Unified process, a leading software development methodology, allows project teams to incrementally build their software and structurally defines project roles, phases, iterations and disciplines. One of the issues that arise when applying unified process is absence of discipline for quality assurance and control. This research aims to define new discipline entitled “quality management of software development” and its processes, in order to produce modified version of unified process, suitable for continually controlling quality in software development projects. This discipline will integrate ISO 9126 “Software engineering – product quality”, which is an international standard for addressing software quality and quality control tools, as proposed by Project Management Book of Knowledge 2010. Main hypothesis of this research is that, by defining and integrating new discipline of quality management, project teams that employ this new, modified version of unified process, will be able to produce software of higher quality level. Experimental research is conducted on four software development projects, ranging from 2009 to 2010, two of which use standard, and two of which use modified unified process model. Research results show higher software quality levels in two projects that use modified unified process methodology.

This paper seeks to discover whether as a result of the removal of prudence as a concept within the revised 2010 Conceptual Framework, the accounts of companies in the FTSE100 in the UK have displayed any trends to be more or less conservative/prudent. The research design uses the two most popular measures of accounting conservatism (prudence) used in literature, Market-to-Book ratio and the Basu Asymmetric Timeliness model (Basu 1997) and compares the period prior to the change in the 2010 Conceptual Framework with the same measures post the change. The study finds that using both measures of conservatism, the levels of conservatism have fallen since the removal of prudence from the Conceptual Framework. This paper has implications for the users of financial statements and standard setters as the lower levels of prudence or accounting conservatism are associated with higher levels of risk (litigation) and costs (agency costs) which can affect stock valuations.

An activity of online buying and selling products causes many online shops on social media. One of social media being used for buying and selling products in society is Instagram. Factors in influencing online purchasing need to be considered by online shops in order to meet the needs and desires of customers. This study aims to determine the factors that influence the online clothes fashion product purchasing on Instagram and other social media to find out the most dominant variables of each factor. This study employs a descriptive quantitative method and factor analysis in SPSS 20:00 in windows seven. The variables analyzed in this study is the impulse purchase orientation, attitude to online shopping, service quality, perceived risk, informativeness, online trust, specific holdup cost, perceived ease of use, and purchase intention. Data collection techniques are on students of Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) and students of Faculty of Communication and Business (FKB) of Telkom University done by interviews and questionnaires. The sample in this study is using proportionate stratified random sampling of 100 people with a confidence level of 95% and an error of 5%. The results showed that the newly formed five factors that influence online purchase. The fifth factor is the perceived ease of use, online trust, informativeness, attitude to online shopping, and impulse purchase orientation. Online shopping businesses today are expected to pay attention to these factors in order to improve the service. Future studies are expected to use other variables such as enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and innovativeness while also able to use other analytical techniques such as Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).

Existence of global rivalry between corporations causes the need for expatriation as one of potential sources of international competitive advantage. Expatriation is standard practice of multinational corporations to accomplish their missions. In this paper focus is put on self-initiated expatriates who represent contemporary trend among global working force. Their importance and uniqueness is elaborated broadly. Special emphasis is put on comparison between traditional and self-initiated expatriates. The most important differences between those two categories are analyzed as well as different motives that lead and encourage them to successfully finish their international assignments.

Mobile gaming and digital music industries’ dynamics and growth show high potential of value network and induce new ways of designing and developing competitive value propositions throughout disruptive innovation processes. These innovative processes have the potential to lead to design and development of new products and services, by combining games with music contents and revolutionizing the current media entertainment sector. In view of that, mobile gaming sector and market analysis were conducted throughout competitive analysis frameworks, analysis of regional innovation systems and online surveys to support the blue ocean opportunities and corroborates its market potential. Hence, the analysis involved the study of the competitive environment and technological convergence of both industries and the impact of this new game in industry dynamics. Moreover, the key drivers and trends influencing the business environment were analysed and competitive strategies were discussed as new trends for the sector, as well as new value chain rearrangements and potential players’ competition models. Finally, there were discussed vertical and horizontal integration processes, industrial clustering and agglomeration economics to lead regional innovation systems, higher knowledge investments and R&D spillovers to support blue ocean opportunities benefiting customers through new and innovative value propositions. Major sectorial changes and societal impacts for the future are also discussed.

