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Purpose. To distinguish the performance measurement systems and their application possibilities in the organizations of public sector. Methodology. At present the organizations of public sector are operating in the dynamical environment that forces the organizations to adjust to the constantly changing environmental conditions. The measurement of organization’s performance has been understood as one of management functions; however at present it is analyzed as the independently developing branch of science. The measurement of organizations in public sector is quite a problematic and very relevant issue. The performance measurement may be regarded as one of key tolls, which help to assess the present situation and to make decisions, which help to improve the quality of provided services with regard to this. Performance measurement is the tool that defines the organization’s improvement because no organization could operate effectively without measuring of its own performance. The importance of performance measurement in the organizations of public sector was increased even more by new public management, which objective was to adapt the performance measurement methods used in private organizations for organizations in public sector in order to organize the activity more effectively and to satisfy the needs of the users. The performance measurement theory and practice show that it is a complex process. Its complexity is caused by the nature of measured organizations in public sector and complexity of their activity. Results. To suggest the performance measurement systems, which suit the most for measurement of organizations in public sector. The theoretical contribution. The main goal of business organizations is to gain profit, while the organizations in public sector are non-profit making organizations. Therefore the problems arise when the performance measurement methods used for public organizations are applied for the public ones. Contrary to profit—making organizations, the objective of public sector’s organizations is to provide accessible and qualitative services, to satisfy public needs and to use the available resources effectively and efficiently. According to Zeithalm, Bitner, 2003, the competitive environment affects the most painfully such economic areas, which performance result is not tangible, and which impact is felt after the long time. Therefore it is very important for the public sector’s organizations to measure their performance systematically and consistently in order to improve the organization’s management and to increase the satisfaction of society with provided services and their accessibility. The problems of performance measurement in the organizations of public sector were analyzed by Gimžauskienė (2006), Isoraitė (2008), Moxham (2008), Puskorius, Raipa (2002), and Pociūtė (2002), who stressed that performance measurement models are not easy to adjust for the organizations of public sector because these organizations are oriented to the processes and not to the results. In order to measure performance of public sector’s organizations, it is very important to apply suitable performance measurement methods. This article analyzes the possibility to apply the complex combination of performance measurement methods known in business sector and applied in public sector sometimes, as this combination would help to focus on the core decisions of the organization in public sector, induce development of internal processes, increase the employees’ motivation for improvement and would serve as a tool to define the entity’s improvement as any organization cannot work effectively and objectively without measuring its performance. The critical moment in performance measurement of public sector is to identify the factors affecting the performance results of the organization. This process is very important for decision-making, which would determine the future results of the organization. The concept of value-creating factors is always changing in the context of dynamic environment and this causes management problems. Therefore performance measurement system is becoming more and more important tool that helps to make management decisions of organizations in public sector. Besides, the practical application of the measurement results – information – should be stressed not only with regard to decision-making, but also in wider sense, i.e. for the purpose of accountability, transparency, publicity, social responsibility, information and education with regard to all the interested parties, (Segalovicienė, 2011, p. 439). Keywords: performance measurement, public sector, public sector organization, methods of performance measurement. Paper type : Theoretical 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.

Purpose. This paper discusses the possibility of identifying weaknesses of information system management for support the company's sustainable performance. Obviously, as a result of the current fast development, each organization uses information and communication technologies. According to Hřebicek, Kubasek, 2011 nowadays, information systems are implemented for more and more enterprise activities. They are related not only to the company economic growth, also to the environment, social responsibility and corporate governance. Many advanced value indicators associated with the success of the company have been defined, for example, the Economic Value Added (1982, Joel Stern), the Market Value Added (1993, Stern Stewart Management Services), etc. In last years, the Sustainable Value Added (2004, 2005, Figge, Hahn) plays a key role. It links to the company's sustainable performance, and generally, it contributes to the sustainable development (1987, the Brundtland Report, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development; 1992, Rio de Janeiro, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development; 2002, Johannesburg, the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development: RIO+10; 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development: Rio+20). The concept of sustainability is an important asset towards all stakeholders of every company. Katiliūtė, Daunorienė, Katkutė (2014) highlighted the importance of higher corporate sustainable performance. The company's strategic management should be able to identify areas with the lowest efficiency and look for ways to correct keeping the company sustainable success. In practice, this area is very often supported a corporate information system. Each strategic management of company should devote considerable attention to the implementation, lead and development of its information system supporting corporate sustainable performance. It should continuously measure its own effectiveness and efficiency. Inefficient information systems can result in the failure. Sustainable performance assessment should be challenges and inspirations for the appropriate corporate information systems innovation. Methodology. The corporate information system assessment is based on dispositions offered the Hardware, Orgware and Software (HOS) method (extended), which has been developing over twenty years, primarily, the co-author of this paper, at the Faculty of Business and Management of the Brno University of Technology. Results. This paper presents the verified methodology to indicate possible problem in several areas of the implementation and management of corporate information system to support its sustainable performance. The theoretical contribution. The theoretical contribution of our paper is the analysis and discussion possibilities of modification of the HOS methods with the aim to refine past results of HOS implementation and provide the greater variability of their subsequent use in the context of sustainable performance. Practical implications . This paper describes the new possibility of assessment of corporate information system for its support of corporate sustainable performance. Keywords: HOS method, information system, corporate information system, sustainable performance. Paper type : Theoretical paper.

