Asia Pacific Journal of Advanced Business and Social Studies

13-20

Authors: Syayyidah Maftuhatul Jannah, Claudius Budi Santoso

This study is aimed at the examination of the relationship of workplace spirituality and organizational citizenship behavior with the roles of organizational identification and perceived organizational supports as moderating variables. This study uses affective events theory to explain that workplace sprituality produces positive affective and then encourages organizational citizenship behavior. Meanwhile, the roles of organizational identification and perceived organizational supports that relationship based on social identity theory and social exchange theory subsequently. This study conducts survey methods and purposive sampling methods in collecting primary data from respondents working in local government institusions, then the primary data is processed with moderated regression model. The result reveals that workplace spirituality positively affected organizational citizenship behavior. But, organizational identification and perceived organizational support are significant, but have not moderated the relationship of workplace spirituality and organizational citizenship behavior. This study suggests that the measurement of organizational identification also has to consist of pride or emotional attatchment to organizations. Meanwhile, the measurement of perceived organizational supports has to insert dimensions of procedural justice and supervisor support, not only dimensions of rewards and employee’s well-being. In addition, dispositional factors could be more influential to be a moderating variable on that relationship. In conclusion, creating the climate of workplace spirituality and having employees’ trust to their organization are more critical to increase organizational citizenship behavior, especially in local, public organizations.

34-43

Authors: Dr. Yoser Gadhoum, Abeer Aldawsari , Halah Almusbeh

This world is exposed to evil and damage. Terror attacks, for instance, are a way for terrorists to relatively express their anger or revenge, whether for political or religious motives. However, in this report, we are analyzing the stock market’s reaction in order to show the impact of terror attacks on market integration and determine the level of sensitivity of the international stock market towards these attacks on the day of the attacks. We have chosen five different terror attacks\events in the year 2016 from different areas around the world and they are as follows: • Turkey Airport Bombing. • Yemen Civil War. • Al Masjed Al Nabawy Holy Mosque Bombing. • Manhattan Street Bombing. • Egyptian Airplane Kidnaping. The subject markets for analysis in this report are New York Stocks Exchange Market, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Germany Stock Market, Saudi Stock Market, United Arab Emirates Stock Exchange and Qatar Stock Exchange. After deep analysis, we found the followings: • USA stock market shows positive autocorrelation in the times Saudi Arabia was hit by the Yemen Civil War and Al Masjed Al Nabawy Holy Mosque Bombing. • All markets show positive autocorrelation due to the event of Al Masjed Al Nabawy Bombing. • Saudi Arabia Stock Market shows positive autocorrelation on only Saudi terror events or\and USA terror events. • Saudi Arabia and USA stock markets are the most integrated markets. • Tokyo and Germany stock markets show positive autocorrelation due to events in the Middle East. • UAE and Qatar stock markets are the least sensitive toward terror attacks. • USA, Saudi Arabia and Tokyo are the most sensitive markets towards terror attacks. • International stock markets can be affected by terror attacks immediately and for the shortterm only.

54-65

Authors: Fachry Hasan, Prof. Dermawan Wibisono

This paper focuses on how the contractor and integrator companies of railway systems could measure their corporate performance and, in the future, the contractor and integrator companies of railway systems could develop their own integrated performance measurement system to improve their company performance and their project service. The best practice from the performance measurement literature is to be compared with practices in the railway industry. Most of the indicators used to control and improve company internal process management today are lagging indicators that measure results. It is, therefore, a need to develop more leading indicators that measure the processes that influence company performance. The measurement system should be extended to measure effects of company’s performance and to measure management processes that increase the focus on quality of service and product reliability.

77-89

Authors: Ima Fatima, Dermawan Wibisono

The era of free market and world economy globalization further encourages the opening of cooperation in various fields, as well as an opportunity for foreign investors to develop its business in Indonesia, not least in the sector of construction industry. This condition has certainly improved the climate of increasingly fierce competition in this sector. To face this global competition, it is necessary to take some anticipatory steps to perform various improvements to the construction company to improve the quality of the company's performance. Efforts to improve the company's construction services can be done through a system of control over the factors that affect the company's performance that ultimately determine the success of company in achieving its goals. This paper aims to identify and define main indicators that determine the performance of construction companies in Indonesia, as a first step in an effort to design a suitable Performance Management System (PMS) for construction industry. With specific reference to Knowledgebased Performance Management System (KBPMS), appropriate performance variables were chosen from various literatures. Questionnaires were addressed to the Executives of selected construction SOEs (state-owned enterprises). The Delphi method was conducted to analyze variables interrelation. Findings of this case study research provide a set of main indicators that are useful as an initial step to design a PMS at corporate level for measuring performance of construction services companies in Indonesia.

