lap lambert academic publishing jan 2013 (952 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Poverty is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. The poor are not a homogeneous group. Various approaches to defining poverty can lead to identification of different groups of poor. Therefore, a holistic approach is needed to deal with the problem of poverty. However, countries with widespread poverty face financial and other resource constraints. This may require setting priorities in terms of dealing with various dimensions of poverty, which may not be easy given the fact that various dimensions of poverty are closely linked with each other. Therefore, it is a daunting challenge for each country to formulate an effective poverty reduction strategy according to its own needs and circumstances. In line to this fact poverty is multidimensional, the unidimensional approach is not always sufficient to account for all the facets of this phenomenon. A multidimensional analysis therefore becomes necessary if we truly want to identify the poor, as well as the strategies to combat this burden.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 64 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -'Official relations between the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) newly began after the establishment of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) in 1999. Before that we can not talk about formal relations between the two organizations'. So in this Book, we will describe the historical development of EU-NATO relations from post-Cold War (1990) until the Berlin Plus agreement in 2002, and will analyze this agreement which is considered as the core of the relationship between the two organizations. In addition, we will examine the military missions which were carried out under Berlin Plus agreemnt (Operation Concordia, which took place in the former Yugoslavs Republic of Macedonia in March 2003) and (Operation Althea, which took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004), in order to understand if the Berlin Plus agreement applied or not, and to know whether there was real cooperation between them or not.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 104 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -As part of social mission, there is the need to assist the poor in generating employment and income to reduce poverty and hunger. The aim of this book is to examine the processing practices of small scale palm oil and to improve the value for premium price. The proposed recommendations should contribute to further research and improvement on palm oil processing and marketing to break the vicious cycle of poverty through entrepreneurship for economic development. Research was undertaken through World Vision International in Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District of Ghana.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The mass media, through their structure and orientation, influence political contests between actors. By providing access to different groups , individuals and institutions, the media contribute to domestic empowerment or disempowerment in democratisation. Through issues raised and organisations used as sources of news, human rights influenced the coverage of democratisation in Nigeria as evinced by the discourses on the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and the Ogoni crisis in 1995. This study makes a powerful case for the theorisation of democratisation in Nigeria between 1990 and 1999 as a communication process. The author argues stridently that theorisation of democratisation as a communication process contributes to our knowledge of the relationship between human rights, media and politics in the context of Nigeria.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 80 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Limited research has been conducted to explore the layout structure of service organizations. This study explores the present layout of a bank¿ the largest service sector industry in the context of Bangladesh. Using observation techniques and a survey questionnaire, the findings of the study determines that the existing layout features of the bank is suitable for efficient operations and complies with existing theory in practice. The study has limitations in terms of generalizability and representativeness and has been recommended for future research using more sample organizations.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 64 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Customer retention in the banking industry is becoming extremely prevalent as it is being employed to keep existing customers from switching to other banks and to sell them more services.However, empirical studies regarding the determinants of customer switching behavior in commercial banks in Ethiopia in general and in Mekelle Town in particular is understudied. The objective of the book is,therefor, to investigate the determinants of customer switching behavior and examine the effects of price, reputation, service quality,advertisement, involuntary switching, distance and switching cost on customer decision to stay or switch their banks.To examine the relationship between dependent and independent variables and to determine the relative importance of variables, the binary logistic regression model is employed.