The purpose of the paper is to create the evaluation model of stakeholders’ importance in human resource training projects. To attain the papers purpose the literature review, content analysis, expert survey and qualitative synthesis are used. The main results of study reveal that training participants mostly consider the training projects’ appropriateness to own professional and personal interest. While managers and training providers highly value the application of new knowledge, skills and attitudes derived from training projects. Therefore, in order to generate stakeholders’ interest to human resource training projects and to ensure the projects’ usefulness, the individual benefits of training and the possibilities of learning application should be analysed and communicated for relevant stakeholder group. In view of the fact that human resource training projects are primarily focused on improvement of organisational performance, the congruence of training participants’ and their managers’ expectations about such projects is significant.

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 purpose of the paper is to analyse and observe the best way of how to develop and implement strategy and to avoid casual mistakes and problems made in the process. Paper analyses the research results collected through survey done among managers of Latvian organizations, providing the general conclusions of strategy development and implementation process made by management of middle and large size companies. Methodology. Paper provides theoretical overview of strategy development and implementation process contrasting it against the results of the survey gained through mathematical analysis of the responses. Results. Paper presents analysis of the management survey data, identifying the factors that influence strategy development and implementation. Most common way of developing the strategy is given, indicating the most commonly used counterparts of strategy for Latvian companies. Paper describes significance of employee involvement in the strategy development process, creation of tactical plan, regular overview of achieved results and necessity of revision of the strategy - contrasting the usage of such approaches to overall success of the strategy implementation. Analytical part also provides a management-performed self-evaluation of strategy implementation process and indicates what were the key factors influencing reaching the desired goals set in strategy. Second part of the article analyses the factors that hinder or promote the strategy development and implementation processes and provides a graphical overview of steps management should take to create and implement strategy. The theoretical contribution. Paper analysing the strategy development and implementation process talks on such issues as - employee involvement, adjusting financial incentives and creating appropriate organizational structure – factors that should be taken into account when strategy is implemented and shows how management should address them. Practical implications. Based on lessons learned in the paper and through the analysis of survey data - managers will be able to observe what approaches have proven to be effective for strategy implementation and understand what improvements are needed in their own practice of strategic planning.

Purpose. The main goal of the article is to identify the trends, sources and amounts of finance for micro enterprises in Latvia. Methodology. The basic method used for the study is the method of descriptive statistics, as well as surveys and interviews. . Results. The study indicates significant decline in crediting amounts to micro enterprises and reducing the share of financing for micro enterprises in the total portfolio of the banks. In 2014, the number of active micro enterprises in Latvia remained about the same as in 2013. But, calculated per one active micro-enterprise, the credit capacity of banks financing decreased by, an average, approximately 30% in 2014. A new player, State-owned JSC "Latvian Development Finance Institution Altum", appeared in the financial market at the beginning of 2014. The share of Altum in crediting micro enterprises accounted for 8 .4% at the end of 2014. In comparison, the share of venture capital funds in the financing of micro-enterprises accounted for 2.3% in 2014. Should be mentioned that the Business Angel's contribution to the financing of micro-enterprises is not very significant and is less than 1 million Euro in 2014. Similarly, the share of organizations outside the bank financing system and organizations dealing with micro-credit ing for Latvian micro companies is very insignificant and accounts for 3 million Euros. In 2014, the total amount of financing micro enterprises accounted for 386.7 million Euros, 88.3% of which was the share of bank lending (excluding the informal investors and the owners of the capital funding shares). In view of the significant decrease in bank financing for micro enter prises the authors have two recommendations. Firstly, the politicians and government have to build and develop the organization and tools outside the bank financing system for the support and needs of the enterprises. Secondly, commercial banks should create specific products for micro financing to improve funding for small scale business. . Practical implications The results of the study can be used by politicians, public administration institutions and other bodies responsible for the development and support of micro-enterprises and small businesses. As well, the data presented are interesting for associations of industry such as the Association of Commercial Banks, Venture Capital Association, Association of Business Angels, Chamber of Commerce - and, of course, are binding to researchers of small business. . Keywords: micro enterprises, small business, financing Paper type : Research paper.

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.

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to present the factors affecting the implementation of the controlling in logistics enterprises in Poland and importance of this concept for this type of companies. Methodology. The objective has been achieved by obtaining the results of empirical research which was conducted in the years 2011 to 2013 among logistics companies in Poland by means of the questionnaire survey and the telephone interviews. To analyse the data and results descriptive statistics and selected statistical methods have been used. Results. The results of the empirical study showed that there is little difference between the implementation of controlling systems and its lack in logistics enterprises. Most often mentioned factors for implementation of controlling are: the size of businesses and insufficient performance measurement in different areas within a company. Furthermore, all the desirable effects from the implementation of controlling obtained, they were quite highly rated by the surveyed companies, but the most important is to obtain to improvement of activities within planning, organization and controlling. Generally, respondents perceive the controlling as an concept coordination and support in decision – making oriented. This also confirms the location of the controlling departments in the survyed companies, which is located near the main leadership (management board) taking the form of a unit at the headquarters. The theoretical contribution. The importance of controlling system is widely described in the literature in the context of the manufacturing companies, but rarely in the context to logistics enterprises, which currently play a special role in the process of creating value. In addition, the specificity of this type of business entities and allows indicating – concept of logistics controlling. Knowledge of the state of implementation of controlling in logistics enterprises, i.e. factors affecting this process and from this concept effects derived, taking into account the situational and constraints theory, it allows the author to deepen the analysis of this research problem in terms of measurement of cost, performance and other aspects of logistics. Practical implications. The research problem by the author undertaken is important for business practice. Despite a positive trend of the implementation of controlling in logistics enterprises in Poland, further analysis of research results shows that many of tasks of controlling are done in other departments e.g. logistics departments, and tools of controlling are often used occasionally. This may mean that the analyzed concept is not well known in the logistics business. Therefore, the scientists with practitioners together should develop effective tools and methods that would be useful within logistics controlling, taking into account the financial and non-financial aspects. Keywords: controlling, logistics enterprises, Poland 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.