108-120

Authors: Andre R de Oliveira, Paulo Coutinho, Alexandre Carvalho

This paper identifies an underappreciated source of risk for capital invested in regulated markets and proposes a new methodology to calculate the associated premium. The risk stems from the impact on the revenues and costs of regulated companies of fully depreciated assets that are still in service, but are no longer included in their rate base. The future of many regulated sectors depends on their ability to attract private investment, which will not materialize if investors are not adequately compensated for bearing that type of risk. We develop three models, one based on financial analysis and two on economic analysis, to calculate the proper rate of return on a fully depreciated plant still in service. T he financial model builds upon the intuition that this problem is similar to that of determining the appropriate return on risky ventures that do not require capital expenditure. The economic model is based on the idea of opportunity cost. Shareholders of a regulated company have two options: They can either keep the fully depreciated plant in service or replace it with new plant. The regulatory revenue the company is allowed to earn should make shareholders indifferent between the options of replacing or not replacing the fully depreciated assets. The three models generate the same return on capital for investors.

131-147

Authors: Hammed, Agboola Yusuf, Irwan Shah Zainal Abidin,Joel Ede Owuru, Saad Babatunde Akanbi, Hammed Oluwaseyi Musibau

This study examines the impacts of interest rates on private consumption behaviour in Nigeria between the period of 1981 and 2013 using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegrations framework. The data were sourced from the World Bank development indicators and the interest rate was augmented with other macroeconomic variables like per capita income, money supply, and banking sector credit to the private sector as regressors in determining the behaviour of private consumption in Nigeria. The results confirm the existence of a relationship between private consumption and its determinants, except real interest rate and the dummy for the impact of interest rate deregulation. The study, therefore, recommends an increase in government capital expenditures that will create an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive so that the welfare of the citizenry could be enhanced.

158-167

Authors: Loren M. Stangl, Justin Brewer

The old adage, “Who you know, is more important that what you know” rings true for internationally focused entrepreneurs. The network approach to internationalisation argues international business opportunities start from social interactions and evolve into strategically important relationships. In other words, interpersonal and inter-firm network relationships affect internationalisation strategies of entrepreneurial organisations. The aim of this conceptual paper is to explore the concept of social globalisation in the framework of international entrepreneurship. The authors argue that cultural-cognitive institutions define international opportunity awareness within a country and highlight the role that networks play in the process. Furthermore, cosmopolitan-oriented countries that support global interconnectedness may provide greater opportunities for favourable international cognitions. Using examples of social globalisation research on both domestic and international entrepreneurship, the argument is put forth that the greater the level of social globalisation in a country, the greater the opportunity for domestic firms to develop diverse network relationships facilitating internationalisation. Through exposure to and involvement in international networks, entrepreneurial firms gain international knowledge and develop awareness of international opportunities to commercialise innovations. The findings provide insight into external environmental conditions influencing the relationship between interpersonal networks, interfirm networks and internationalisation. Cultural proximity and international personal contacts represent social globalisation and serve as a useful measure of networks at a country level of analysis.

176-186

Authors: Dr. Loulou Malaeb

In this research paper, we will try to prove that because Marx failed to give a significant regard to the human desire not only to live, but also to live well (our new notion of commodious desire) his use value came as lacking this aspect of human nature. We will show how this same lack that has eventually lead Marx to see money hoarding and eventually the capital as of unnatural origins. So, we find it our task, as believers in human’s natural desire not only to survive, but also to survive well, to delve a little into the Marxist aspect of use value and try to extract the main misfortunes that the great socialist philosopher could have avoided had he built his theory on a human being who is in constant search for the most commodious in life.

196-206

Authors: Azila Ahmad Sarkawi, Alias Abdullah, Norimah Md. Dali

Amongst the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference’s (OIC) countries, Malaysia is at number one rating in the Islamicity Index, Islamic Index of Wellbeing and Global Muslim Travel Index studies. The rating gave the impression of the liveability or wellbeing in Malaysia within the Islamic sphere. This recognition prompts the study on the indicators of wellbeing that Malaysia has focused on Islamic dimensions. Consequently, content analysis was done on six selected government documents namely the Malaysian Wellbeing Index, the Malaysian Family Wellbeing Index, the Malaysian Urban-Rural National Indicators Network for Sustainable Development, the Malaysian Shariah Index, the Malaysian Ummah Development Index and the Muslim Religiosity and Personality Indexing. The study found that the first three documents embodied indirect religious dimensions in their wellbeing indexing while the latter three have direct religious dimensions. The incorporation of the religious dimensions into the Malaysia’s wellbeing indexing either directly or indirectly shows the relevancy of the religious factor to human wellbeing. Noticeably, the indicators promulgated under each study are organizationally-driven aiming at attaining their specific objectives that invariably led to variations amongst the agencies. Nonetheless, religion has been found to command a significant factor in the wellbeing of Malaysian though different indicators have been used by the six organizations to arrive at this fact.

