automobiles. For understanding how pedestrian movement is generated in relation to the urban layouts and for predicting this movement in public spaces, GIS database, statistical methods as well as space syntax approaches are used and tested in the case of the Municipality of Athens. In particular, this paper attempts to: (a) interpret and predict densities of pedestrian movement though the effective study of configuration characteristics and syntactic properties of urban space; (b) identify inconsistencies and limitation in the prediction of pedestrian movement; (c) propose a methodological framework to overcome these limitations. Correlation analysis is also performed between the results of axial and segment analysis to establish the syntactic analysis that better simulates the pedestrian movement. This paper is part of a wider research that intents to interpret the characteristics of the public space in order to create, through more holistic approaches, a methodological framework for decision-making analysis towards sustainable urban planning.

In the context of Europe 2020 Strategy, where the cities’ role in the global competition brings along a scale shift in terms of networking system, the paper refers to a research project investigating the potential socio-economic impact of major advancing Euro-Mediterranean cohesion. Highlighting a holistic multidisciplinary approach the paper stresses the role of local cultural heritage towards a Mediterranean sustainable development process, especially in less-known destinations, where the cultural resources are the main strategic assets for development. In conclusion a research model is presented in order to design a systematic tool to combine the Mediterranean common roots, territorial development needs and Euro-Mediterranean policies aiming at contributing to the multicultural dialogue in this transnational panorama.

Internal service quality and organizational innovation are really important in satisfying the internal and external customers’ expectation and needs. Organizational innovation is actually one of the significant factors that can affect the internal service quality of the organization. This paper describes the development of Innovative Internal Service Quality (IISQ) Model in measuring the influence of organizational innovation (based on its three main determinants) towards internal service quality (reliability, responsiveness, tangibles, assurance and empathy) in MBKS while gender acts as the moderating factor. The paper examines three main determinants of organizational innovation (innovation leadership, managerial levers and business processes) which can affect the internal service quality of an organization as well as describes how those three determinants affect the internal service quality. It will help to provide future researchers with literature in studying the influence of organizational innovation towards internal service quality. This paper can contribute in developing an improved model for organizational innovation and internal service quality.

The paper is part of the final outcomes of the the EU research project “Estudio de la Amenaza Sísmica y Vulnerabilidad Física del Gran Santo Domingo”, as produced by the Italian partenership (Istituto di Ricerca su Innovazione e Servizi per lo Sviluppo, CNR-IRISS). The paper discusses the application of the multi-criteria approach to identify urban vulnerability with respect to seismic risk. Starting from the case study of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the Italian research team provided a GIS-based design approach aimed at managing vulnerability as whole (whether physical, morphological, or social, and functional). The study depiscts and tests a wide range of indicators aimed at mapping seiemic vulnerabilty at urban district scale, according to both the probability of seismic event (the Haiti earthquake of 2010), and the site-specific vulnerability of the city. The research has been carried out with the specialistic supports of the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières -BRGM (Fr), and with the Istituto Geologico y Minero de Espana (IGME), who produced the seiemic micro-zoning mapping of the city. The GIS-based design approach, as well as the multi-criteria analysis made by the CNR research team, was here tested as innovative risk reduction planning method able at prevent and prepare to severe hazards.

Public art defined as artwork that is placed externally in public areas and mostly accessible for public appreciation and viewing purposes. The public art practice involves collaboration of stakeholders, promotes a sense of community and contributes to a substantial public realm. Therefore, to investigate the aesthetic and functional values of public art in the local context, this paper reviews several public art projects in Malaysia, as reference studies; examines the various typology and roles of public art installation. The outcome of this paper is hoped to provide a better understanding of public art for better quality of public realm.