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Soil erosion has been one of the major problems undermining agricultural production in Ethiopia. Consequently, efforts are being made by the government to tackle the adverse effect of soil erosion via Food-for-Work and Cash-for-Work programs. However, the existing literature shows that the achievements of such programs are far from the expectations. Does such an experience mean that there is no hope for soil conservation practices in Ethiopia Absolutely it is doubtful, the problem could have been rather, the campaigns that have been undertaken in Ethiopia for soil conservation practices have failed to consider local peoples¿ willingness to pay for such projects from the very initiation of conservation measures. This motivates that, adequate understanding of the socio economic circumstances is required to determine the household¿s soil conservation demand behavior and the factors that determine their willingness to pay for it. Hence, this book explores the value that the rural households have attached to soil conservation measure using the non marketed valuation technique called Contingent valuation method.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The study concerns the interface of resource based conflicts and their impact on pastoral livelihood with reference to the Basongora pastoral community who have been at the centre of land conflicts as they claim ancestral rights to ownership of Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP)and other neighboring pasturelands. This conflict has not only affected human race but also the environmental race. The study specifically established resources and how they have precipitated conflicts; the effects of the conflict; challenges involved in resolving this conflict and livelihood strategies and resolution mechanisms adopted. The findings revealed that,resource based conflicts have negatively impacted on pastoral livelihood and conservation as well. QINP conservation policies have not considered effective coexistence between the park and the pastoral community. The Government of Uganda could use this work to create a ground of building trust as an approach to reconcile conflicting parties. Policy makers and practitioners will be aided by this book to generate appropriate policies and guidelines towards addressing resource based conflicts in developing countries and the world at large.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book explains the main characteristics of and prerequisites for coordination between monetary and public debt management policies in Croatia and evaluates current practice, particularly during recession years. Attention is drawn to the importance of coordination for achieving macroeconomic stability and to the main problems and challenges obstructing successful coordination. It is assessed that the Croatian National Bank (CNB) has consistently contributed to improving coordination, despite the narrowing of its room for manoeuvre. Notwithstanding some contribution to coordination made by the Government and Ministry of Finance, they must take measures and employ instruments to make more significant adjustments and, together with the CNB, define an optimum fiscal and monetary policy mix for the future that will ensure stable economic growth. This paper gives an overview of major CNB measures aimed at facilitating the public debt management and improving coordination with the Ministry of Finance. It also points to a certain contribution of the Ministry of Finance to the coordination improvement, indicating major barriers to effective coordination.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 72 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Bangladesh is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. Bangladesh is a part of humid tropic, with the Himalayas in the north and the funnel shaped coast touching the Bay of Bengal in the south. This peculiar geography of Bangladesh brings not only the life giving monsoons but also catastrophic ravages of cyclones, tornadoes and floods. Over the last two decades these disasters have become regular phenomena contributed miserable suffering to millions of inhabitants who are vulnerable to the climatic shocks. In other words, climate risk for Bangladesh is relatively higher than most other countries of the world.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 92 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book introduces new dimensions in pension fund management. It provides a detailed discussion of the critical success factors in pension fund management namely: governance, regulations, investment strategy, pension fund risk management and ethics. The book bases its conclusions on well researched articles and reknown books. At the end of every chapter is a well conceptualized summary and a list of sources for the interested reader. Both academicians and practitioners will find the book a useful resource.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 120 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Nowadays, one of the biggest challenges for managers in the hotel industry is to provide and sustain customer satisfaction. However, maintaining sustainable customer satisfaction cause a lot of money per year to provide and fulfill the factors and hotel characteristics as the medium to increase the number of consumers, the service provider can save their money and make a right decision in their investment. Hotel managers have a problem of properly knowing the major attributes of quality service antecedents that have brining sustainable satisfaction for their customers. The problem might be lack of knowledge in identifying which service quality attribute need due consideration to overcame high level of their customer satisfaction. How can the hotelier recognize any attributes which have their most effect in enhancing the satisfaction levels of their customers Hence, it is important for the hotelier to seriously recognize the importance of service improvement for their business. The hotel management should consider any element or factor to fulfill their customer satisfaction. The main point to be discussed here is how this quality services can ensure customers satisfaction.