International Journal of Economics & Management Sciences

Implementatation of regional integration continues to face numerius challenges including inadeqaute financial resources. The major sources of finance has been the pleadges coming from member States’ contributions which in most cases have been inedeqaute and not forthcoming, making it very dificult for these institutions to effectively implement regional integration activities and programmes. Efforts are being made at both continental and regional levels to address the challenge of inaduqate financial resources and others. Several alternative sources of financing regional integration activities and programmes have been explored. However, thier implementation remain a challenge to many African member States. In addition to the alternative sources of finance, The African Union has take a board decision on the rationalisation of the RECs, aimed at putting the limmited resources from member States to its effective use. Despite these challenges, progress has been made in a number of areas inducing free movement of people, peace and security, macroeconomic convergence, and trade facilitation, particularly regional payment system which will assist in promoting trade by facilitating payment of goods and services in all regions without difficulties and also at a decreased rate.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the impact of the vision attributes, individually as well as in combinations, on employee satisfaction, and testing the mediating effect of vision sharing. Analysis is based on the data collected from 314 employees working in public, private and development sectors. The study finds that five vision attributes including clarity, brevity, challenge, stability and abstractness have significant effect on employee satisfaction, while effect of two attributes i.e. future orientation and desirability is statistically insignificant. The study has also examined the effect of vision attributes in combinations. Combinations include clarity with brevity, future orientation with desirability and challenge, and stability with abstractness. Effect of all combinations on the employee satisfaction has also been found significant. Similarly, the mediation effect of vision sharing between each combination of vision attributes and the employee satisfaction has also been found significant.

Purpose: This paper on requirement changes and their impact identifies those factors which have influence over standard operation procedures in an organization.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Qualitative and quantitative approaches are described in this paper along with their merits and demerits. Primary data was collected by using questionnaire as instrument. Secondary data was collected from already published literature.
Findings: Outcomes and analysis shows that there is a strong and positive relation between requirement changes in software industry and changes in technical SOPs. The mediating factor of technology culture also play a role in strong and positive relation between requirement changes in projects which are conducting in software industry and changes in technical SOPs.
Practical Implications: This research is designed to uncover the challenges that are faced by IT organizations due to changes in requirements during ongoing processes in projects. This study is of significance importance to IT industry as it will generate such outcomes which if practically implemented can lead to solution of many problems which are troubling the organizations of this industry quite seriously. Originality/Value: Through this empirical study researcher infer that requirements should be collected in complete and precise manner before execution. If there are some changes in the middle of the project then those changes should be addressed through proper mechanism and procedure.

This paper focuses on future sustainable and responsible tourism products in the Northwest of Tunisia and the non-developed, naturally and historically rich zone of the mountain of Jendouba and its 13 villages (douars). The latter can be considered as a big potential for the country to move to a new era of tourism.
The methodology used consists of three stages: to diagnose the selected regions’ potentials, then to conduct a benchmarking evaluation of similar international regions according to specific factors such as positioning strategies applied in the latter, finally, to pinpoint the adequate strategies to be implemented in the Northwest of Tunisia.
The main results conclude that although Tunisia is perceived as a cheap seaside tourism destination, an in-depth diagnosis of the country, which starts with a simple global observation of the Tunisian map, results on several issues leading to structured tourism, new types of tourists’ arrivals to the country looking for alternative tourism products and the impending wealth raise of the selected zones.

In this study an attempt is made to assess the role of micro enterprises creating employment opportunities and income generation opportunity in Timergara District Dir Lower, KPK Pakistan. During the study primary data were collected from the owners of 80 micro enterprises. Questionnaire was used as data collection instruments. For Data analysis descriptive statistical tools such as tables, frequency distribution and percentages, and inferential statistical tools such as regression analysis were used to describe the responses on the role of micro enterprises. The study elaborate that there is some positive growth rate of micro enterprises in Timergara City. Regarding employment creation these micro enterprises created around 4.75 average numbers of employees per micro enterprise. The total number of employees in 80 enterprises was 380 employees. Most of the enterprise owners (42.5%) get average monthly income from Rs.53000 to Rs.89000 and each employee in the enterprise get average income of Rs.11997 per month. The total average monthly sale of 80 enterprises in Timergara City is Rs.61000000. Besides this the enterprises also faced some constraints during start-up time and also face constraints during operation, such as financial shortage, security, high rent and energy shortage. To conclude that, micro enterprises play a great role in reducing unemployment and also play a great role in income generation to the owners and employees. Based on the major findings a number of policy recommendations are drawn. Among these the access to credit, price control, government check and provision of energy is very important for the development of these micro enterprises.

The business environment is becoming increasingly dynamic, complex and unpredictable where technology, globalization and changing competitive approaches impact on overall performance. As a result of this reality, the future of many businesses depends upon their ability to innovate. Innovation is crucial in the current business scenario. From this point of view, the research aims to investigate the characteristics of SMEs concerning their innovation and whether they have developed effective strategies. Moreover, it aims to ascertain which strategies, innovation barriers and types they employ. The data used in this study were mostly retrieved from Albanian Institute of Statistics (INSTAT). The data were also collected through a survey that tests strategies, innovation types and factors influencing innovation for SMEs in Albania. The collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). The results of the study showed that there are some relations between some characteristics of SMEs and strategies, innovation types and barriers.

According to the recent studies the human resource is the most important source and head the company on the right trail to achieve the aims, this paper led to study some factors which its impacting on the human resource existence in the company and their impact on the risk management and the total performance as well, these factors are education, skilled, and the expert human. By using the sample from USIM University and using the regression analysis, have found that there is a huge impact for these factors on the risk management and the company final performance. And that’s reflecting the positive relationship between the study hypothesis and the results.