When the National Educational Blueprint was launched in 2013, it had explicitly articulated its intention to provide an education system that would take into account the challenges of the 21st century. Adaptive leadership which originates from evolutionary biological sciences perspective has made significant strides toward the understanding of leadership in Knowledge-Era as an adaptive process in an unpredictable 21st century environment (Heifetz, 2004). This research was an attempt to take the first step toward the integration of leadership competence with capability that might lead to anticipated leadership effectiveness leadership in Sarawak schools. First, this paper defined the adaptive leadership (Heifetz, Karnia & Kramer, 2004). Second, it explained how leadership capabilities ( Hazy, 2004 ) could be used to compliment leadership competency in adaptive leadership to ensure leadership effectiveness. Third, this paper explained the leadership effectiveness processes based on Vanderbilt assessment for leadership effectiveness in schools (Porter, Polikoff, Goldring, Murphy, Elliot & May, 2010). Finally, it discussed the implications of adaptive leadership and leadership capabilities on leadership effectiveness in Sarawak schools particularly.

The focus of this paper is to show the necessity to change the existing policy on the importance of entrepreneurship and rural development in Serbia. It cannot be said that this area was not given importance in Serbia, but it can definitely be said that this is not done in the correct way, using all available resources (human, financial (own and foreign sources of funding), intellectual, etc). The aim is to draw attention to the necessity of reducing the public sector (which incidentally has been funded by the private sector through taxes), to the greater stimulation of the private sector (environment, sources of financing, etc.) and to a number of other measures that the Government of Serbia should take, which would be aimed at that for an estimated period of five to ten years, and see in practice that the number of employees in the private sector is ¾, and in the state administration ¼. Namely that the private sector is strong, stable and the state sector is efficient. Furthermore, the aim of this paper is to show us the necessity of using pre-accession funds for the purpose of rural development in Serbia, with the emphasis on legislative solutions that have existed even in the former SFRY.

The Reputation Quotient is one of the popular measurements for corporate reputation. It has been tested within a cross-cultural setting among countries in the United States, Europe and Australia. However, there is no reliable evidence that the Reputation Quotient is fit for Malaysia. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the Reputation Quotient model when it was applied to measure corporate reputation for the Malaysian banking industry. We resort to the standard confirmatory factor analysis tests. Workplace environment dimension was found weaker in the second order test. This paper seeks to introduce Reputation Quotient studies in Malaysia.

Purpose. The role of CEOs’ is related to the strategy of organization and operational decisions formation that could have long-term consequences. They are responsible for everything what happens in the organization. As it is shown in the practice, during the willingness of organization to take up leadership positions, CEOs become especially important. The promotion of their operational efficiency becomes a relevant task developing the remuneration systems. The emphasis of the CEOs’ as a specific group of workers allows defining the scientific problem – what determinants are substantial for the quantitative differentiation of the CEOs’ remuneration. The purpose of the article - to identify the determinants affecting the remuneration of CEOs’. Methodology. The paper is based on the descriptive analysis of scientific sources, the comparative analysis of scientific literature and synthesis methods. Results. The analysis, systemization and evaluation of the scientific literature, researching the remuneration in general and the exact issue regarding the remuneration of the CEOs’, allowed to create a model, incorporating whole factors that determine the remuneration of CEOs’. This model is based only on the theoretical level. Therefore it still requires an empirical verification. Keywords: CEO, remuneration, remuneration determinants. Paper type : Theoretical paper.

This paper presents the results of a study conducted with several major actors from the French financial industry, which aimed at developing a process for developing responsible innovations by deploying a design thinking method. We begin by presenting the context for the study which includes a brief description of our approach for understanding and exploring the issues raised by responsible innovation in a practical context. Secondly, the design thinking method is introduced as a potentially suitable approach for addressing wicked problems and thus, the integration of responsible innovation. The paper will conclude with a presentation of the process for developing responsible products and services which was developed throughout the study. The main purpose of the paper is thus to demonstrate that integrating responsibility in innovation does not have to become a constraint if it is incorporated as a tool for stimulating the creative capacity of innovation teams.