218-235

Authors: Ven. Mediyawe Piyarathana Thero

The objective of this research paper is to share the vision on Buddhist Philosophy of Education. At the time of the Buddha, the education system was considered mainly as a religious one, although the education concept was a pre-Buddhist one. The main objective of the Buddha was not to introduce an education system to the world; however, The Buddha was really a religious teacher who introduced a practical and living philosophy to the entire human community. Since Buddha was a person who understood reality fully as an Enlightened One, he introduced a living philosophy targeting the entire human beings through various teaching methods. It is possible to explore the Buddhist Philosophy of Education by exploring the teachings of the Buddha. Educability is accepted in Buddhism at a great level as a principle. The Buddhism emphasizes in the Eight-Fold Path that volition and try, enthusiasm and courage are necessary factors. The way a person should act to end demerit and for the improvement of merit is given under Four Great Efforts. Educability is not a possibility to receive from a religion, not accepting the potentiality of person. The Buddhism has emphasised through many discourses that a person has to achieve objectives without resorting to any external elements. From the teachings of the Buddha, educability and potential energy of a person have been included as essential components in Buddhist Philosophy on Education. According to Buddhism, personality can be presented as the only strength that a person possesses to act with volition and self-confidence. Buddhism first teaches person to create good conduct by disciplining the organs like body, speech etc. then advises for his spiritual development. The personality of the one who has become an Arahant is more than all those persons. The whole purpose of the Buddhist education is to develop the personality of person. When it is compared with the objectives of modern education, Buddhist education objective seems to be a wide and deep one. If the features of personality are seen with students, it can be considered great. The society with them is peaceful. Buddhism has presented the facts like liquor, gambling and misconduct that cause personality into decay and destroy. It is clear that all the necessary advice for a student to develop personality is given by Buddhism. Buddhist education is a way to end all the mental ills like lust, faults and ignorance through the entire physical and mental discipline and can be a way of gaining spiritual purity. Discipline, an important education objective, is the controlling body and speech. The knowledge that a person gains on crafts without any discipline is not for the good of society, but the Buddhist view is that it should be with ethics. The intelligence of the person, who is without virtue and discipline, is fruitless. It is clear from one of the main activities of an education process is training members to live honouring the other members of the society. The object of Buddhist education is to teach person keeping him as the centre and subordinates in various social status by keeping close relationship with them from childhood and how to live a fruitful life One important thing that Buddhism expects is to create a person with high self-confidence. According to Buddhism, the greatest self-confident person is not to worry even facing with Eight Worldly Conditions. Teaching how to face eight worldly conditions is trained with the objectives of Buddhist education. Asia Pacific Institute of Advanced Research (APIAR) DOI:10.25275/apjabssv3i2ss6 Page219 Discourse on Loving-kindness states which presents person to live a wealthy life, education, family life condition, living environment, the position of his parents and by thinking about them to live with what is available. Confirming a lifestyle of good conduct is the objective of Buddhist education. Another objective of Buddhist education is to train person to look at oneself and others with love and respect. Without being selfish and leading to act selflessly is done with this objective. The main code of ethics of Buddhism, Pancasīla (Five Precepts), is the principle of protecting human right. The objective of Buddhist education is to create the well-being or benefit of person and society. It is very clear now that five precepts are necessary to create world peace and to end the worldwide spread environment of unrest or intolerance and for the human right protection Where Buddhist education aims and objectives are concerned, there are few important facts in the Discourse on Blessing ‘Vast learning, perfect handicraft, a high trained discipline, and pleasant speech. This is the Highest Blessing. Vast learning means gaining a vast knowledge. In a religious sense, it is learning about nine-fold Dispensation and the ability to describe them in various ways. The objective of Buddhist education is not only to give this energy, but it is necessary to put those theories into practice. Buddhist education philosophy is with the objective of creating complete lifestyles of the masses. It is very clear that the initial and final objective of Buddhist education is purifying mind. The Buddhist education system has been formed in a way that it shows life objectives and education objectives. By cultivating all the things of the character of the student who gets education, the objective of education is to create a good person to the society. So, there should be a service to the society and it is the main concept of the Buddhist education. If the society is formed with the above mentioned education objectives, there won’t be any social problem, complexity or any corruption. In this manner, for the benefit of social expertise, it is possible to understand how people get help and support from Buddhist doctrine. The researcher expects to share the vision on Buddhist Philosophy of Education for the benefit of society through this research.