This paper judges the welfare implications of anticipated and unanticipated Productivity shocks in a small open economy. The purpose model is two country New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with the characteristics of nominal rigidities and monopolistic competition. This study finds out the higher degree of openness increase the welfare cost in the anticipated shocks. The response of optimal policy to anticipated shocks demonstrates the larger and delayed on macroeconomic variables than unanticipated shocks. Optimal monetary policy rule has a potential to curb the inflation and meet an optimal level of the real exchange rate volatility. Movements in real exchange rate resist the terms of trade externality and upturn the effectiveness of monetary policy. In addition, monetary authorities focus on the goal of exchange rate stabilization in their policy decisions.

The purpose of the study was to determine the key drivers which influence the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store. In today’s competitive world with increasing number of retail stores, the retailers need to be more customer oriented. Retail has changed and expanded in all lines of business, be it apparel, jewelry, footwear, groceries.etc. The modern consumer is posing a challenging task for the Indian retailer. More aware, more confident and much more demanding, therefore the retailers are looking for ways to deliver better consumer value and to increase consumer purchase intention. Retailers tend to differentiate themselves by making their service easier to consumers. The study aims to study the key drivers that can influence shopping behavior in retail store. A survey (store intercept) method was employed to elicit primary information from 300 shoppers in different formats of retail stores of Lucknow. The findings reveal the factors that play a greater role in influencing the shopping behavior of customers in retail store. As such, a survey of retail store customer’s attitude towards reduced price, sales promotion, quality of the products, proximity to the home, customer service, store atmospherics were analyzed to identify the key drivers influencing shopping behavior in retail store. A questionnaire based on a five-item Likert scale, as well as random sampling, was employed for data collection. Data analysis was accomplished using SPSS software. The paper has found shopping experience, store image and value for money as three important variable out of which shopping experience emerged as a dominant factor which influences the consumer’s shopping behavior in the retail store. Since the research has established empirical evidences in determining the key drivers which influences the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store, it serves as a foundation for a deeper probe into the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store research domain in the Indian context

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants that associated with IT utilization and further how IT utilization influences competitive advantage and organizational performance in creative SMEs sector. The samples used in this research were 400 creative SMEs in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Purposive sampling method was taken. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) by using Partial Least Squares (PLS) was conducted to examine the validity, reliability, and the proposed hypotheses. The determinants of IT utilization covering management commitment, and direct and indirect supports from government were significantly influence IT utilization. IT utilization does not significantly influence performance directly. The influence of IT utilization on performance is indirect via competitive advantage. Considering that management commitment and government supports is vital to IT utilization, management and government collaborations should be developed and improved. Strategic IT development is vital to create competitive advantage and further to achieve higher organizational performance. The management commitment to build people equity for employees and management is urgent since it provides the basis for IT successful engagement.

The data set consists of 58 companies listed on the Baltic Stock Exchange over the period from 2005 to 2012. The study analyses the trade-off and the pecking order theories of capital structure by using regression analysis. The empirical results indicate that Baltic listed companies do not apply pecking order to their capital structure. Speed of adjustment varies for long-term debt and short-term debt. Short-term debt is adjusted more quickly than long-term debt. Speed of adjustment also depends on company size and country. Large companies and companies from Estonia adjust their capital structure more quickly than medium companies and companies from Lithuania.