This paper aims to highlight early and contemporary ideas on educational leadership from an Islamic perspective. It started with the definition of the term. Educational leadership in this context could be the process of guiding and influencing the members of the organization so that they will display initiative and love for the work that they do as a kind of worship towards achieving the common objectives of the organization. Educational leadership roles have been discussed in this paper. These are the visionary leader, the servant leader, the leader as a guide, the influential leader and the educative leader. The paper discussed also the styles of educational leadership that include brotherhood, collaborative, Shuratic or consultative and supportive leadership.

Modern development trends of knowledge-intensive industries determine the necessary reduction of time of the market waiting for technological novelties, which is achievable due to promotion of knowledge and innovations in an educational environment of large centers of higher vocational education formed in a new way. An efficient mechanism of solution for this task must become innovation educational projects at universities integrated with academic research. The paper deals with the prospects of using GIS-technologies and remote sensing ones as the main directions of implementing the innovation project in the sphere of environmental education. The main directions of perfecting the system of environmental education are grounded. In order to ensure the development of innovative thinking in future professionals, it is suggested to implement an integrated system of teaching, knowledge generation, project and innovative work of bachelors and master's degree students, their participation at the market of knowledge-intensive enterprises. The innovative approach to management of scientific and academic activity of the university is considered based on cluster organization of its activity. The paper suggests new models and technologies in the system of teaching that rely on the obtained experience of implementation of environmental education tasks and integration of modern technologies into it.

The paper reveals methodological foundations and components of the pedagogical model of forming the primary school teacher's cultural and aesthetic competence as the basis of his professionalism. The relevance of the problem of creating favorable conditions for forming the cultural and aesthetic competence in primary school teachers in pedagogical higher education institutions that is determined by a number of controversies described by the author. The paper contains the goal, objectives and research methods, it characterizes the phases of approbation of the model created by the author. Special attention is paid to the basic grounds for modeling the process of forming the cultural and aesthetic competence of primary school teacher proceeding from the learner-centered approach – they are works of Russian and foreign scholars. The author of the paper suggested has analyzed the structural components of the model proposed and briefly described the results of the pedagogical experiment on approbation thereof.

Organizational change is a risky and challenging endeavor for any type of organization. There are many aspects to change management and one important aspect is persuasion. Persuasion helps to implement a successful change management program. A social hub is person who has social ties to many other people compared to most people. In popular culture, this type of person is also called a popular person. In organizations, there are popular employees who are in fact a social hub. These employees have influence on other employees and they can persuade others towards a particular belief. In this paper, we investigate the role of persuasive social hubs for organizational change. We believe persuasive social hubs can be used to achieve organizational change. In social studies, it is hard to replicate conditions and isolate certain factors. Therefore, in this paper, we benefit from computer simulations and isolate the effect of persuasion by stabilizing all other factors. Our analysis revealed that using social hubs increase the chance of success in organizational change.

The paper discusses reforms to the higher education system in Russia in the context of its integration into the European education realm. The authors single out key decisions and actions taken within reformation of education: desacralization of the education process, introducing technologies to education, and configuring Russian education according to Western patterns. The paper examines rationalization as an umbrella notion for changes in the higher education system. The concept of formal rationalization is defined, its risks and drawbacks for higher education are discussed. The authors single out markers of formal rationalization in administration and structure of higher education institutions on the basis of own sociological research. Characteristic traits of the bureaucratic worldview in Russian higher education institutions are analyzed. The causes of formal rationality traps in higher education are discussed.

This paper discusses the importance of properly set up of communication strategy in project management. It describes one of the lesser known methods of creativity in communication - game theory. Game theory is relatively young mathematical discipline with the wide possibility of application into lots of scientific fields. From its beginning it is connected with the economy, but today it is the essential of many of managerial fields. In presented paper we want to present the particular examples of the game theory use in economy and management, mostly in project management with the intention towards the Czech environment. We pay lots of attention to the use of the model of Prisoner´s dilemma; we will present surprising conclusions of practical problems through the game theory. Next the paper illustrates the effect of the creative methods on the success of communication with all stakeholders of the project. It defines the proper setting of the communication strategy as one of the factor in the elimination of risks in projects. It judges the relation between the game theory and creativity towards the successful finalization of the project through the presentation of practical examples. It confirms the Bitlon’s and Cumming´s (2014) hypothesis, that the use of game theory makes possible to understand the stakeholders´ needs and their interests in a better way and to finalize the project successfully. This paper arose as one of the outputs of project KEGA No. 003/DTI-4/2014 with the title Diagnose system for identifying of competencies of managers of national and international educational projects.