Relevance . During the 2007–2013 programming period, due to a lack of empirical researches, the measurement of risk estimates in the PIPs (public investment projects) was more based on theoretical approach than empirically-grounded data in Lithuania. This determined the uncertainty about values of intangible obligations the government had to assume. The authors of this paper did a research of which the results have been applied in the official confirmed methodology for the cost-overrun risk assessment in the 2014-2020 period. Therefore, it is relevant to evaluate how the applied new methodology of risk assessment has changed the values of intangible obligations related with cost-overrun risk in the PIPs in the country. Problem . How has the application of the empirically-grounded methodology impacted the measured values of intangible obligations related with cost-overrun risk in the PIPs in Lithuania? Purpose . To evaluate the impact of the empirically-grounded methodology on the measured values of intangible obligations related with cost-overrun risk in the PIPs in Lithuania. Methodology. The paper starts with an introduction in application of probability to assess risk. Later theoretical aspects of application of probability distributions are analysed. In the practical part, the impact of empirically-grounded methodology on the measured values of intangible obligations is evaluated. The evaluation is based on comparison of risk estimates calculated under the old and new empirically-grounded methodologies. Due to this reason, also the main differences between these methodologies are explained and the grounding of distributions and their parameters used in every methodology is provided. Results. The main results presents the changes of measured values of intangible obligations related with cost-overrun risk in the PIPs caused by the application of the new methodology of risk assessment in Lithuania. The theoretical contribution. The paper contributes a theoretical knowledge in the field of risk assessment in the PIPs by analysing theoretical aspects of application of probability to assess the risk as well as disclosing the probability distributions and their parameters the best able to assess the cost-overrun risk in such type of projects. Practical implications . The paper shows the impact of application of empirically-grounded methodology on the values of risk estimates in the PIPs. These results disclose more realistic demand on public reserves to manage intangible obligations related with cost-overrun risk in the PIPs in the Lithuania. Keywords: cost-overrun risk, risk assessment, public investment projects, probability distributions, loglogistics distribution. Paper type : Research paper.

Purpose. Financial statements are drawn to present fair information about the financial position, operating performance and cash flows of the company. The reason for that is that the owners of companies, investors, creditors, governmental institutions make decisions regarding the development of the company on the basis of the information provided in financial statements. However, according to the international standards on auditing, management is in a unique position to perpetrate fraud because of management’s ability to manipulate accounting records and prepare fraudulent financial statements by overriding controls that otherwise appear to be operating effectively Therefore, it is essential to analyse the different methods of fraud detection in financial statements. This notwithstanding, issues of fraud detection in the financial statements are usually analysed in the context of the audit. It is worth mentioning that models designed for the external users of financial statements are analysed in scientific papers insufficiently. Analysis of financial ratios is one of those simple methods to identify frauds. This relevant issue is dealt by foreign scientists (Spath et al., 2002; Wells, 2001, 2007; Lenard, Alam, 2009; Crumbley et al., 2009; Ravisankar et al., 2011; Pustylnick, 2012), but such studies are insufficient in Lithuania. The aim of the research is to develop the model of fraud detection in financial statements by means of financial ratios. Methodology. The theoretical research investigates frauds in financial statements and possibilities to detect frauds by means of financial ratios. The analytical study deals with fraudulent and nonfraudulent financial statements of surveyed companies. During the study 1) financial ratios exhibiting information about fraud in the financial statements were selected by applying statistical methods; 2) possibility to use the bankruptcy prediction models when identifying fraud in the financial statements was assessed; 3) models of linear discriminant analysis and logistic regression were investigated with regard to possibility of their use for fraud detection; 4) the most appropriate model for fraud detection was selected. Results. The model of fraud detection in financial statements has been developed. The theoretical contribution. The theoretical study has revealed that financial ratios in the scientific papers are analysed in order to assess which statement ratios are the most sensitive to the motives of fraud exercising by company managers and employees. Practical implications . The designed model can be used by external users of financial statement information when making decisions for investment and company evaluation. Keywords: fraud detection, financial statements, financial ratios. Paper type : Research paper.

The paper will shed light on the multilingual phenomena of Thai undergraduates from the southernmost provinces where multilingualism is particularly vital. This paper focuses on attitudes towards the Thai, Patani Malay, and English languages of Thai undergraduates, exploring their reasons behind their attitudes. Data was collected by interviewing 30 undergraduates from Prince of Songkla University Pattani Campus, Thailand. A qualitative approach was used for data analysis. The results revealed the positive attitudes towards the three languages by most students, though their underlying reasons varied.