242-256

Authors: Yuanchun Xia, Boonsub Panichakarn, Sahas Bunditkul

This paper aims to make a prediction of freight volume along NSEC (North South Economic Corridor) in a quantitative approach. To start, a brief introduction to NSEC is presented, in which the reason why the prediction is critical important in this field of research is explained and the basic three notions for this research are indicated. Afterwards, parameters of the freight volume is analyzed through GRA (Grey Analysis ), then the model is to be set up for forecasting based on data in the past ten years (2005 to 2015). The following sections are the testing of the model for adjustment of the data and the mode as well. Thereafter, the forecasting of freight volume is concluded after the predication of parameters. Some limitations and recommendations are also presented for further study at the ending section.

267-277

Authors: Razana Juhaida Johari, Jamaliah Said, Anis Halina Anuar

Integrity is considered a vital matter since it may cause governance failures, fraud, inefficiency, corruption and poor financial management, especially in the public sector agency. Currently, the public sector agency has become a global issue as a result of the continuous stream of governance failure, fraud, inefficiency and corruption. Due to that, the agency is under pressure to justify the sources and utilizations of public resources as well as improving the performance in their services since the publics have right to monitor the transparency and efficiency of the public sector’s management. This study attempts to investigate the factors that could contribute to the integrity systems in Malaysian public sector. Both printed and online questionnaires were distributed to 210 Heads of Department under selected Malaysian federal ministry. Findings from this study showed a significant positive effect of risk management and accountability practices, as well as the management commitment. This study is expected to contribute to the policy makers by providing them with awareness on the factors that could influence the integrity practices among the department in Malaysian public sector. Research limitation and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

294-307

Authors: TANO Kouassi Joseph, SUN Qiu Yun

This thesis aims to study African students’ integration and the adaptation in Chinese universities by joining associative groupings. The thesis uses qualitative research and interviewing target focus groups. It is about a cross-sectional study of descriptive and analytical aiming based on the qualitative under tended by the dialectical approach. The characteristic of this method has made it possible to collect the qualitative data. Within the framework of this study, the information is collected through documentations, recordings of accounts and speeches of surveyed. They are transcribed and the gross profits were the subject of an analysis of contents of the speeches on the Africans students, of the accounts of life stories or experiments lived in the relationship. The results demonstrate that student associations provide students a social identity, a cultural organization, leadership and thus make them feel accepted and socialized in China. Associative space makes it possible for students to acquire communicating and eloquent competence and emotive intelligence. Students who have participated in associative groups support, give them knowledge of organization and human stock management. In this dynamic community, we can also make a report that the composition of these students groupings are minorities sometimes, but those groupings gather together with those who have common interests. As is known to all, there is no difference between the way they associate and forms, except structural and functional perspective.

319-327

Authors: Aditi Korgaonkar, Manisha Ghatage

“Many women did not fight against oppression because they did not realize they were oppressed in the first place” – Nora Ruck (2015) Urban spaces in India are filled with slogans and shouts for sexual freedom, bodies and choices. Many celebrities are endorsing the concept of feminism through various social media. Is this medium inclusive of all of India’s gender issues and gender realities? Is economic, political, religious and caste system which encompasses the social structure of India, taken into consideration while studying feminist issues? The unfortunate answer is not in affirmation. The lower caste women strongly believe that the feminist ideas are of, by and for the upper caste individuals. These ideas largely ignores the lower strata of the women’s society, who are oppressed twice compared to the upper castes, first by the caste system and secondly by Patriarchy. Therefore, the lower caste women termed this activism as ‘metropolitan feminism’ and they believe that feminist movement which strongly speaks about sisterhood is yet to treat a lower caste woman as an equal sister. The research aims to study the field of feminism in the context of caste system in Indian society. The two main fields neglected by the field of psychology in India are caste systems and feminist psychology. Hierarchy of castes has always been an inevitable part of the social structure in India. While throwing light on these issues, the research also tries to focus on how feminism in India is circled around the upper caste women and hardly considers lower caste women. The study is in the lines of global feminism and emergence of black feminism. The paper calls to research this exclusion in the light of field of psychology.