Purpose. The paper is aimed to present the new approach to the promotion of university students’ entrepreneurship which was elaborated and researched in the Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management of Riga Technical University within the study course „Economics of Entrepreneurship”. Methodology. It is argued that opportunity identification (Baron, 2006), opportunity creation (Sarasvathy, et al., 2003) and opportunity development (Virtanen, 2010) are the prerequisites for the creation of new economic values which makes the heart of entrepreneurship (Drucker, 1993). In order to make the study process more entrepreneurship enhancing, it is necessary to avoid traditional teaching and learning methods such as lectures, literature reviews and examinations (Gibb, 2002). Instead, the working out of opportunity-centered (Rae, 2003) and problem-based (Tan & Frank, 2006) study models, maximally “pushing” students into entrepreneurship through the structuring of learning like an entrepreneurial process (Hjorth & Johannisson, 2007) should become the key elements of contemporary advanced education for entrepreneurship. Therefore the “Opportunity-oriented 7-step-problem-based learning model for developing students’ entrepreneurship” (Oganisjana, 2015) was elaborated and tried out in secondary schools of Latvia and Malaysia within ASEM (Asia-Europe Lifelong Learning Research HUB) from 2011 to 2014. The analysis of the results of the research served as a basis for adapting this model for university students with its further application in practice within the framework of the National Research Program EKOSOC-LV in the autumn semester of 2014. It was qualitative research for discovering the aspects of the new approach to the teaching and learning process and getting students’ feedback in the beginning and in the end of the course. Students filled in Google Drive electronic forms and sent them to the authors. The questions of the reflections concerned what students liked and disliked in the course, what and who helped or disturbed them while working in teams, what and who surprised them, what they considered in the course to be especially important to them and what they would recommend to change, etc. The qualitative content analysis of the texts of the reflections provided the discovery of the factors which promote and hinder the opportunity–oriented problem-based teaching and learning for entrepreneurship in the university. Results. Students evaluated the course very positively, mentioning: 1) the given opportunity to solve real life problems and work with entrepreneurs; 2) development of their creativity, presentation, analytical and social skills, 3) the democratic atmosphere and teachers’ enthusiasm, professionalism and positive attitude towards them. However there was certain criticism related to overload with work, not clear instructions in some cases and the time of the lectures which took place very early in the morning. The theoretical contribution. The paper presents an entrepreneurship promoting study model, which links and unites two stages of lifelong learning: secondary school and university, thus making a universal theoretical basis for solving this topical educational problem. Practical implications “Opportunity-oriented 7-step-problem-based learning model for developing students’ entrepreneurship” can be an appropriate basis for organising studies not only in secondary schools and universities, but as well in adult and kindergarten education. Keywords: development of entrepreneurship, opportunity-oriented learning, problem-based learning. Paper type : Research paper.