The primary purpose of this paper is to address the role and the significance of fusion of intentions in order to establish meaningful and interpretable discourse called Hermeneutical Discourse. The presence of intention is an ultimate requirement to establish a discourse structure which can then be used to semantically interpret and hermeneutically analyze the psychological temporal movement (psychological time) of discourse between an actor, the message sender and the reactor, the message receiver in any intelligent communication. The meaningful physical spatial-temporal (physical time) contiguity of semantic- pragmatic linkages will be able to form information fusion in the message delivery only if the fusion of intentions between the actor and reactor take place effectively in the communication. In this paper, the discourse procedures for the fusion of intentions to take place effectively between two agents called actor and reactor has been modeled as a Hermeneutical Discourse Consciousness Architecture (HDCA). This HDCA is able to frame and organize the hermeneutical discourse processes within individual intelligent agents by setting the intention as a moving ground of agents’ consciousness for the establishment of hermeneutical discourses. Any intelligent agent is able to perform the conscious act if the property called intention is embodied in their cognition. The functions and the phenomena of Consumptive Illumination as an informative value of communication in relation with fusion of intentions will be analyzed from hermeneutical discourse perspective. The benefit of this architecture is to establish a systematic approach to understand cognitive process of interpretive (hermeneutical) discourse, develop a new frame of discourse processes and procedures for the fusion of intentions and provide a systematic procedure to transmigrate the frame of discourse into intelligent communication agents.

Performance Management System needs improvement in the face of the level of competition in the 21st century as increasingly stringent and urgent things need to be done by each company. This paper is a study to see how big a role fixes Performance Management System in improvement of performance family company. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the role of the dimensions that play a role in the Performance Management System. While the performance of the company as a form of evidence that the company uses resources efficiently, focus on continuous improvement and effectiveness organization.

The purpose of this paper is to report a qualitative study with fifteen Malaysian women managers, which explored the various ways women managers developed competencies at work via their lived experiences. Feminist epistemology was incorporated into the in-depth interview protocol with the aim of loosening the androcentric moorings of the empirical process in management research. The findings highlight that women managers valued informal learning using strategies such as ‘hit-the-road-running’ and being reflective. The paper highlights the need to understand women managers’ workplace learning so that their progression to senior management can best be supported.

This paper deals with our concept of teaching marketing at the University of Zilina – Faculty of management science and informatics. Our main educational goal toward the students is to teach them marketing approach and marketing way of thinking. The students work with real existing products. With study of market reality they try to understand strategic approaches. They work in teams. Single study groups deals with single products, which are direct competitors (e.g. Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's XBOX One…). At the end of the course students presents specific information and findings at a joint meeting. The results are also under discussion, which is necessary for a more comprehensive understanding of the market. Discussion results are generalized and confronted with theoretical knowledge. In our concept are crucial two factors: teamwork and the use of information-communication technologies that allow students to work better together. Our paper describes the concept of teaching the marketing course and its main meaning. Subsequently, we discuss a method of teamwork among students.

The main objective of the current paper is to investigate the effective factors on the farmers’ trust in trainers using structural equation modeling. the current paper is an applied one and it is also a descriptive-survey research regarding the data gathering methods. It is a correlative study and particularly it is based on structural equation modeling. the statistical population of the study includes all the farmers, gardeners, and poultry and livestock farmers (traditional and industrial) residing in Ilam Province which adds up to 58858 people. The sampling method is multi-step random sampling method and in order to calculate the size of the sample, the maximum variance and Morgan's table were used and determined the size to be 384 participants. in order to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire, context validity method was used and the questionnaire was confirmed by ten experts. In order to evaluate the stability the Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient was calculated to be 0.8824. the results of the study show that there is a positive significant relationship among the characteristics of the trusting party (farmers), the characteristics of the trusted party (trainers) and the environmental characteristics with the farmers’ trust in trainers and all the three hypotheses of the study were confirmed.

Several scholars in the strategic management literature have long acknowledged the critical role of managerial perception both in organizational decision-making and strategy formulation processes. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of strategy research from a managerial perception point of view. Thorough this, the paper analyses 22 managerial perception research published in strategic management literature. The study provides evidence for the significant influence that research from a managerial perception perspective has had on the field's understanding of how strategy forms in the organizations. The main contribution of this effort is an elaboration of various ways in which managerial perceptions influence strategy development process, beyond only implementation. A recommendation of future research opportunities within the managerial perception area is also provided. The research method used in this paper is literature review.

This paper aims to explore performance of European Union's export in context of competitiveness targets enclosed in Europe 2020 strategy. Authors are addressing recent geo-political events regarding EU-Russia political and economic sanctions. Authors evaluate only economic results from sanctions and do not make an analysis of the nature of political sanctions. Paper gives an overview of the European Union trade performance within last 15 years and makes detailed analysis of the trade structure. Further, authors address European Union – Russia trade and nature of the trade. At the end of the article authors evaluate impact of the sanctions that took effect within a last year.

The paper deals with a compositional analysis of levels in adult education. Local level subsystems which structure includes curricula, syllabus, teaching staff, human resources, facilities, students and their interaction with andragogical personnel (adult educators) have been considered. The analysis introduced in the paper is aimed at revealing key features, which determine models of adult education, peculiarities of English language courses for adult learners. In addition, the authors suggest a classification for English language courses as an effective means for acquiring the highest level in English language learning.

