Management Arts

This paper advances research on strategic entrepreneurship and small firm competitiveness from the Resource-Based perspective. Several scholars have explained the Resource-Based View mainly in the context of the large firms. The paper considers a review of literatures on strategic entrepreneurship and the Resource-Based View and contends small firms lack resources compared with the large ones, however, their “opportunity-seeking” activities is a rare resource. It is opined an understanding of the interactions of these concepts, that is, the simultaneous pursuit of “opportunity- and advantage-seeking” positions is critical for small firms that operate in dynamic competitive environments to create and sustain competitive advantages.

The present study attempts to make a descriptive research on the employee training in different industries selected for the study. It is intended to develop an understanding and to build up a theory to the extent possible, on the different aspects of employee training. The main aim of the research is to study the existing employee training practices of public and private sector industries selected by the researcher.

The study has been done on the basis of survey questionnaire in the Engineering departments (under graduate) of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur to measure the current or baseline departmental performance level. The feedback for this survey questionnaire has been considered independently for service providers such as administrators, faculties, other supporting staff as well as students who receive these services and are direct customers. A total of 116 persons have been surveyed from the 6 randomly selected departments out of 10 departments. The baseline or current performance level of the departments has been assessed based on the coefficient of variation (CV%) level through quantification of the survey questionnaire consisting of eight enablers. Each enabler contains several questions or drivers. A total of 75 drivers have been arrived for 8 enablers. A seven-point scale has been designed for each driver ranging from “Unsatisfactory” to “Outstanding”. To identify the weak areas for a department, the vital few drivers that correspond to “Unsatisfactory” performance have been found to take necessary remedial measures for attaining the new benchmark Coefficient of Variation level (CV%) under the present techno-economic set up.

Social Intelligence, an emerging new science with startling implications for our interpersonal world. If the purpose of education is to teach students skills they need to be well-prepared for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness...and most likely the pursuit of gainful employment, then teaching social skills must be a crucial part of education. There are new requirements of today’s and tomorrow’s social leaders and members, and they all demand social intelligence.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) exist to satisfy human needs, which are unfulfilled by other social, economic and political institutions. Business sector avoids operations in those areas where it suffers loss while public sector does not have access due to its financial limitations or other priorities like defense building, regional and international politics. However, NGOs in developing world are growing quickly in numbers and areas, but to a large extent, their potentials are still unutilized because of funding limitations, their own institutional weakness and governments’ skepticism towards the role of NGOs. This paper discusses the fund raising techniques for NGOs on financial autonomy and alternative grant making as well as self-financing possibilities.

Recession means a slowdown or slump or temporary collapse of a business activity. Now global meltdown led to job lay-offs across the world. Although India has been directly impacted by the global financial crisis. During recession Major projects and expansion plans are being reviewed by the banking sector and them focusing on reducing costs and borrowings. The biggest problem is ‘Information asymmetry’ in recession. The challenge faced by Indian banks during recession is to ensure a balance between inflation and growth. If our economy experiences high growth rates, it will lead to major exports from our nation which will affect our domestic market and if economy experiences a decline in the inflation rate, it will lead to major imports to our country which will affect the budget. Though the impact of global financial crisis on India is stronger than expected, it will be the first to recover if the Government takes correct decisions and changes the established fiscal and monetary policies. The wholesale price index and the consumer price index need to be watched. The banks should ensure continuous credit flow at a low rate of interest to the private sector and especially to small and medium enterprises for their expansion and the growth projects. Crisis has caused panic in financial markets and encouraged investors to take their money out of risky mortgage bonds and equities and put it into commodities as “stores of values”.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the different perspectives of the roles played by the maquiladora in Central America as a lever of economic growth and social development in the region. Maquiladoras are industries that import materials and equipment, perform assembly or manufacturing processes, then re-export the finished goods to other countries. After a brief historical review of the maquiladoras emergence in the Central America region, the context is analyzed to underline the legal regime of temporal import and legal regime of managerial oriented free zone or fiscal precinct. Afterwards, the impacts that the maquiladoras have had in the regional economic growth and employment generation under the variable of the Asian competence is analyzed. After the discussion, prospective scenarios are analyzed and several strategies are recommended, including the promoting and creation of maquiladoras that go beyond the competitive advantage of cheap human labor. The Central America countries must design and implement strategies of diversification of the maquiladora development process in industrial sectors that require greater added value and technological innovation.

Present study aims to provide a thorough analysis of the various factors that are likely to affect tourism. The general perception is that terrorism is directly linked to the tourism industry and a rise in terrorism the security threat in Pakistan has resulted in the decline of the tourism industry. Therefore, it is necessary for the government to deal with the problem. The study analyzes the various factors effecting tourism and takes terrorism into focus. The concept is new and it surfaced initially during the 1970s. Through various research tools and techniques, we shall try to find the reasons behind the current state of affairs regarding the travel and tourism industry in Pakistan. The research aims to critically analyze the factors affecting the situation and to suggest a concrete solution to the problem through thorough analysis. The sample of the research consists of over 70 respondents that include the respondents from Pakistan as well as those from foreign countries. The research aims to provide a domestic as well as an international perspective on the state of tourism in Pakistan.

This research will explore conceptual framework of Globalization and subsequently discuss how Globalization affected contemporary work organization in general and Indian work organization located in special economic zones (sezs) in particular.This research is an exploratory qualitative study. It is based on extensive review of literature summing up the findings on the topic in question. Finally an answer to the issues discussed in the systematic literature review has been suggested at the conclusion.

This article studies the problems and obstacles impeding the development of tourism industry in Iran focusing on marketing and promotion. For this purpose, it initially deals with the literature of tourism and marketing and then the importance of the research is expressed. After the data was collected and analyzed, the following items were identified as main obstacles to the development of tourism industry in Iran: lack of promotion in Iran’s attractions in target markets; inefficiency of national and international transportation facilities and systems; low quality of services such as hospitality and entertainment facilities; International negative publicity against Iran and insufficient training of people who are involved in the country’s tourism industry. The results from the research indicated that lack of promotions in the target markets (outside Iran) has become an obstacle to attracting tourists to Iran and negative untrue publicity against Iran launched by some international communities has become an obstacle to attracting tourists to the country. It was also confirmed that lack of suitable accommodations and recreation/entertainment facilities has become an obstacle to attracting tourists to Iran and the low quality of transportation in the country has become an obstacle to attracting tourists to Iran.