Purpose. Value created by acquisitions and the impact of this process on performance results of a company is one of the topics widely discussed in the scientific literature since the acquisition of a company is one of the strategic development decisions and is ambiguously seen as a mean of company’s growth. Acquisitions are especially beneficial during the economic slowdown as likelihood to overpay for the assets reduces. Moreover, an acquisition enables elimination of the competitive threats and allows adapting of company’s resources and capacities to rapidly changing environment what is especially important when economy goes down. Since corporate acquisitions in Lithuania are not as frequent and accustomed as in other countries, there is a lack of scientific researches evaluating the impact of this process on corporate performance results using different evaluation methodologies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of acquisitions on the company’s profitability and economic value added during the period of economic slowdown. Methodology. We apply the methodology based on the data from financial statements. In order to evaluate the impact of acquisitions on corporate performance results, the financial data of Lithuanian companies listed in the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius Stock Exchange were used on following conditions: a company made at least one acquisition during the period of 2008 – 2010 and used a consolidation strategy (as identified by Scherer and Ross, Dutz and others authors, this strategy is more successful during a recession if compared to diversification strategy). Pursuant to Chatterjess and Meeks, Sharma and Ho, Bruner, Wan and other authors, the profitability ratios and economic value added (EVA) were used in our research; the indicators were calculated quarterly and we evaluated their changes in the short term, i.e., one year before and after the acquisition. The calculations of EVA in this case are based on past data; the forecast is not needed, so the results of the economic benefits generated by a company in each period can be considered as accurate. Results. The estimation of the return based on data from financial statements confirms the results of other researches: we found that the profitability ratios of the most companies went down after an acquisition or improved only slightly; however the return on assets increases during the first quarter after an acquisition. The valuation of EVA evidenced that this indicator increases during the corporate acquisitions if compared with the prior quarter; however we found that EVA tended to decline in the third quarter after the acquisition which also confirms findings of other researchers. The theoretical contribution. As there is a lack of scientific researches evaluating the impact of corporate acquisitions on performance results of a company, the paper will partially fill this gap. Practical implications . The obtained results evidence that the acquisitions impact performance of the companies; however since this effect is negative rather than positive in the short term, a company should assess a longer period of time and apply more evaluation methods before taking such a decision. Keywords: economic slowdown, corporate acquisitions, profitability ratios, economic value added. Paper type : Research paper.

The paper determines the important areas of activities of the Soviet Government and the Communist Party to strengthen interaction between higher education and industry, and reveals the interaction inefficiency reasons conventionally divided into three groups: those related to features of the administrative and planned economy, to the socialist model of economy and to relationships between state authorities and a man. The authors pay particular attention to the third reason, and put an emphasis on the fact that requirements for a man were declarative, they were not associated with employees’ and consumers’ real interests. Particular needs of a specific man were not taken into account; on the contrary, a man was to fully comply with requirements of the society; human needs were leveled, viewed in terms of compliance with certain standards and prescribed behavior models. As the authors of the paper think, to form industrial and educational clusters in modern Russia, it is necessary to take into account the Soviet higher education experience in strengthening interaction between education and industry provided that interaction between higher education and industry “from the bottom upwards” is initiated, innovation subjects take an active part in it and, ultimately, the attitude to man as an active participant in the innovation processes changes.

The increasing globalization of the contemporary tourism economy is the cause, due to which, for many countries that want to be competitive on the international tourism market, the creation of a positive tourist image of the country and building a strong national brand is a major challenge. The process of creating the tourist image is very complex and requires the involvement and cooperation of many different actors (not just state institutions and organizations, but also local governments, tourism organizations and other public and private entities). Purpose. The aim of this article is to analyse the structure of the system of building the tourist brand of Poland, as well as the diagnosis of the current image of the country among the inhabitants of selected European countries. The adoption of such an objective will also allow to identify the main problems and challenges associated with the creation of a tourist image of a country and building a national brand. Methodology. The main research method used in the paper is a case study describing the system of building a tourist image of a particular country. The complementary method is the analysis of the existing data (desk research method), including the study of documents and reports from institutions and organizations involved in the promotion of Poland, among others, such as the Polish Tourist Organisation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Polish Brand Institute, as well as the research reports showing the current way of perceiving Poland as a tourist destination by the residents of certain countries of the European Union. Results. The analysis of the structure of the system of tourist promotion in the country will enable the identification of the role of different institutions and organizations in that system, present the relationship between them, identify the vulnerabilities of the system, and show the contemporary challenges faced by these entities (in particular, the need for cooperation and coordination). The analysis of the previous promotional activities undertaken to create the tourist image of the country and the evaluation of the current tourist image of Poland on selected European markets will enable the determination of the direction of future promotional activities and identify the main problems associated with this process. The preliminary analyses of the documents showed that Poland does not have a distinctive, coherent or attractive tourist image abroad. In this area, however, many positive changes occur that should be promoted on the international market. The theoretical contribution. Article is located in theoretical concept on place branding rapidly developing in the last decade, in particular, refers to the theory associated with the formation of the brand of the country as a tourist destination. Theoretical contribution of the paper is based on a synthesis of the literature, taking into account two perspectives - tourism and marketing – in the process of building nation brand. Practical implications . This article will present the examples of good practices in the field of tourist promotion of Poland, which can be used in other countries. Keywords: place marketing, country branding, nation branding, Poland as a tourist brand.