Innovative activity of companies differs due to their sphere. This paper will focus on companies operating in the IT (Information Technology) sphere, whose business success depends on innovations more than the success of companies in any other sector. Innovations for manufacturing hi-tech products, for example, computer equipment, demand more intense (narrower) focus on product innovations owing to the fact that the basis of viability and financial well-being of hi-tech companies is demand for their products. Therefore, innovations in such companies are mostly directed at creation of new products or modernization of the already existing ones. As a consequence, in order to define the activity of IT companies more precisely we should use specific classification of innovation strategies. The innovative behavior of IT-companies is one of the main sources of competitiveness, business survival and economic growth. It is therefore important to identify and understand the factors that determine innovation behavior among IT enterprises. Innovation behavior depends on innovation capacity and is realized in a particular innovation strategy. This paper attempts to show the mechanism of choosing the most appropriate innovation strategy and the most accurate project estimation. Using the data collected on IT companies, the correlation between innovation strategies and company's performance was found.

The paper discusses the structure, design peculiarities and usage methodology of an electronic course in learning management system Moodle. Blended learning combines the technologies of traditional classroom-based and web-based learning, which complement each other. The blended learning model implies replacing a part of traditional classes with different types of educational interaction in a virtual learning environment. The Department of Power Grids and Electrical Engineering of Tomsk Polytechnic University is developing electronic training complexes for master's degree disciplines, such as Operational Management in Power Engineering and Methods of Stability Calculation. The paper shows the applicability of electronic courses as a tool for developing professional competencies in students.

The scientific problem of the paper deals with the formation of a “new” paradigm of responsibility in higher professional education. The problem of the individual's moral responsibility in a complex structural, collective practice needs to be expanded; mechanisms of moral imputation of responsibility to groups should be developed. Commitment of higher education to the formation of a free, ready for the dialogue, individual can be considered as a paradigm which does not correspond to reality, requiring expansion or rethinking. Thus, the principles of individual ethics should be supplemented with the principles of collective responsibility. On the one hand, the emergence of new subjects of moral consciousness needs to be described; the mechanisms of their social interaction need to be revealed. On the other hand, conceptualization of the principles of collective moral responsibility, their use in practice of higher professional education become an important theoretical and practical task. In the paper, we turn to the concept of collective moral responsibility and consider the possibility of implementing the principle of collective responsibility in the society.

This paper was prepared to investigate the desired characteristics of a typical Malaysian Standard Method of Measurement (SMM) accepted by the industry. Extensive literature search was conducted. Funnel approach was used to establish the desirable characteristics of SMM. The characteristics were validated by ten selected expert panels. In order to confirm and rationalized the findings, opinion surveys were conducted among the selected practicing Quantity Surveyors (QS). The outcome of this paper is expected to be used as a supporting data to be carried along to the next level of the main research, which aims to develop a more acceptable and practical SMM for construction works in Malaysia.

This paper provides insight into the pervasive use of situation-bound utterances and their pragmatic functions in spoken discourse. It is corroborated that situation-bound utterances are socially and culturally charged communication routines used by the native speakers in actual speech. The paper analyzes the cultural content of situation-bound utterances and their role in non-native communication. We attempt to show that situation-bound utterances as cultural scripts pertain to cognitive mechanisms of spoken discourse and culture. The study shows that analysis of SBUs as cultural scripts might be used as a learning strategy in foreign language acquisition.

Work-based Learning is a transition from education in institutions to carriers. It is combines institutional learning with industrial learning and creates an integrated experience for the student. Basically, WBL is a learning approach that uses the work place as a medium for learning transfer. This paper discusses about WBL model applied in training institution and industrial field. Student will learn at the institutional education and industrial to complete their courses using WBL method. This paper also emphasis the WBL model in Malaysia that have been used in advance diploma courses in polytechnic KPM. To make sure WBL succeed, cooperation from all three parties, namely the student, the educational institution and the industrial employer, is important. Various models have been studied by researchers locally and abroad to identify the parties involved that make the WBL successful. This paper also described the comparison of WBL model and how its implementation in training institutions. It concludes with a review of the challenges in implementing a WBL model. The discussion that follows is grounded experience from various countries.

Technical vocational education and training (TVET) plays an important role in shaping a nation's intellectual human capital. In today's world, TVET has undergone several transformations in fulfilling its tasks to produce excellent, competitive and skilful human capital. The paper identifies strategies to be used in enhancing skills-acquisition of undergraduate TVET students through improved collaboration with industries in Nigeria. It reviewed two prominent forms of technical cooperation that exist between HEIs and industries in Nigeria, vis-a-vis endowment of chairs and other research positions to promote excellence and provision of Students’ Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) positions to undergraduate students. This practice is continuously yielding positive results within the mandate of Industrial Training Fund (ITF). The current trend in TVET places much emphasis on entrepreneurship education to promote creativity and poverty alleviation strategies that will generate job-creation avenues to Nigeria's teeming graduates. The paper discussed entrepreneurial education as an instrument per excellent to unlock economic potentials of Nigerian citizens through innovative collaboration with the industry. It advocated for a review of SIWES program to develop entrepreneurial skills that contributes to an individual's personal development, increase his productivity and income and facilitate participation in economic and social life. It was recommended that all hands should be on deck to help our youths mitigate poverty by providing them with skills; entrepreneurial attitude and knowledge to raise their output and generate income. This calls for continued lifelong learning and training to enable continuous relevance to the world of work. In conclusion, the authors stressed that the idea was to support practical acquisition of life skills, to make employees more aware of the context of their work and better able to seize opportunities, and to provide a foundation for entrepreneurs in setting up social or commercial activities.