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 76 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is being used as an improving method in MMS and as a guideline in highlighting the weak points in the erformance and finding the suitable procedures to overcome them to achieve the customers' satisfaction. Medical devices can be categorized as critical and non critical; the critical device is the one whose failure causes big loss in the service's efficiency and the non critical is the one whose failure causes moderate loss in the service's efficiency. Through this research, the performance of Medical Devices Maintenance Systems (MDMS) in Prince Hamzeh Hospital (PHH) was investigated and stustudied to find appropriate solutions aiming to make the medical device more available, more reliable and more reproducible. A sample size of 903 operators' questionnaires has been used to perform this study in PHH. Full descriptive analysis was performed and analyzed, as well as the QFD requirements were employed to build the new required system. A comparison was made between PHH and the Specialty Hospital (SH) to benchmark its performance and measure how much PHH is away from achieving its targets.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 104 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The aim of this book is to shed light over the relationship between aid organizations and quality assurance. More specifically, we aim to identify the challenges with quality assurance work in the context of Swedish party affiliated organizations. We have studied the process of quality assurance work in aid organizations, namely the Swedish party affiliated organizations, PAOs. During this process we have examined three of the organizations more closely, all of which have been in different stages of implementation. We have conducted a number of interviews with key individuals related to this process. From our empirics we identified a wide range of challenges which we narrowed down into six areas in our analysis. However, the most central aspect in our conclusion is the definition of quality. It is crucial for the entire quality assurance process that a common definition of quality is established among all involved participants. The definition of quality is the underlying variable that when identified defines all other parts of the quality assurance process and is also the key factor when solving the equation of each challenge.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The aim of this project is first to understand the meaning, nature, justifiability and enforceability of Second Generation Human Rights i.e. Economic, Social & Cultural (ESC) rights in post-cold war era of cut backs, social and economic retrenchment, de-industrialization and global restructuring. In this era, Human rights and in particular, the state responsibility to implement ESC Rights has thus become critically important both as counter dialogical tools and effective claims on society. The proscriptive, descriptive and prescriptive aspect of economic and social rights stipulated in different international instruments and the institutional and supervisory framework set up under those instruments are discussed here in details. The project also analyzes various aspects of ESC rights such as the international instruments dealing with ESC rights; the problems and pitfalls associated with the implementation of ESC rights; the promotional aspect of ESC rights or how the ESC rights can be promoted and finally relations between ESC rights and Millennium Development Goals.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 76 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In developing countries, FDI is often seen as an important driver for economic growth. It effects the economic growth through transferring innovative technology, promoting domestic investment, enhancing human capital formations, reducing technology gap between local and foreign firms, boost domestic saving and promote financial system. This effect of FDI can only materialized if host countries have sufficient level of human capital, educations, strong financial system and greater level of absorptive capacity of innovative technologies. FDI in Pakistan now consider the major source of external capital to meet the obligations of economic resources. This book is very helpful for economists, students of macro economics, Politicians and all those persons who are interested in economics of Pakistan.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The aim of this book is to contribute to the knowledge of how Finnish multinational companies do business in Brazil, with a perspective of local subsidiary employees. Differences in local business and cultural context are in this case, the catalyst to look at the management practises of Finnish MNCs active in Brazil. The theoretic part concentrates on studying management from the part of control, business communication within the MNC, as well as cultural traits in Brazil and Finland. In a time where emerging markets gain importance for MNCs, and lead in growth, this study speaks for the knowledge that lies within the local subsidiary, business, and cultural context. Awareness and understanding of the former are crucial to empower strategically sound management practises as well as facilitate decision making.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 104 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Margaret Mitchell was the most successful novelist of the mid-20th century. The veteran novelist, who made history with her only novel, Gone With The Wind, had been a reporter earlier. It was more than a decade before she entered the immortal fictive world, she had been working round the clock to leave a mark in the field of journalism, which is probably known to very few. She had been reporting for Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine in her hometown Atlanta from 1922 to 1926 for four and a half years. The current study has been carried out to find out if people, who know her as a novelist, are aware about her reporting career as well. It also tried to explore whether and how she can be a role model for female journalists and if any of her messages hold relevance at present. The study concluded that most of her messages, particularly women-centric, hold relevance even today, when women, though empowered to some extent, face similar problems as were faced during Margaret Mitchell¿s time.