Service quality leads to customers’ satisfaction and gives a competitive advantage to the firms/organisations against their rivals. Furthermore, service quality by firms in a country gives a competitive advantage to the country against rival countries as well. The global financial crisis has affected Cyprus too. The National Strategy plan for economy recovery is included as a main point the attracting of direct foreign investments by non- European High Net Worth Individuals in the island. Banks, Accounting and Legal offices in Cyprus cooperate together in providing full services to them for their corporate and wealth management needs. The aim of this research is to investigate if Banks, Legal and Accounting firms in Cyprus concern about providing a high level of service quality to non-EU HNWIs and examines the ways of implementation based on the five dimensions of SERVQUAL model.It also researches the impact of different ethnicities on service quality expectations and illustrates how this matter is treated by the firms examined. The study also investigates the priority of importance of the different service quality dimensions and emits new service quality dimensions found important for this industry in Cyprus. After studying different service quality models and different ways of research through literature review and academic resources, this research adopted a qualitative methodology. It was conducted through face-to face semistructured interviews with the managers of ten firms and organisations involved. The conclusions of the study confirm that Banks, Legal and Accounting offices in Cyprus do concern about offering high level of service quality to non-EU HNWIs however the whole infrastructure of the industry has been built mostly on Russian speaking customers’ needs. The firms are performing well in the five dimensions of SERVQUAL and ethnicity matters are taken into consideration with a different approach treatment. Responsiveness is found to be the most important dimension after reliability based again on Russians’ demand for quick service while flexibility and transparency emitted to be new important dimensions apart of pricing.

This study was undertaken to explore the determinants of liquidity in Zimbabwean commercial banks. The research paper was motivated by the persistent high liquidity crunch currently be delving operations of commercial banks. An explanatory research design was adopted to find out variables that determine banks liquidity. An Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model was developed after testing the variables for stationary to avoid spurious regression using the Augmented Dicker-Fuller (ADF) unit root test. Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to examine the existence of correlation between the repressors and the regressed. The study identified that non-performing loans are highly negatively related with banks liquidity signifying that this variable influence bank liquidity to a larger extent. A positive relationship between bank size and capital adequacy ratio and liquidity was established. Contrary to expectations a positive relationship was obtained between loan growth and banks liquidity. The following recommendations were made. Banks should devise robust credit risk management tools to reduce credit risk, tap into the offshore markets to obtain more credit to extent to their clients and the central banks should speed up the operation of ZAMCO which is meant to take over banks bad debts.

The peculiarities of microfinance and prospects of its implementation in the institutional structure of a social and economic system in general and transitional economies systems in particular are considered. Special attention is paid to the problems of investing in microfinance activity under globalization and different institutional configurations.

As an analytical approach, decision-making is the process of finding the best option from all feasible alternatives. The application of decision- making process in economics, management, psychology, mathematics, statistics and engineering is obvious and this process is an important part of all science-based professions. Proper management and utilization of valuable data could significantly increase knowledge and reduce cost by preventive actions, whereas erroneous and misinterpreted data could lead to poor inference and decision-making. This paper presents a class of practical methods to analyze high-dimensional event history data to reduce redundant information and facilitate practical interpretation through variable inefficiency recognition. In addition, numerical experiments and simulations are developed to investigate the performance and validation of the proposed methods.

The growth rate of unemployment in Nigeria is becoming an issue of great concern therefore calling the attention of stake holders to seeking solution to it. On the other hand, capital flight is another issue that has generated great concerns among economists with regards to its growth over the decades particularly in developing countries of which Nigeria is one on the top of the list as shown in the literature. Given these, it is highly essential that the attendant effects of this incredible growth of capital flight are found, however some of these effects are already mentioned in the literature. Given the growth rate of unemployment in Nigeria and the failure of many policies prescribed by the government of Nigeria to curb it, it has therefore become very clear that there are still more factors contributing to unemployment than the ones known. Solving the unemployment problem demands the knowledge of all factors contributing to it. In this paper, capital flight is identified as one of the factors contributing to unemployment in Nigeria. The Ordinary Least Squares Method including Co-integration and Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) were used to investigate this assertion. It was found that in the short run, capital flight contributes positively to unemployment in both current and next years while in the long run, it only contributes positively in the current year while contributing negatively in the next year but leaving an unemployment gap as the contribution of the current year is greater than that of the next year.