This paper survey importance of urban open spaces and effective parameters on people attendance. In the recent years, low-quality environments have caused a low level of people attendance in that places and subsequently, lots of different problems in human life. One of the determining factors affecting the quality of the environment is providing human comfort. This paper discusses human comfort features. We focus on thermal and wind comfort among various parameters. The aim of this article is presentation guidelines based on the creation of the wind and thermal comfort in urban open spaces. According to the fact, by the presence of comfort we can return people to urban open spaces. We derived some conceptual frameworks and categorized them on a chart. The table is divided into four climatic regions based on Iran climatology, to lead architects, urban planners for designing desirable spaces.

After the ethnic conflict in Macedonia, great importance was given to bring back the values of teaching and learning in multicultural and multilingual settings. The South East European University (SEEU) is the only regional university that offers equal opportunities for both Albanian and Macedonian nationalities to study in their mother tongue or choose English as a medium of instruction. The students enrolled at the SEEU come from different ethnic backgrounds. The Language Center, which operates within this university, offers English courses to all students from all SEEU faculties, starting from general English skills up to academic and ESP. Having this mixture of teachers and students, the teaching and learning of English in this environment is rather challenging for both sides. The most challenging issue in teaching a foreign language (in our case English) is the concern of teachers on whether to use the learner's first language or not. This paper focuses on the question of whether there is a use of the L1 in ELF teaching at SEEU, Language Center English classes. If, yes, to what extent and in what occasion is it used? The paper examines and elaborates the methodological strategies that English teachers employ in order to accommodate and facilitate the needs of the students who have been raised and educated in a multilingual setting. The data collected for this paper were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. In conclusion, the findings emerging from this study suggest that balanced and careful use of L1 in the English classes seem not to affect the students’ exposure to the target language.

In the 21st century, employability skill is the most required skill besides technical knowledge in an attempt to compete for employment and sustain job at the industrial global market. However, Nigerian TVET graduates are not equipped with the employability skills needed by the industries and as a result, they are not ready to enter into workforce. This concept paper is written to discuss how the curriculum of one of TVET programmes at the Federal Universities of Technology in Nigeria, which is Electrical Technology Education has contributed to this issue. Analytical review on Electrical Technology Education programme curriculum showed that the curriculum gave less attention to practice based courses that provide skills of the programme than theory based courses and no course in the programme curriculum that directly teaches good attitudes and traits. As a result, there is lack of incorporation of employability skills such as Problem solving and decision making, Lifelong learning and Competencies amongst the graduates. Other issues discussed are the need of employability skills in TVET curriculum of Nigeria, employability skills, Electrical Technology Education in Nigeria, and the analysis of Electrical Technology Education curriculum in Nigeria The last part of this paper is recommendation for the curriculum of Electrical Technology Education to be designed with equal number of theory and practice courses by giving emphasize on all eleven generic skills, good traits and attitudes.

This paper examines the correlation between Tomsk universities and local communities under the circumstances of current economic and social situations. Mutual influences (economic, social, cultural, etc.) are considered. The main directions of the development are outlined. Both benefits and problems of these relationships are analyzed. The paper involves the results of the network project “Universities and local communities: perspectives of the innovative development of the territory” (ISE-Center, Moscow, 2012).

There are many studies discussing the complexity's demand of city sustainability worldwide. This includes on the issue of developing tools and indicators for measuring the level of a sustainable city. Sustainability city indicators can be seen as a measure that gives a summary of information about the subject of the problem. As there are many sets of indicators are being implemented worldwide, this paper deals with a set of sustainability indicator tools that are implemented in Malaysia. The objective of this paper is to review the theoretical framework of sustainable city indicators implemented by the Malaysian local authority and organizations.

The process of supervision in secondary school (SS) in Nigeria is of paramount to the attainment of monitoring secondary schools activities for national development and the administration of the schools entirely. The aim of this paper is necessitated to relate the need for the process of supervision of both human and materials resources for achieving the ultimate goals of secondary school system in Nigeria. However, this paper highlights some certain basic concepts such as supervisions, needs of supervision, and process of supervisions, who is a supervisor, importance of a supervisor and responsibility of a supervisor. The problems associated with supervision and the way forward. However, in Nigeria both supervisors and Teachers use different strategies of supervision to monitor the activities of the students when they are in the school. Though the strategies may differ from one another but they are out to achieve the same goal and objective. The data was analysed descriptively and using basic means aimed at giving a clear and detailed overview of the situation. Based on the findings it can be concluded that process of supervision is becoming a serious problem that is yet to be properly addressed in Nigeria Secondary School. In conclusion, Supervision at every local, national and international level should take their responsibilities seriously by engaging on educational activities that could enhance their skills. These include, among others, strategic seminars, workshops, regular visits and exchange programs pursuit of higher educational qualification and Supervisors that excel in their assignment should be rewarded accordingly either in kind or cash.

This paper is based on literature search. The contribution of organisational knowledge is widely acknowledged. It is one of the indispensable assets for the organisations. Organisations (NGOs) may use it for their internal administration and external operations. Thus this knowledge is used for the socio-economic development of the beneficiaries. Organisational knowledge harbours in the policies, procedures, experiences of the organisations. The employees are also the good sources of organisational knowledge. This paper understands that organisational knowledge may be used for the mobilisation of resources, it helps the organisation for their capacity development, organisations may use this knowledge to gain strategic advantages and organisational knowledge helps the organisations to response with the changing environment. Future researchers may empirically examine the issues in the context of NGOs, or any For-Profit organisation.