In the article the urgency of revising the upper age limit of the target segment of the tourist business in the face of population aging is justified. It is proved that tourism must respond to the new demographic challenges in society, such as the aging population and active longevity, with new types and forms of tourism, and new service technologies. The paper presents the results of the survey of Russians aged “65 +”, which allow us to prove the relevance of tourist arrivals in the segment of senior tourism. The practice of domestic and foreign tourism industry businesses with “65+” consumers is reviewed. The survey has identified needs of the people of the 3rd age segment, “senior tourism”. In this paper we propose a model of consumer behavior which is based on the analysis of the specific needs of the elderly in Russia. The essential elements of the model needs will allow for personalized and focused marketing in the segment, « senior tourism».

Purpose. The article attempts to demonstrate the influence of resources used in electric energy production on effects achieved in environmental protection. Methodology. The analysis uses the error correction model which allows for a short term analysis of environmental effects diversity in a thermal power plant. Environmental effects are reflected by the levels of main air pollutants: carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dusts, quantity of generated waste, quantity of sewage and water used. The main raw material is coal which is characterized by specific parameters such as: calorific power, i.e. combustion temperature and calorific value, ash content, sulphur content and other trace elements. The analysis is based on data from one of the Polish power plants located in Śląskie Voivodship. Results. Environmental threats are becoming one of the major concerns in industry today. Power industry belongs among branches whose environmental impact is particularly negative. The main source of pollution in Polish and European power plants is hard coal and lignite, both of which are used as fuel. Proper prevention or dealing with environmental threats is the key element of a power plant management system. We analyse the influence of use of hard coal on the level of environmental effects. The analysis presents single equation models describing the relationship between parameters of hard coal and given environmental effects. The theoretical contribution. We have analyzed data concerning indicators determining the level of socially responsible activities in the field of in a thermal power station operating in the Silesian Voivodeship. The plant under research, in order to meet pro-environmental requirements concerning its activity undertakes a number of activities which, by their nature, are classified as socially responsible projects in this area. These actions bring certain effects and the control of which is one of the tasks of managing a power plant. The use of econometrical methods can support the decision process in this field. Keywords: thermal power plant, error correction model, environmental effects, air pollutants, waste. Paper type : Research paper.

