Volume 10 (2018): Issue 2 (June 2018)

Objective: Design a decision-making model for the development of new products in the fishing cooperative societies of the community Las Arenitas, Eldorado, Sinaloa.

Methodology: In accordance with the methodology used, it was classified as qualitative. A case study was carried out in the „Jose Luis Castro Verduzco” fishing cooperative located in Sinaloa, Mexico, where a series of open questions were applied to obtain the opinion of the manager and secretary about the decision making process.

Findings: The lack of clarity in the role of the actors in the decision-making process and their specific steps when developing new products was identified. Knowledge about the use of tools is limited, mainly due to the low levels of preparation of managers and members of the cooperative, as well as the lack of knowledge of the processes for the development of new products.

Value Added: The study allowed identifying the need for design a method that guides the manager and members of the fishing cooperative in the community of Las Arenitas Eldorado, Sinaloa, towards activities that generate added value in primary products and reduce uncertainty in the decision-making process for the development of new products caused by changes in the needs of the consumer market.

Value Added: The study allowed identifying the need for design a method that guides the manager and members of the fishing cooperative in the community of Las Arenitas Eldorado, Sinaloa, towards activities that generate added value in primary products and reduce uncertainty in the decision-making process for the development of new products caused by changes in the needs of the consumer market.

Recommendations: The use of a decision-making process is of vital importance for the administration since it contributes to assess, analyze and control situations to choose the best option for the company. Within this project the fishing cooperative has a lot of growth potential, for this reason the implementation of methods such as: The ordered weighted averaging operators OWA or multicriteria analysis for decision making in the development of new products.

Objective: This paper aims at looking at the mechanisms of rector’s appointment in public higher education institutions in Poland based on the analysis of the legislation binding since 2005 with reference to the latest changes.

Methodology: Legislative analysis of the past and current regulations on the models of rector’s election was conducted, including mechanisms of nominating candidates in the Act on Higher education 2005, its amendments in 2011 and the Act on Higher education and Science in 2018. Literature review and empirical analysis of good practices were used.

Findings: The issue of strengthening a rector’s position and professionalizing university management in the system of higher education is very important and being widely discussed in terms of governance reforms. Changes, new regulations, reforms depend on how they are implemented on the institutional level in terms of their strategical development and how they are supported and promoted by the executive head.

The model of nominating and appointing the rector determines his relationship with the university board, senate and with academic community as well. In public higher education institutions in Poland the competition model is more burdensome than the model of election, it has numerous disadvantages and threats, and wasn’t applied by any university. New regulations in Poland make the process of nomination more important than before. In general, there are two main models of nominating candidates: an open procedure (open competition) and a closed one (e.g. searching, headhunting for senior executive staff in HR, in business sphere), each has their own strengths and weaknesses. In case of HEIs, both respect the principles of institutional autonomy, guaranteed to universities by the Polish Constitution and the law. It is an autonomous right of the academic community, of the university itself to define their own framework and nomination procedure. The model of executive search in nominating candidates can become more feasible and effective for professionalizing and improvement of the rector’s governance.

Value Added: The model of rector’s appointment has a significant impact on the whole university performance. By professionalizing appointment mechanisms at all its stages, universities will improve university governance and introduce new quality of management.

Recommendations: New regulations in higher education create possibilities for introducing into the academic practice the executive search as a mechanism for nominating candidates for a rector’s position in Polish universities.

Objective: This is a case study on how a French firm went from Localization to Glocalization from a cross-cultural communication and language perspective.

Methodology: The method used was a case study approach. Lionel Thibaud, the General Manager, Impression et Enregistrement des Résultats (IER) (a French firm) based on the Middle East thought about achievements and challenges faced by the company within the Middle East region over the period of 2007–2013 in relation to various cross-cultural and multi-national issues.

Findings: The problem faced by the decision-makers in this region was how to do business with the different Middle Eastern countries while handling and striking a balance with all varying cultures and customs. In addition, to meet the needs of the customers, a key strategic mission was to establish long-term relationships and collaborations with suppliers and customers. This ‘way of doing business’ was made all the more difficult as the Middle Eastern culture was perceived similar from the outside.

Value Added: Culture in Middle East was a good way to create discussions and healthy debate to understand how to do business in the Middle East and gain a competitive advantage through the relationships that IER developed through trust from the customers. IER Middle East continued to strive successfully on how to do business within the Middle Eastern region in handling and striking a balance with all varying cultures and customs. In addition, to meet the needs of the customers, IER had a long-term mission to establish long-term relationships and collaborations within the Middle East region.

Recommendations: IER Middle East was to continue being the preferred vendor of airlines and airports while providing innovative ideas and solution as well as to continue to offer outstanding customer support.

Objective: Characterize pedagogical innovation in the context of internationalization of French-language education on the example of international study programme in French language - Sales management at the Faculty of Trade of the University of Economics in Bratislava and testing of its attractiveness from the perspective of the relationship between students and educational institution.

Methodology: Article deals with the analysis of the influence of internationalization of the university education within the study programme Management of sale, as well survey of the opinions of its graduates.

Findings: Pedagogical innovation is not only the tool of the educational policy but also creates conditions of the project European term and excellence in the development of Professional competences of the future managers.

Value Added: International study programme in French language overcomes cultural and disciplinary barriers and contributes to offsetting of the national and international differences.