Corruption in higher education is a silent but well-known phenomenon in countries in transition. Recent massification and internationalisation of higher education in countries in development have contributed to a decrease of quality and increase scale of corruption. In this paper the quantity and the content of articles about higher education in two of Macedonia's most prestigious media outlets are analysed, demonstrating that, as agenda-setting theory would predict, there is a positive relationship between societal concern about corruption in higher education and the way the journalists discuss the issue of corruption. This paper draws upon the importance of media in the fight against corruption. The paper presents a method of analysis of newspaper articles and news coverage on corruption in higher education in a way that it quantifies the coverage and in this way determines the most common corruption patterns in higher education as described by the media. The study offers additional alternatives to the analysis of corruption in higher education.

Various methods to assess innovation are used in companies and organizations. Audits provide little support for day to day use and few explicitly address how companies can benefit from the audit results in terms of e.g. how to learn, formulate goals and operationalization. Based on a concrete example, this paper explores how innovation assessment can be considered a tripartite audit process designed to support learning and give an increased cultural support for innovation. In the paper the audit process will be discussed from the perspectives of what, who and how. ‘What’ address the tool and assessment area, ‘who’ focus on the people that participates in the assessment process and ‘how’ on the very assessment execution. The awareness of the notion ‘innovation’ among the 70 industrial companies in the Automation Region Network in mid-Sweden are typically low, and as a response to that a pilot study project Automation Innovation Region (AiR) started in 2012 to develop support for innovation. During one year 2014/2015, employees in five companies (N= 44) participated in the study. The project developed a process, AiR Innowatch (Innowatch), combining a photo-based workshop on innovation, three workshops with themes on innovation climate, a web based weekly assessment tool, and a quarterly survey. The tools focus on innovation culture (what), the process highlights reflection, learning and integration (how) on assessment results from the perspective of individual, group and organisational (who) perspective. The goal was to design a learning based audit process that supports the companies to independently continue their work for increased innovativeness after the formal assessment process. This paper present the tools developed and the results from the pilot study as a base for discussion on auditing as a tool that supports learning and development of an organisational culture for increased innovativeness in established organisations.

The growth of Social Networks has increasesincreased Online Educationalthe size of the online Educational Community Community to supported teacher for applied appropriate ict to support teachers. This paper aimed to analy z ed and synthesised good practice professional learni n g community This paper aimed to analyse and synthesise good practices in the professional learning community(PLC) and to development of (PLC) and to develop a Thai Teacher Information Communication Technology(ICT) Online Community Model by using content analysis and mix-methodology. Data was analysed by usingPercentage, Mean, S tandard D eviation and content analysis. Percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation and content analysis. The rusults found that 1) Online Community Thai Teacher Information Communication Technology (ICT) Model consisted person unit (p rofessional The results found that the Online Community of Thai Teachers for ICT Model consisted of a person unit (professional/expert person s, teachers leader and teachers) support unit (sec ur ity, management and facility), collab o rative learning and network sharing and knowled/ expert persons, teacher leaders and teachers),a support unit (security, management and facility), collaborative learning and network sharing and knowledge.

Modern trends in educational technology have evidenced the increasing importance of mobile devices in language learning. The need of sophisticated devices that can facilitate lifelong learning wherever the students might be. Facilitating learning, however, implies that students have to be assessed through the same delivery models that are used in their learning mode. Mobile devices are commonly used to learn languages through mobile phones, iPads and Tablet PC's. However, testing methods remain the same as in the last 40 years. In most cases, computer based test tasks resemble too much to those used in pen and paper. This paper shows a pilot study done at the Universidad de Alcala (Madrid-Spain) with tablet PC's indicating its strong aspects as well as its weaknesses. The study concludes that more research is necessary to implement such convenient method of test delivery.

The following paper presents the model for introduction of gamification into the field of e-learning in higher education. Concepts and differences between techniques and methods of game-mechanics and game dynamics are explained. With proper integration of gamification in the field of e-learning into higher education, a positive impact on the learning process can be achieved, such as higher satisfaction, motivation and greater engagement of students. The importance of clearly defined objectives, rules, techniques and mechanisms of gamification that affect the dynamics of the students is shown. The paper presents a comprehensive view of the gamification concept in higher education. The advantages and disadvantages of introducing gamification in e-learning are described. The paper combines the characteristics of gamification with e-learning and shows the possibilities of use in practical.

The following paper analyzesthe most popular websites offering e-learning courses of currency trading or foreign exchange (forex). The characteristics of websites, for instance, number of page visits, time spent on the page, page rank, bounce rate, and other characteristics are presented. On the basis of these parameters and characteristics, a multi-criteria utility function was built, and the most popular and best-known e-learning providers in the field of currency trading were selected. Different approaches, techniques and tools used on these websites providing e-learning in the field of foreign exchange trading were analyzed. Providers and services of such courses differ in approaches and offer different e-learning techniques. The article also shows common features, peculiarities and deficiencies of learning approaches in the field of e-learning of currency trading. Some recommendations which can also be used in other areas of education, and learning approaches which can be used in the future, are given. The paper also fills a gap in the field of e-learning in foreign exchange trading, and contributes to ease the selection process of the forex e-learning provider.

In the paper, we describe some possibilities of using information and communication technologies in the teaching process at universities. We present an e-learning system LMS Moodle, which is the most widespread LMS system in an environment of universities in Slovakia. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of various communication tools by teachers and students at the university by means of implemented questionnaire.