345-353

Authors: Naniek Setijadi, Roy Pratikno

Organizations are culture-bound (Hofstede, 2001). A proponent of the organizational culture would argue that organizational culture has profound impact on the performance and sustainability to the organization; yet, the supporters of national culture believe that national cultures can play a role in distracting or strengthening the organizational culture to shape the organization and boost the performance of the organization. Some scholars pose questions whether national cultures constrain organizational culture (Gerhart, 2008). However, Hofstede (2001) argued that to achieve great performance an organization should pay attention to national culture. Each proponent has compelling arguments as to why their side has much profound impact compare to the other side. Organizational learning is primarily about individuals learning within their organization. Human learning in an organizational context is strongly influenced by the organization, having consequences to the organization, which results at the organizational level can only be inferred by observing the learning process of everyone within it. This study aimed to investigate the organizational learning capability among employee, as organizational culture intertwined with different national cultures. Data are collected by in-depth interviewing Expatriates and local workforce in a multinational company and in one higher education institution in Jakarta; exploring individual perceived organizational learning capability: experimentation, risk taking, interaction with the external environment, dialog, and participative decision making.

8-17

Authors: Simon S.M. Yuen

Nowadays, most of the countries, especially Southeast Asia, due to weather conditions, requires temperature controlled means for their transportation of perishable products to the markets. Thus, a special type of supply chain management called Cold Chain Management (CCM) has been established. With its huge capital investment on facilities & equipment, strict temperature requirements, and energy dependence, the cold chain has always been a demanding logistics segment. In this paper, a cross profile of cold chain delivery that associated with Temperature Controlled Warehouse (TCW) employed by various local supply chain service providers will be studied. Also, the conceptual framework is developed to evaluate several criteria for qualify TCW in Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. Discussion and directions for future research will be finally provided.

25-31

Authors: Herri, Arif Prima Johan, Yulihasri, Rebi Fara Handika, M. Arifin

Business environment has a significant influence on defining a company’s position. Many companies have to initiate the turnaround strategy when they are in a critical situation. As such, many of them have successfully managed to escape such a situation, however, many have failed as well. One important successful factor in implementing this strategy is the top leader of the company. The characteristics of the top leader such as functional and educational background, tenure, age, international experiences, and gender are believed to change the success degree in implementing this turnaround strategy. This article discusses the relationship between the leader’s characteristics and the implementation of the turnaround strategy conceptually. The discussion on the possible mediatory effects between these two concepts in the form of strategic orientation is also discussed in certain parts within this article.

46-53

Authors: Tito Auditama, Zainal A.R Hakim, Wida Mustika Sari, Dermawan Wibisono

Pribadi School is one of education foundation founded in 2002. The number of students has been growing steadily to its present day number of 350 students. The school has been considered as one of the best private schools in Bandung. It is not so familiar to measure a school using Balance Score Card. In this paper, the application of Balance Score Card will be implemented to Pribadi Bilingual Boarding School. Using questionnaires, that will be distributed to the stakeholders – customers, teachers, and management, – it will enable the research to deploy several Key Performance Index (KPI) methods that has never been seen before for Pribadi. Having deployed the KPI that will be measured, the weight of importance will also be determined using Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP). After applying AHP, the target for what the school is going to achieve will be determined. The determination of the target is based on the historical data (if available) about the attributes weighted earlier in AHP. When the historical data is not available, a new measurement method will be created. After the targets are determined, the action plan will be created. Having created the action plan, the BSC is ready to be implemented for Pribadi Bilingual Boarding School.

66-78

Authors: Dr. Genoveva Y. Reyes

This study was conducted to determine the level of corporate environmental reporting disclosure practices among selected listed firms. The descriptive survey method of questionnaires was the tool used in gathering the data. The sampling method used in selecting the 50 respondents from the different companies was convenience sampling. The research was done during the second semester of the school year 2015-2016. Based on the data gathered, the following were the findings: Majority of the respondents were female, young, single, college graduates with 6-10 years in service and had undergone relevant trainings on environmental concerns. It had found out that the majority of the listed firms disclosed in their financial statements their social responsibility, in terms of community involvement, energy, environmental policies, employee health and safety, products, services and customers, research and development, location of environmental disclosure and other environmental information. There are significant differences in the level of corporate environmental Formulated recommendations which stated that management should offer more career development plans, attractive benefits and conducive working environments for the welfare of its employees to motivate long-term employee employer relationships. Proposed intervention measures were forwarded for the enhancement of environmental practices to achieve sustainable development.