The analysis of monetary policy in Tunisia highlights three main distinct periods with the support of the IMF: the last in 1987 when the country was in deep recession, after 1989 with the gradual privatization plan launched by the government and recently current period in the end of 2012, after revolution, in which the economic and financial balance recorded major shocks remanding back of the ex-period and the rise in arrow of the inflation. This article aims to provide an overview on key reforms Tunisian financial markets from 1989. These reforms have particularly affected the banking system and the implementation of monetary policy based on the interest rate as an instrument controller for the first phase and also the monetary aggregates, M3 mainly, following the evolution of economic conditions to our days 2014. But from the 90's view that the success recorded by the industrialized countries precursors on Inflation Targeting strategy IT and some developing countries as follower, we will demonstrate the inability of the Tunisian Central Bank TCB to pursue this inflation target announce strategy as a primary objective and the main difficulties before its actual realization in the current difficult economic environment.

Online social support perceived by Facebook users and its effect on stress coping were examined in this study with a sample of 518 college students, who completed a conventional or online survey form, in which they responded to items regarding demographic information, Facebook use, social support from Facebook friends, resilience, and feeling of stress. Four important findings were found: First, the participants reported having received more information and appraisal support than emotional support. Second, Facebook users who frequently used embedded services (i.e., News Feed, Photos, Events, Groups, and Chat) reported having received greater levels of social support than those who occasionally or seldom used these services. Third, Facebook users’ perceived social support and resilience were positively correlated with each other, and were both negatively correlated with feeling of stress. Finally, Facebook social support significantly accounted for the variability of stress, after taking into account the effect of resilience. The results are discussed in terms of characteristics of online social support, implications for coping stress in workplace, and suggestions for future research.

In this paper, an in depth theoretical overview on the central question in business strategy is provided: Why some firms outperform others? The latest approaches to the concept of competitive advantage were examined. Recent researches show that sustainable competitive advantage is becoming rarer, and that the duration of competitive advantage decreases (Wiggins and Ruefli, 2002). Sirmon, et. al. (2010) point out that competitive advantage is de facto unsustainable and that each advantage of the firm is reduced, as a result of dynamic interactions with competitors. Thus, the paper gives detailed explanation of how and why new perspectives work to unlock the potential for competitiveness. In other words, the purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical background and insights of behaviour of the firms and the ways of sustaining competitive advantage in the context of hypercompetition, by examining the modes in which firms successfully compete, evolve and survive in times when specific advantages are not sustainable, but of more temporary nature. This extant literature review shows that still and all we face a knowledge gap in realizing the big picture of competitive advantage.

The paper is based on UGC sponsored major research project recently completed. Major finding of the project has been that the Indian financial sector has failed to assist in the growth process of the economy. Granger causality tests on quarterly data in the framework of VAR and VEC models have been used to establish the results. These results hold at the aggregate economy level and also at the sectoral level. The reasons are to be found in the working of the financial system as experienced by the demand side of loanable funds. The field study conducted under the project has brought out that not only has the system failed to contribute to economic growth but also that its functioning is highly lopsided. Primary data collected through field survey points to a biased allocation of the available funds by the banking system and a substantial presence of the informal sources of credit in the economy. While the informal real sector is the one that primarily contributes to the growth of the Indian economy the dismal reality is that its financial needs are barely served by the mainstream financial sector. This in itself explains the failure of the financial system to contribute to economic growth. Since the finance growth linkages are found to be weak/ absent, an important implication of the result is that controlling inflation in India using tight credit policies can be achieved with minimum costs to growth of the real sector.

Corporate accounting scandal is not a new phenomenon and it is the outcome of corporate accruals i.e., accruals by management choice. This study investigated the use of corporate accruals in the financial statements of the listed companies in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) through segregating total accruals into corporate (discretionary) and accounting (non-discretionary) accruals. The average rate of corporate accruals was 35 percent and in many cases, cash flow from operation exceeded the net income, the growth in accounts receivable was faster than sales growth, and inventory growth was not consistent with sales growth. In this context, this study may create awareness of the risk factors of corporate accruals among external users’ of accounting information especially analysts, regulator, policy makers, existing and potential shareholders, lenders, trade creditors, external auditors, researchers, financial advisors, and stock brokers. Consequently, it may reduce the use of management discretion in preparing the financial statements.