The service which enables us to use computing as a service across a product is known as cloud computing. Nowadays the cloud computing paradigm has been receiving significant excitement and attention in technological sphere. Cloud computing shares different resources and information between different devices which are located in different places always based on internet connection. According to this, a cloud DBMS is a database management system which acts through cloud computing. It is worth mentioning that the number of these DBMS which act through cloud computing is expected to increase in the future. Based on related research and results, there is an increment of interest in outsourcing of DBMS tasks to third parties that can afford these tasks with low and cheap cost. In this paper, we discuss about DBMS as a cloud service, advantages and disadvantages, opportunities and limitations, and we focus on the way how to offer a cloud DBMS as one of the best services. We focus on three main characteristics of cloud computing which are considered as the most worried issues of cloud platform. We review cloud database challenges such as: internet speed, multi-tenancy, privacy and security. We also focus on the way how to opposite these challenges in order to provide a successful cloud database. At the end of this paper we explain a specific architecture of cloud DBMS which is known as SCALEDB. We focus on its layer which this architecture contains and the way how these layers works. We thus express the need for a new DBMS, designed specifically for cloud computing environments.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that augments reality with either two or three dimensional computer generated imagery (CGI), objects and/or information, and allows users to interact with them. AR on mobile devices are evolving and offer a great deal of potential in terms of learning and training. This paper discusses the development process of a mobile prototype learning environment that utilises mobile-Augmented Reality (mAR). The prototype is called the Human Anatomy in Mobile Augmented Reality or HuMAR, and the selected learning topic is the anatomy of the human skeletal structure. The main objective of HuMAR is to aid students and it could potentially enhance their learning process. There has been a report stating that there is a decline in retaining and generating long lasting information longer when learning the abovementioned topic. This paper describes the theory, concept, prototype development and results of HuMAR taken from a pilot test. The pilot test used the experimental method with science's students from three different universities. The objectives of the pilot test were to consolidate users’ experience from a didactic and technical point of view. Based on the results of the pilot test, it is concluded that students were satisfied with HuMAR in terms of its usability and features; which in turn could have a positive impact in their learning process.

This paper investigates whether environmental regulations become obstacles or a cause for innovation in Japan by examining some empirical evidences on how environmental regulations affect the course and character of technological change through innovative activities of the firms in Japan. Available literature shows that it is rather very difficult to measure the stringency of environmental regulations and its effects on subsequent innovations at aggregate levels. As a result, this study adopted detailed case studies to overcome the problems of previous empirical studies due to their aggregate nature and to understand well the nature of the relationship between environmental regulations and innovation. In this paper, we picked up the cases of Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf to study and examine the impacts of environmental regulations on innovation.

Sustainable tourism development is now a necessity of time. All the parties involved in tourism should participate in efforts to sustainable tourism development. Sustainability, as the best way of doing business today, is a new concept in the tourism sector and sustainable tourism practices can be considered as a new type of innovation in the tourism industry. Therefore knowledge of the factors affecting tourism businesses to integrate sustainability in their activities is critical. Without this type of information, we are limited in our ability to design tools that work in the future to mitigate barriers and increase motivations tourism businesses to adopt sustainable tourism practices in their activity. Factors’ influencing in the integration of sustainable practices into business activities is very subject discussed in different industries and different scientific disciplines after the late 80's. However, a limited number of studies addressed perspective of tourism businesses to adopt sustainable tourism practices. These studies have used different theoretical models. This paper undertakes the analysis of these models from the review of literatures, giving their advantages and limitations in the study of the factors influencing businesses to adopt sustainable tourism practices. After analysis, the paper finally concludes that Rogers's theory on adaptation and diffusion of innovation is a suitable theoretical model in the study of factors influencing the adoption of sustainable tourism practices in tourism businesses.

The study deals with the process in which Course of Basic Art Teaching is transformed into a street fashion show with the slogan “from theory to practice” at the Textile Department of Trabzon Vocational High School of Karadeniz Technical University. Course of Basic Design Teaching was at first a basic course at the educational institutions that taught art but having evolved with the advancement in science and technology it has now been equally connected with the education of every discipline as well as art and has taken the current form. During the academic term; point, drawing, pattern bright colors, dull colors , integrating color pairs, figure-ground relationship were the course contents. In line with the principles taught, students prepared each topic as an intra-course activity in accordance with the problem given using various materials on a drawing paper. For the semester work, all of the works of the each student were evaluated and one of them was selected and placed upon the apron made by nettle cloth using different materials. Designs on the drawing papers were drawn on the aprons and assessments were made in accordance with the abilities and skills of the students. When designs were used on different materials; different and various aprons were produced.

Convenience and ease of ICT's usage in teaching and learning in higher education indeed facilitate and fascinate most of students in the modern world. Thus, this paper focused on the usage of the Turnitin software in the higher education learning (not only for the purpose of anti-plagiarism) but could be used as self-evaluation tool inculcating critical thinking in integrating the Naqli and Aqli in the subject of Malaysian Economy. 271 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Economic and Mumalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) taking subjects of Malaysian Economy were involved. A simple individual assignment was instructed early in the semester and were to upload their assignment through the turnitin system in the second week. All students are allowed to review their submission according to their performance in similarity percentage from turnitin system, and are to resubmit their assignment in the tenth week. This paper analyses the relationship between originality, exam grade and gender. At the end of the study, it was found there are significant relation among originality and exam grade as well as gender. Thus, turnitin systems help student in improving their skill in integrating the Naqli and Aqli reasoning for the subject of Malaysian Economy.