91-100

Authors: Katlea Fitriani

Reverse Logistic (RL) has broad areas as recycling, remanufacturing, information technology, warehousing, operations and environment sustainability. Reverse Logistic has been recognized as one of the most important topics in the Supply chain and Examination of RL has become important not only for a business owner, but also a researcher. This paper aims to identify how far the research about RL has explained, especially RL model using Goal Programming. Furthermore, this paper can develop a research agenda for the research gap. This research used a comprehensive literature review which focuses on peer-review journal papers published within the period of 2005-2016. A total of 50 journal have been analyzed in the term of research purpose, method theoretical approach and level of analysis. The review shows there have been many RL papers with many mathematkcal and simulation approaches, including Goal Programming. GP model has been used as mathematical approach for production planning, product design, transport of waste, waste management and supply planning. It identifies some research gaps to apply Goal Programming model in different kinds of production process as the future research direction.

113-124

Authors: Tho Quynh Nguyen

In the context of international economic integration, FDI enterprises have become an important part of Vietnam’s economy. The government has established a number of policies in order to make the most of FDI. This paper re-evaluates the effectiveness of FDI policies in Vietnam when the country becomes a member of TPP using FDI Indexes. We adapt a conceptual framework of FDI policies that presents a taxonomy of global FDI policies as: (1) Policies towards attracting FDI; (2) Policies towards upgrading FDI; (3) Policies towards enhancing linkages between MNCs and domestic firms; (4) Policies reducing FDI side effects to classify contemporary FDI policies in Vietnam. The effectiveness of FDI policies is measured by a set of FDI indexes including Global Opportunity Index, Inward FDI Performance Index and Inward FDI Potential Index. The findings show that FDI performance in Vietnam has been improved over the years with increasing Inward FDI Performance Index. This implies that there are effective policies towards attracting FDI in Vietnam. However, a low level of Vietnam Global Opportunity Index and Inward FDI Potential Index suggest that there is a lack of advanced policies towards upgrading FDI and enhancing linkages and spillovers to domestic firms. Based on these findings, some policy implications are suggested.

141-156

Authors: Aisyah Dhia Ahsanti

The development of the internet as an information and entertainment source has created major change in business nowadays, not to mention in cosmetics industry. Many in the cosmetics industry start to invest more to the development of interesting and effective video advertisement. One of the ways which they recently used was to put lot more attention in the music in the video advertisement. Even though the use of music in cosmetics industry is very rich and vary, there is no specific research that explain what kind of music dominance that could positively affect the customers attitude and the customer’s perspective toward the brand, this phenomenon leads to the ineffective use of the commercial video. Which is why it is important for the researcher to make the research to help the brand and company create the right music strategy that could enhance their brand image and create positive customer attitudes toward the brand. To answer those questions, the experimental method was used. From those experiments, the research found out that Music does enhancing the effect of bring out positive customer attitude, especially toward the feelings. Music domination brings the positive customer attitude. However, the music plays as an ambient play a bigger role in enhancing customer positive attitude. Music does enhance how the customer perceives the brand and the understanding of the brand image. However, the music used as the medium to build the emotional ambience does play a bigger role than the music that use as the company to the explicit message in enhancing the brand image. The best sequence combination for the video commercial might be either E2 (Ambient – Company) or E4 (Ambient – Ambient). However, if we relate the experiment result to the Branding Strategy Timeline theory, the sequence E2 (Ambient – Company) might be the best sequence for branding strategy

170-179

Authors: Rohit Jindal

This paper reviews and analyzes the concept of payments for ecosystem services (PES) and focusing on their moral limits. PES is a part of recently introduced market instruments to address problems of pollution and environmental degradation. It is expected that hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of conservation investment will be transferred globally through PES like mechanisms. Using the framework of moral limits of markets, this paper highlights ethical concerns regarding this expansion of PES. A particular concern is the corruption that happens when cash transfers spoil the intrinsic motivations among many indigenous communities to engage in environmental conservation. Drawing on field research and empirical data from projects in Mozambique, and Tanzania, the paper identifies insights for policy makers, researchers, concluding with a discussion on directions for future research in this area.