This paper analyses the modifications of financial audit reports of Maltese companies between 2005 and 2009. It examines the audit reports of a random sample of 374 limited liability companies registered with the Registry of Companies in Malta. The study shows that the average 2005-2009 modification rate in Malta stood at 22.4%, this representing an increase over previous periods. Most modified reports were noted in the case of private exempt and international trading non-exempt companies. Generally, private exempt companies had their audit report qualified on the basis of a limitation of scope, whilst most international trading companies had their reports qualified on the basis of disagreement with management. Furthermore, the “small company qualification” (which has been long abolished) was still incorrectly being used in Maltese audit reports till 2009. The results therefore show that there is still room for improvement in audit reporting in Malta. Whilst the Big Four audit firms do not appear to have issues in appropriately adhering to audit reporting standards, Maltese smaller audit firms and sole practitioners were found still to be the main cause for inappropriate audit reporting. Towards improvement, the study provides various recommendations including: a more consistent regulatory framework, stricter enforcement of quality assurance, and the reconsideration of the statutory small audit. Such recommendations may also be applicable to other jurisdictions.

Environmental pollution and its devastating effects, which have made their mark on the contemporary generation, have generated the need for policies to protect the environment, but at the same time to create a framework conducive to sustainable development. Although in the literature are now numerous concerns for refining the objectives, to identify appropriate methodologies to help protect the environment and ensure sustainable development, however there is no a clear picture about the strategies of development and environmental protection, especially in Romania. The research goal is to capture the impact of pollutant factors on the environment`development, as well as measures that could mitigate the harmful effects of it. The paper presents and analyzes the economic reality of Romania, by drawing up a report on the work of environmental protection agencies, Botoșani. Its importance consist in the fact that it represents an element of strategic guidance on long-term efforts to solve the environmental development and protection issue. Also, the study tries to capture the ability of some strategies of sustainable development on amount of time horizon of 2013-2020. As can be seen in the work, Romania has a relatively large domestic market and the second largest in Central and Eastern Europe, a qualified workforce with low costs compared to Western European countries, and Romania's economic prospects have been improved following the accession to the European Union.

IPO anomalies in the corporate debt markets are to great extent unexplored field in the academic literature. The aim of this paper is to investigate the underpricing phenomenon of newly issued corporate bonds on the Catalyst market and its determinants. I use event study methodology to test for underpricing and perform regressions to find its determinants. The sample includes 142 corporate bonds issued between March 2010 and August 2013 and listed on the Catalyst market. The computations confirm the uderpricing effect in the CEE market, however do not allow to indicate its determinants.

Since 1995 China officially adopted the Strategy of Revitalizing China through Science and Education to advance towards the knowledge economy. Our paper aims to access China’s progress using international indices of economic and innovation development (Knowledge Economy Index, Global Competitiveness Index, and Human Development Index). We also explore six types of public-private partnerships in innovation activities of the Chinese universities. They are: technology contracts, technology transfer, university-owned enterprises, joint research centers, independent colleges, and university-based science parks. For each partnership we study the role it played in intensification of research and education with an emphasis on government participation mechanisms. Based on the analysis of the official statistics the authors find that the progress of China to the knowledge economy is evident. China’s government played a leading role in the construction of the knowledge economy providing legislation basis and financing. Public-private partnerships in innovation activities in the universities in China significantly contributed to the technological development of the country and the country’s transition towards the knowledge economy. Studying successful experience of the public private-partnerships in the Chinese universities is a first step to possible adaptation of this mechanism in other countries, including Russia.

The aim of this paper is to provide an insight in to the world of corporate governance quality as well as to shed light on efforts in measuring the quality of corporate governance through an overview of relevant academic and commercial corporate governance indices by. As the paper will show, measuring the quality of corporate governance is still a relatively new concept. The construction of the index for measuring the quality of corporate governance still comes down to simplification of standards or criteria which mainly revolve around three dimensions - compliance, performance and accountability. In contrast to the level of compliance with good governance standards, scientific assessment of the quality of corporate governance remains a mystery.