Recommendations: Introducing of pedagogical innovations is the tool of new approaches, strategies, methods, as well as new content and new organization of education to guarantee employability of students on the home and international markets.

Objective: The main purpose of the crowdfunding literature review was to find an answer to the following research questions: do scholars investigating related topics take into account the increasing importance of crowdfunding as a form of funding and resulting economic consequences for SMEs? Is the relevance of crowdfunding in reducing the funding gap taken into consideration? Do studies involve analyses of economic consequences associated with the development of crowdfunding for the banking sector? The research questions we have asked refer to the existing state of knowledge about the extent of crowdfunding-related studies underway. The validity of the subject is due to the fact that crowdfunding is a new form of raising capital in the Culturally-Changing Global Economy.

Methodology: Once we analysed the literature review methodologies, we decided on a stateof- the-art analysis since this method allows to establish the facts for the research and subsequently to propose a new perspective and new directions of research. Due to the necessity to select the right texts on crowdfunding, selection criteria in terms of quantity and quality were defined (scoping review). We reviewed the literature on crowdfunding published between 2010 and 2018 using the following databases: Ebscohost, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Scopus, and BazEkon.

Findings: In literature on the subject, the significance of crowdfunding for businesses at early stages of their growth is emphasized. However, there are very few publications directly about SMEs. Among the articles analyzed, the relevance of crowdfunding in reducing the funding gap and financial exclusion has been emphasized. However, our search for articles about the said phenomenon produced a very small number of such articles, which – considering quite a large number of articles in total – clearly means that this topic is rarely discussed and studied. The aspects associated with the relationships between the banking sector and crowdfunding are discussed in a majority of the articles under analysis, but there is still no empirical research in this area.

Value Added: The literature review carried out allowed us to identify research gaps in such important areas for crowdfunding as funding for the SME sector and relationships between crowdfunding and banking. As opposed to other similar research projects, we do not omit methodological constraints affecting the final results of studies and we suggest solutions allowing for a more in-depth analysis of articles.

Recommendations: A suggested further direction of research concerns the use of the theory of enterprise funding sources in studies of the role of crowdfunding when compared to other forms of fundraising (the theory of alternative and transactional costs) by SMEs. When planning further research, the following needs to be done: 1) To carry out comprehensive research, since all the studies carried out so far were only fragmentary. It particularly applies to relationships between SMEs, the banking sector, and crowdfunding. 2) To extend research according to criteria that allow sources discarded in this research to compare findings.

Objective: to investigate whether Millennials are internally consistent and distinguished cohort in terms of the perception of luxury

Methodology: mixed: the international e-survey results, conducted in 5 different countries (Poland, Portugal, Turkey, Germany and Saudi Arabia, 1193 responses) and 4 FGI, conducted in the groups of younger and older Millennials in Poland and Portugal.

Findings: Millennials demonstrate strong country–specific differences in evaluating luxury value drivers; from avowed hedonic status-seekers (mainly Saudi Arabians), through moderately enthusiastic luxury products admirers (Portuguese, Turkish, Polish) to stand-outs, individualists who contest the overall CVPL as represented mostly by Germans. The evaluation of luxury is not cohort specific but rather a matter of the family and material status strengthened by socio-cultural pressure.

Value Added: Global consumption behavioral patterns regarding luxury are permeated by local cultural influences, but are not global cohorts’ specific, due to their internal cultural, age, income and family status diversity.

Recommendations: Communication strategies in a luxury sector should be adjusted more to the country-specific and less to the specific needs of global cohorts.

Objective: To determine the extent of and the relationship between Job Satisfaction (JS) and Work-Life Balance (WLB) across cultures.

Methodology: European Social Survey (ESS) data 2012 were used to answer the research questions put forth. To organize and make meaning of the data, both descriptive and inferential statistics have been used. Mean scores and standard deviations of job satisfaction and satisfaction with work-life balance (WLB) were computed for all the 29 countries. Correlation analysis was used to discern and test for the correlations among the variables of interest. Independent samples t-test was used to compare countries with high power distance and those with low power distance on job satisfaction and satisfaction with work-life balance (WLB).

Findings: Mean scores of job satisfaction and satisfaction with WLB and correlation coefficients between the two varied across the countries under study as expected. Mean scores of job satisfaction ranged from 6.53 in Ukraine to 8.20 in Denmark. Similarly, mean scores of satisfaction with WLB varied from 6.08 in Russia to 7.65 in Denmark. Pearson’s coefficients of correlation between job satisfaction and satisfaction with WLB varied from .301 in Finland to .667 in Ukraine. Of the six dimensions of culture, only power distance had moderate inverse relationships with both job satisfaction and satisfaction with WLB. Furthermore, as a group, countries with low power distance (PD) had significantly higher job satisfaction than countries with high power distance.

Value Added: The study highlighted the relevance and importance of job satisfaction and satisfaction with WLB in organizations. It also showed the universality and culture-specificity of job satisfaction and satisfaction with WLB.

Recommendations: Managers need to pay attention to enhancing employees’ job satisfaction and satisfaction with WLB to ensure organizational effectiveness regardless of organizational context. Managers also need to employ culturally appropriate managerial strategies in promoting job satisfaction and satisfaction with LWB.