192-204

Authors: Ali Simsek, Taner Kizilhan, Murat Sahin, Serdar Sever

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the Gezi Park uprising based on newspaper accounts of the events. Encroachment of Gezi Park was just one of the steps toward the neoliberal urbanization of Istanbul. However, the peaceful protests of environmentalist groups and the brutal police response to them have triggered widespread uprisings that lasted for about 20 days in all major cities of Turkey. The protestors with different socio-economic, ethnocultural and ideological-educational backgrounds took the streets for various reasons, yet what lied under the uprisings was the general dissent to the ultra-conservative policies and neoliberal order. It could be asserted that the ways Gezi Park uprisings are covered, or not covered at all, depends on the market positions and their political inclinations of the companies that own the media outlets. Therefore, in this study, the newspapers were categorized under three groups as pro-government, neutral and oppositionist. For unraveling how the newspapers approached the Gezi Park uprisings, two newspapers were selected for each category: Star and Yeni Safak as pro-government, Hurriyet and Milliyet as neutral, Sozcu and Cumhuriyet as oppositionist. Newspapers’ coverage of the uprisings during the period of May 27 to June 16, when the uprisings were at their peak, were analyzed through the content analysis method. Results showed that the newspapers tried to manipulate the public opinion based on their political stances. Pro-government newspapers portrayed the events as “demonstration” to degrade the impact, whereas the opposition newspapers presented them as “riot” to boost the participation. Accordingly, the pro-government newspapers mostly preferred the photographs of police officers as “public heroes against vandalism”, while the opposition newspapers largely favored the pictures of protesters as “champions of democracy against dictatorship”. Newspapers taking a neutral stance often emphasized the negative effects of chaos on economy.

215-223

Authors: Durdana Khosa, Shawwal Sharif, Mehwish Malghani

In Pakistan, where English is taught as a foreign language, students often take control of their own learning in order to become self-regulated learners. The aim of this research was to explore the phenomenon of Self-correction, its frequency and the feature of language that was mostly corrected by undergraduate learners in their speaking skills. The research in this regard followed a mixed method approach in which both Qualitative and Quantitative methods were opted. Data was collected from BS and Master’s students of English department of Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University Quetta. Sampling was done through the technique of convenience sampling. The research tool was a speech activity in which the participants were assigned a topic on which they spoke for (2) minutes and their speech was recorded and transcribed. The theoretical model that supported this study was Krashen’s (1982) monitor hypothesis in which the learners gave their utterance a more polished look by applying theSelf-correction technique. Through data analysis, it was revealed that 37% of mistakes were corrected by the students while 63% were not corrected by them while speaking. Moreover, grammatical category was mostly corrected and the least corrected category was that of pronunciation. The findings determined that monitor’s role is minor in the speaking skills of the students, as Krashen himself asserted that it is used by the speakers only to correct the mistakes of their ordinary speech in order to give it a more refined form.

235-241

Authors: Talal Al-Matter

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was founded in 1981 by the six countries of the Gulf Region. The GCC aims to increase levels of collaboration, integration and interdependence between its members in various economic, social and legislative fields. It also seeks to establish a common foreign policy. With its members having much in common in political, socioeconomic and demographic areas, the GCC has been able to achieve substantial cooperation. All Member States of the GCC are monarchies, governed by a King, Emir or Sultan and it should be noted that there are slight variations in the levels of freedom and political participation in each State. Economically, all GCC countries rely on natural energy resources such as gas and oil which have made them rich countries. Their economies have benefited from selling natural resources, enabling them to provide free public services to their citizens. Despite some demographic and sectarian diversity, Islam is the official religion in all GCC Member States. Saudi Arabia plays a central role among GCC members, hosting the organization’s Headquarters in Riyadh. Moreover, it has the largest population of GCC countries and the largest economy due to its size and the scale of resources, as well as the geopolitical importance of its location. The Saudi Kingdom is also the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil, possessing one-quarter of the world’s oil reserves, equivalent to more than 260 million barrels of crude oil.1Saudi Arabia has the fourth-largest military budget in the world, behind the USA, China and Russia

250-260

Authors: Severino G. Alviento, Marife D. Alviento

This study aimed to determine the extent of observance of the cultural practices of the tribal communities in the Upland municipalities of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. The respondents of this study were the federated officials of the tribal communities in Ilocos Sur, Philippines. This study employed the descriptive survey research with a questionnaire as an instrument in data gathering. The researchers’ findings and conclusions are as follows: Despite the fact that people are now living in the modern age, the tribal communities still preserved some of their cultural practices. Much of the value system being practiced by the tribal communities since the early days is still presently observed. The traditional justice system is sometimes observed by them. Their observance of value system and traditional justice system brings some degree of prosperity to their families and community. In the political arena,the upland areas in the Upland areas of Ilocos Sur, Philippines are better prepared as a result of observance and institutionalization of their value system and traditional justice system and also improve their social lives. It is recommended by the researchers that the tribal communities should try to understand the wisdom of their cultural practices which they inherited from their ancestors. They should retain what is good and beneficial, but should not follow the dogma or have no scientific meaning and relevance.