The importance of the livestock trade to the national economy of Sudan is significant; however, Sudan was adversely affected by the global crisis through a decline in oil and other external receipts. The main objectives of this study is to investigates price movements among important livestock markets in the Sudan to explore their performance and pricing efficiency. The stationarity of data tested using the unit root test and then market integration was tested using bivariate cointegration analysis. The study found strong evidence of cointegration of pairs of markets. The error correction mechanism adjusts significantly to shocks to its equilibrium relationship. The estimated coefficients for ECM were fluctuated between 4% and 24% and significant at 1% level, suggesting slowing adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium. This implies that any shock that forces prices from their long-run value would take a long time for prices to return to their equilibrium, although the speed of adjustment was highest in case of Omdurman on Nyala and lowest in case of Nyala on Elobied, this might be due to supply and demand relation between Nyala and Omdurman in sense that Nyala and Elobied were supply markets. The recent paved roads that linked between the markets might accelerate and facilitated the movement between these markets, in addition to a huge capital that allocated to livestock business recently.

Apparel is considered to be a category where haptic cues play a key role in evaluating product properties, and yet the consumer buying process in said retail channel is hindered by restricted product experience and evaluation due to the intrinsic absence of haptic options. The current research seeks to gain deeper insights into the knowledge and understanding of consumer autotelic and instrumental need for touch (NFT] in the search and purchase stages of buying apparel online. Using a self-reported questionnaire, data were collected from 227 subjects. Results indicate that consumers high in autotelic NFT and instrumental NFT show a lower likelihood to purchase apparel online. Also a significant moderating effect for utilitarian shopping orientation and instrumental NFT on online apparel search and purchase was also found. These findings have important implications for online retailers since overcoming the lack of NFT remains a major obstacle in the adoption of this channel. In addition, directions for future research are suggested.

Negotiations are a means of how to solve conflicts and differences through direct communication. It is a structured process through which parties overcome their differences and conflicts trying to reach an agreement about which solution will be acceptable to all. The basic meaning of negotiations is to obtain what you want from others.
In this work the principal aspects of negotiations are being discussed, as one of the key business processes and an essential source of competitive advantage. The work attempts to show how one should behave in negotiations, the manner of acting of both opposing parties, in order to achieve the negotiation objectives. In addition, we shall see to get more closely acquainted with the negotiation skills, how to mutually negotiate and to help understand what happens when it comes to more complex situations than those with which every one of us is faced. In the beginning we shall demonstrate the very concept of negotiations and we shall point to how one ought to prepare oneself for them and how to set the objectives. The assessment of the expression of standpoints, their presentation as well as reconciling the divergent positions is the principal segments on which this work rests.

In this paper, we demonstrate that although the housing price and house price-to-income ratio can undergo a very large rise, the burden of repaying a mortgage might decrease due to a reduction in the interest rate. In order to check if burden on house buyers increases or decreases, we suggest calculating and depicting "equal repayment curves". These curves represent a borrower's equal periodical repayment given that house prices and mortgage interest rates vary. The curves enable us to compare the burden of buying a house during a certain time period compared to a bench mark point in time. Using Israeli data, we calculated a house price indexed to income and showed that although nominal house prices during the period 2003:1-2011:4 increased by more than 66%, the burden on house buyers did not increase. These results contradict the idea held by many that reducing the interest rate necessarily makes buyers worse off due to increased house price-to-income ratio.

This paper critically reviews and examines the relationship between the origin of disequilibrium macroeconomic thinking by John Maynard Keynes, and the development of Keynesian disequilibrium macroeconomic models. Given that the two strands of literature are both plentiful, I will focus on discussing the essence of Keynesian disequilibrium thinking, and its implications of relevant models in the context of Keynes-Metzler-Goodwin and Weidlich-Haag-Lux approaches.

Child labor remains a concern for policy makers considering its interrelations with human capital formation. Indeed, in Sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in Cote d'Ivoire, children are still on the labor market. Several factors explain this fact of setting children to work. Given this diversity of determinants of child labor, this study aims to show the effects of school resources on child labor. Therefore, we use the 2010 national survey data on child labor and education policies. From a bivariate probit model, the results showed that the availability of certain school resources as a canteen and a drinking water point in the school promotes the education of children and especially girls. On the contrary, their unavailability forces parents to put their children on labor market. Therefore, one of the major policies to be implemented is to improve the learning environment of children by building school canteens and drinking water point in schools. It's a new challenge for policy makers to effectively fight against child labor and reach the goal of education for all and of quality in 2030.

Competition among firms has led to a broader view of the business' role in society, going beyond mere economic and legal factors and including also social aspects. Consumers value more the social and environmental performance of companies. However, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices are not receiving equal attention in all countries nor they are embodied the same way. In this context it becomes interesting to evaluate in which countries CSR culture is more ingrained and consolidated. In this paper a score is computed enabling to characterize CSR in different countries. The results show that, among the selected economies (USA, France, Norway and Italy), Norway presents the highest CSR figure and USA the lowest. Countries with the highest CSR values seem to present the least social inequalities. Overall the study is a step forward for understanding how CSR practices are being incorporated and developed in different countries, as they create value for both the companies and the societies.

Process control under the guidelines of reducing the costs of operations, production and inspection and produce high quality service and operations is examine to see if data from various parent populations can change the results and interpretations. With the purpose of achieving a minimal amount or error generation from the examination of control charts in univariate SPC, we compare data taken from three parent populations, i.e., Normal, Poisson and Exponential. Data and graphical analysis of Statistics permits one to visualize problems associated with where data comes from and whether it is satisfactory to use. We focus of univariate application but discuss multivariate application. This research will enable us to evaluate the conditions brought on by serial correlation and time series characteristics of models.