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Harmful bacteria are the most common cause of food- and waterborne illnesses. Infection often leads to bloody diarrhoea, and occasionally to kidney failure. Several strains of the bacteria Escherichia coli produce a powerful toxin which causes serious illness. Food and water can be contaminated with other bacteria like Salmonella, Coliform, Pseudomonas, etc. Hence, it has become important to rapidly detect and identify infectious bacteria. Colloidal luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals or quantum dots (QDs) have elicited a great deal of interest in the biosensing community due to their unique fluorescent properties. Here ZnS¿:¿Mn2+ QDs are synthesised and biofunctionalised with chitosan. They are attached to the anionic cell wall of E. coli bacteria and different properties of this compound system are studied. These nanocrystals may offer cost effective and quicker alternative to detect single bacterium compared to other conventional methods. Several characterization methods are discussed. The particle size calculated is approximately 8-10¿nm. The blue shift of PL peak has been observed after the bacteria get attached.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 76 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This is a three-essay research work that examines the effects of objective aspects of business organizational culture and the region on objective measures of the outcomes of sustainable competitive advantage. The first essay examines the association of objective aspects of business organizational culture on objective measures of sustainable competitive advantage. The first essay recommends that firms increase the number of training hours devoted annually to each employee and increase the percentage of production employees participating in empowered work teams. The second essay describes a conceptual model and provides recommendations for best business practices for manufacturing firms that realize the ultimate ability to generate competitive advantage when their resources are exposed to global market processes. The third essay explores the link between the firm and the region. This essay recommends economic development policy makers and business leaders to consider new business models that take advantage of regional economies in order to stay competitive.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Most of the research in organizational change was conducted from a macro perspective focused on organizational and cultural concerns rather than adopting a micro perspective focused on individuals¿ cognitive concerns (Judge, Thoresen, Pucik, & Welbourne, 1999; Vakola, Tsaousis, & Nikolaou, 2003; Wanberg & Banas, 2000). Despite the repeated calls from academics for this alternative and promising perspective (Beer, Eisenstat, & Spector 1990; Line, 2005; Eneroth & Larsson, 1996, Werhane, 1998), studies with a micro focus still remain relatively limited in the field of organizational change and development (Bray, 1994; Judge et al., 1999; Elias, 2009). A number of theories (see Seo and Hill, 2005 for an overview), such as transformational leadership (Judge et al., 1999), made some advancement at the micro-level, nevertheless, there is still much to be discovered with this perspective (Elias, 2009). More especially, studies adopting a more psychological focus could shed some light on the role and impact of employees¿ reactions in determining the success of organizational change initiatives (Elias, 2009; Judge et al., 1999; Vakola, Tsaousis & Nikolaou, 2003).Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 52 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Alice N. Kahuthu work with Nairobi City Council in the HRM Department. She has a Msc in HRM. Her area of interest is HR Training & Development. She was very instrumental in the writing of the of the manuscript of this book. WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS BOOK The content of this book prepares men and women for a dynamic and rewarding career in business environment. This book is based on research on the Role of HR managers in BPR with special focus to Nairobi City Council. All persons will benefit, including all students,practicing and aspiring managers and non managers who have a knuckle for HRM. This book is prescription for all organizations, both business and non business firms including; government, social service institutions and non-profit-making organizations.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Tourism development plays an important role in enhancing economies.The purpose of this research is to identify the perceptions of residents in the Mabul Island towards the impacts of tourism development. Two different community respondents were selected using a random sampling technique to complete a survey instrument. Personal observation was also carried out to observe the nature of host-guest interactions at this area. Model suggested by Butler 1975 use in the present study was valid and reliable in predicting host residents¿ interactive behavior with tourists.Survey findings reveal that Suluk People at stage 'Passive-positives: passively agreeing with and accepting something' toward tourism development.For Palao people, they are in stage ¿Passive-negative: resigned acceptance of something one disagrees with¿, however they still view the tourism more in a positive way.