All organizations are established in order to carry out their core business activity, i.e., to transform certain resources into certain products. This process must be managed - diversed towards the desired direction, therefore a planning function here plays a significant role. Different authors (Delmar & Shane, 2003; Nicholson & Possingham, 2006; Bottrill & Pressey, 2012; & etc.) have widely analysed the importance of planning process, its system complexity and components role at the assessment of organization activity. However, planning of research and development (further R&D) requires a separate analysis and research because of the specificity of this activity comparing with the ordinary organization activity and the output created. One of the major features distinguishing R&D is an uncertainty and spontaneity of R&D results, a requirement and problematic of R&D production quality determination. It is also has to be highlighted the exclusivity of R&D process, when researcher itself or a group of them is solely responsible for all process and the quality of the final product. There is also limited possibility of this activity standardization in order to ensure an appropriate fluency of the product creation process or quality of the created production. Therefore the main p urpose of this paper is to present an R&D planning system approach at organizational level, considering the peculiarities of R&D activity. Methodology. To reach the defined goal there are few different methods used in the paper. First of them is a comparative analysis of scientific literature in pursuance to highlight the peculiarities of R&D process and output, to define the existing planning methodologies and to analyse the possibilities to adopt one of them for R&D planning system. This part of approach chooses the main planning system elements from the regular planning process which are critically important to adjust for R&D activity. The second part of theoretical research models a simplified R&D planning system by incorporating the chosen elements from the first part of research. The main result of this paper proposes an R&D planning system approach for organization. It has been modelled after the deep analysis of the existing formal, limited rationality and systematic planning methodologies, after the identification of the main regular planning system elements and by the formation of R&D process and output planning features. The system presents the main methods for R&D goal setting and possible measurement indicators for evaluating the goal reaching progress considering different types of R&D. The theoretical contribution of this paper gives a new systematic approach to the planning of specific - R&D - area, which is an important part for economic and social development of any country. There is an evident lack of theoretical and empirical studies analyzing the specificity of R&D planning, as the existing literature mainly focuses only on the technological activity planning. A practical implication of this research is also significant, as the global changes in the modern world, together with the rapid scientific and technical progress and strict competition forces the organizations to develop an R&D field. The presented R&D planning system approach will lead to more effective management of research organizations in order to direct the whole activity and to concentrate the limited resources and efforts for more effective their usage. Accordingly a proper R&D planning will lead to more accurate research organizations activity evaluation, as it is usually based on the assessment of the degree of organization's purpose implementation or realization of the set goals. Keywords: R&D planning, planning system, R&D activity, R&D process. Paper type : Theoretical paper.

State-owned enterprises play a significant role in many economies. Both, in Baltic countries and other EU member countries state owned enterprises (SOE) create a significant portion of the gross domestic product, often in a monopoly position of the market and provide important public services (energy, water, public transport, electronic communications, health, education, social services). The efficiency of their activities to a large extent determines the competitiveness of national economies. However, the performance of these companies and their activities are not always sufficiently effective, which manifests in low economic performance and the contribution to the national economy's competitiveness is not as high as it could be. In Baltic countries the emergence of performance and its disclosure was caused by certain political events. When these countries have become members of Europe Union, they have undertaken to implement a more comprehensive performance reporting in public sector (Lithuanian Institute of Public Administration, 2005). However, this is a long-term process, which is continuing up to today. Also, there is still not created the common assessment of reports and how comprehensive and correct information is given in the annual reports. Not speaking about the comparison of the results among these three Baltic countries, which are similar to their historical background, size and economic situation. Purpose. To investigate the importance of performance measurement in state-owned enterprises and how increasing quality of performance can influence SOEs in Baltic countries. Methodology. The scientific literature and strategic document analysis, logical analysis methods that involves the generalization of theoretical propositions is applied to analyze the conceptual framework of state-owned enterprises and their performance reporting features. Seeking to analyze the peculiar aspects of SOE’s performance in all three Baltic countries, a number of public documents, OECD recommendations and other governmental reports were investigated. Also the annual reports of SOEs in Baltic countries at national level were investigated seeking to evaluate the extent of information disclosure. Results. Performance measurement in all three Baltic countries has a significant role not only as a policy instrument, but also as strength of economy . Numerous changes should be implemented in terms of quality of performance, which is followed by the recommendations provided by OECD and other institutions. Even the legal obligations are properly set in the documented level, there is still a lack of practical implementation. The theoretical contribution. The evaluation of reporting quality and recognition of the results and specific characteristics are a key element for future performance measurement development process in state owned enterprises of Baltic countries. Practical implications (if applicable). The results obtained can be used for creating the performance measurement system, where various gathered aspects would be taken into account. Keywords: state-owned enterprises, performance measurement, public sector Paper type : Theoretical paper.