270-279

Authors: Oluwatoyin Abiola Dedeigbo, Ebinepre Cocodia (Ph.D)

Similar to the global scenario, domestic violence (DV) is a public health problem even in Australia. Although the mental health effects of domestic violence are well established, there is a dearth of literature about the demographic characteristics of frontline workers and their preference of therapeutic approaches in engaging with victims of domestic violence from Australia’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities. Data was collected about the demographics and preference for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Person Centred Therapy (PCT) therapeutic approaches from a sample of N=60 frontline workers associated with medical organisations in New South Wales (Australia). A MANOVA was used to test for an association between the demographic characteristics of the frontline workers and preference for CBT or PCT based therapeutic approaches. The results of the multivariate tests did not find the main effects of any of the demographic factors to be significantly associated with a preference for CBT and PCT based therapeutic approaches. However, follow-up tests indicated that the PCT Perception Score was significantly different by gender and years of experience of the respondent. The findings from the study can be used by policy makers and other researchers to formulate domestic violence educational packages for frontline workers customized according to their gender, years of experience and preference for certain therapeutic approaches.

290-296

Authors: Narmatha V Jayabal

Cheiloscopy is a method of identification of a person based on characteristic arrangement of lines appearing on the red part of lips. The prime objective of the present study was to ascertain whether lip prints behold the potential for determination of gender of an individual from the configuration and to determine whether digitalization of the lip prints would improve the visualization and evaluation of the same. The study was conducted on undergraduate students, between the age group of 18-24. A total of 160 students were included. Three co-investigators collected the impression of lip prints from each student. Three other co- investigators, who were blinded to the data collected, predicted the gender of the print. The collected data was randomly divided into two groups, Group I: Manual evaluation, Group II: Digital evaluation. The results of the study showed that the overall accuracy of gender prediction from the lip print pattern was 83.75% i.e. 134 of the 160 were correctly identified as males or females. The accuracy of gender determination in Group II (Digital) was better than Group I (Manual) but, this difference was statistically insignificant (p>0.05). Lip pattern Type I, I′ and II were more common in females and Type III and IV were more common in males, which is in accordance to previous studies. Within the limitations of the study, it can be concluded that lip prints were an invaluable tool in gender identification and also that the use of digital enhancement of the lip print images improved the quality and efficiency of the pattern analysis, ease in identification and recording of the lip print pattern.

307-317

Authors: E.W.M.S. BOYAGODA

This research seeks to explore the news coverage of environmental issues in Sri Lankan newspapers in three languages; The Sunday Times, Irida Lankadeepa, and Virakesari Warawaliyeedu. In order to carry out the objectives of the research, qualitative and quantitative methodology were employed. The researcher tries to find the answers to the problem whether Sri Lankan newspapers cover sufficiently environmental issues. Primary data were collected through content analysis. The agenda setting approach was the theoretical framework for the study. The research concluded that Sri Lankan newspapers do cover environmental issues, though the subject matter did not receive much coverage. Although environmental issues are not covered sufficiently in these three newspapers, it is concluded that The Sunday Times newspaper covered the highest environmental articles by contract to other two newspapers; Irida Lankadeepa and Virakesari Warawaliyeedu in 2014. The ways of prominence given for environmental issues in these three newspapers were different considerably. In terms of the extent of coverage, types of environmental issues, level of prominence (nature of the story, item, placement, space and trends), it is evident that The Sunday Times newspaper has given the significant representation or considerable coverage for environmental related issues than other two other newspapers. In Irida Lankadeepa and Virakesari Warawaliyeedu, environmental issues were not only ignored, but also (if covered) they were given very small portions of the newspaper and marginalized in relation to their presentation.

329-335

Authors: Saseela Balagobei

Ownership structure is one of the main dimensions of corporate governance. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of institutional ownership and individual ownership on dividend policy of listed plantation companies in Sri Lanka. Fifteen listed plantation companies were selected as a sample by using random sample method and secondary data was collected from the annual report of listed plantation companies in Sri Lanka during the period of 2010-2014. This study considers institutional ownership and individual ownership as independent variables and dividend policy as dependent variable which is measured by dividend payout ratio. For the purpose of analysis, multiple regressions and Pearson’s correlation analysis were performed. The results reveal that institutional ownership and individual ownership have no impact on dividend policy.

345-356

Authors: Basel M. Al-Eideh

One of the most important functions of economists is to provide information on the future of prices, which is important to plan for human activities. There is a considerable interest in stochastic analogs of classical differences and differential equations describing phenomena in theoretical models involving economic structure. In this paper, a description of growth price model using a solution of stochastic differential equation is considered. More specifically, the growth price process follows a Geometric progression with growth rate follow a birth and death diffusion process with random external jump process is studied. The mean and the variance approximation, as well as the predicted and the simulated sample path of such a growth price process are also obtained. Numerical examples for the case of no jumps as well as the case of the occurrence of jump process that follow a uniform and exponential distributions are considered.