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book aims to identify how industrial companies should use sales configurators in enhancing the sales-to-delivery processes of their system products. Sales configurators are needed, in particular, with highly configurable system products, as management of the numerous options would otherwise become significantly complex. Academically, the study aims to provide new insights into system product sales configuration, while managerially, the objective is to provide recommendations on how companies, and especially the case company, should use sales configurators to achieve efficient system product configuration. The main outcome of this thesis was the construction of a theoretical framework for identifying suitable actions to enhance system sales configuration with given sales configurator type. This framework suggested both short- and long-term actions for overcoming the existing sales configuration challenges, and could thus be used as both a starting point for further research on the topic. In addition, the case company was given specific short- and long-term recommendations on how to enhance system product sales configuration practices.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 108 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -A major problem that confronts many urban areas in the world is the provision of potable water on constant basis. One reason for this occurrence is the inability of service providers to meet the growing demand partly is attributable to ineffective pricing which is below cost recovery levels. In this study we investigate household¿s willingness to pay for improved water provision together with the factors that determine households willingness to pay using the contingent valuation method (CVM) and the ordered probit econometric model. The study used a cross section data collected from a sample of 315 households drawn from different areas in the Accra-Tema metropolis through a discrete choice with follow-up elicitation format using face-to-face interview. Results from our analysis indicated that, households in the Accra-Tema metropolis are prepared to pay on the average about 7 times more than what they are paying currently. Policy recommendation emanating from the study is that, governments should improve on water infrastructure and consequently water supply and increase tariffs since people are prepared to pay more for improved water supply.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 116 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book is the research of the relationship between asset liquidity and leverage. It is applied to privatised firms in Serbia that have been privatised in 2004 though auction. For the purpose of this research, seven industries were analysed. To see whether the relationship between asset liquidity and leverage is changed when privatised firms became free to dispose their assets, the relationship between asset liquidity and leverage is examined in the first year after privatisation, while privatised firms were still under control by the Privatisation Agency and therefore their assets were securing the debt. Then the same is done in the fourth year after privatisation, when there was no control over privatised firms by the Privatisation Agency and their debt was unsecured. The main conclusion from this research is that, in most industries, the asset liquidity is not linearly related to the leverage. Moreover, in almost all industries the relationship between asset liquidity and leverage did not change in the fourth year after privatisation. Finally, in case of Serbian privatised companies, the ownership structure is not related to the leverage.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The Afar are a pastoral community that live in the North Eastern Part of Ethiopia. Because of their predominantly pastoral way of life, they have an indigenous, unique information exchange system called Dagu. The Dagu is an oral, interpersonal communication performance done as a ritual by the members of the Afar ethnic group in Ethiopia. It is held in a highest of regards by the Afar due to the fact that their livelihood is very much dependent on the information they get from Dagu. They get any current information ranging from weather to availability of grazing lands for their cattle. Studying such indigenous knowledge systems and making sure that they are taken seriously in the entire processes of human development is not a common sight in the world of academia these days. Therefore, by doing such study, the author hopes to make sure that unique indigenous systems like Dagu are studied and stored systematically.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 72 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Government of India, in order to usher indirect tax reforms, intends to introduce Goods and Service Tax (GST) in India. Under GST system a tax on goods and services, is levied at each point of sale of goods, supply of goods along with provision of services. Introduction and implementation GST will be a major breakthrough in the taxation history of India. If implemented properly, GST can help in widening of tax base in India. Despite its ambitious project and mammoth task of tax reform, in GST regime, goods and services are not differentiated as they move through the supply chain. GST is levied on the value added at each stage of sale and purchase or supply with an inbuilt credit mechanism such that the tax is a pass through for businesses, and the tax burden is borne by the ultimate customer. With the introduction of GST, the responsibility to collect tax on goods and services from customers will become the responsibility of sellers or service providers. Before depositing the collected tax to the exchequer, sellers and service providers deduct the tax they have already paid during the course of purchase of goods and service aimed for value creation.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 68 pp. Englisch.