Volume 3 Issue 2

Regression Analysis is at the center of almost every Forecasting technique, yet few people are comfortable with the Regression methodology. We hope to improve the level of comfort with this article. In this article we briefly discuss the theory behind the methodology and then outline a step-by-step procedure, which will allow almost everyone to construct a Regression Forecasting function for both the linear and some non-linear cases. Also discussed, in addition to the model construction mentioned above, is model testing (to establish significance) and the procedure by which the Final Regression equation is derived and retained to be used as the Forecasting equation. Hand solutions are derived for some small-sample problems (for both the linear and non-linear cases) and their solutions are compared to the MINITAB-derived solutions to establish confidence in the statistical tool, which can be used exclusively for larger problems.

In times when organizations in Germany are confronted with a constant change-dynamic regarding their working conditions managers understand that human resources are an important driving factor for the overall company's performance. The attractiveness of an organization towards potential and actual employees is therefore an issue which is of broad interest for general management as it plays an increasing role to reach company's aims. Necessary for creating such an attractiveness as employer are the establishment of substantiated processes of acquiring and retaining employees. The objective of this paper is to assess whether the application of a company's human resource management's marketing approach has an impact on employee satisfaction. Concerning the research methods causal modelling and triangulation of research are used. Quantitative research is applied. Results show that the better a company's human resource management's marketing approach in terms of its quality and performance is, the higher is the employees' perception about their employer's organization as well as the overall employees' satisfaction. Findings also reveal a significant positive relationship between a high quality of human resource management's marketing approach and employee satisfaction. Furthermore, a positive relation between a high performance of human resource management's marketing approach and the classification of a company's brand awareness on the labor market as well as a company's classification into an employer of choice is found. Thus, it can be concluded that human resource management's marketing approach is a viable process in the realm of human resource management to steer a company's success through a focus on employee satisfaction.

The objective of this research is to identify the factors that prevent the local supply in Sonora from having a bigger development in the export industry. The research methodology consisted of deep interviews to ten companies and their supervisors that we considered to be the most successful, as well as the application of a survey to 40 other companies. We created a diagnosis of the actual factors affecting the low recruitment of Mexican local suppliers by the industry. The idea was to provide the information that we find interesting and relevant to industry associations and Council of State for decision-making that can help increase the supply for the local market and to big companies.

The purpose of this article is to study the relationship between the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the compensation of the board of directors of Canadian companies listed on US stock markets. The SOX act, promulgated on 30 July 2002 and the rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) require, among furthermore, a majority of independent directors on boards. The literature focuses on two main differences between US companies and Canadian companies: more concentrated ownership and the smaller market capitalization of Canadian companies. Therefore, a consistent application of SOX on all the companies that differ at the base, in their size and structure, may have a different impact on the costs of compliance. Using a sample of 17 Canadian companies listed on US stock exchanges from 2001 to 2004, our analysis show that there is a link between the adoption of SOX and the increased in the cash compensation of the board of directors. The results also show that the effect of SOX is different depending on the company's size.

In this paper I argue that community plays an important role in shaping the values and characteristics of top management teams. It builds on upper echelon theory to posit that community level characteristics are instrumental in framing the cognitions of CEOs and top executives. Strategic decisions made by managers in organizations represent the significant impact community has on top management teams. Examining the influence community has on top management teams provides additional implications about why certain firms perform better than others.

Organizational theory and organizational research (namely, organizational behavior), have the purpose of organizations – to explain and understand – their origin, their existence and their functioning. Therefore, I try in my work, different approaches to take up. To this end, I chose different books and articles to explain and expand the knowledge on this subject.

This paper examined safety and security risk management in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The frequent attacks at workplace, especially schools, have placed safety and security in the front burner of discussion in both business and political circles. This therefore, forms the imperative for the conduct of this study. The work adopted a cross sectional survey research design and collected data from respondents who are security personnel of the University of Uyo. Analysis of data was done with simple percentage statistics while the research hypotheses were tested with mean and simple regression and correlation statistics. The findings of the study revealed that assassination, kidnappings and bombings were principal risk incidents threatening the safety and security of staff in University of Uyo. A significant positive relationship was found between the funding of security management and workers' performance. It was discovered specifically that employment screening, regular training of security personnel, regular safety and security meetings and strategic security policy formation were the main strategies for managing safety and security in University of Uyo. The paper concluded that safety and security management and control involves every worker (management and staff) of University of Uyo. It was recommended, among others, that management should be more committed to safety and security management in the University by means of making safety and security issues an integral part of University's strategic plan and also by adopting the management line model – one form of management structure-where safety and security are located, with other general management responsibilities. This way, the resurgent cases of kidnapping, hired assassination, etc. would be reduced if not completely eradicated in the University.

Competitive advantage is the main purposed of the business entity focusing on market base view. Resource advantage theorists put their concern to empowering resources development with resources based view, in the other side needs to redefining competitive advantage. All the competitive advantage are transient, concluded the end of competitive advantage. Redefining competitive advantage by selling migration and shrewdness outward. This research to emphasize innovation capability rarely appears in the future.

Real estate arguably forms the most important asset to most households and the basis for their wealth. Around this context a model has been set up testing the relative affordability of real estate for the median household in Austria and the consequences of lower borrowing costs between 2004 and 2013 by vintage year. In this paper the hypothesis that the significant decline in base interest rates is not sufficient to offset the relative affordability loss caused by declining net household incomes and the simultaneous increase of real estate prices. To test this hypothesis a model has been set up comparing two different Housing Affordability Indices – one including and one excluding financing effects, having been compared via a multi factor model. Based on this calculation the author finds decreased base interest rates to offset relative affordability losses by only approximately 50%, verifying the hypothesis. The paper therefore argues for a potential decoupling of the residential housing market in Austria.

The present study analyzes the quality service perception and its relation with the satisfaction for the fast food consumers of hamburgers' sector of the chain Burger King in Hermosillo, Sonora. By the application of Servperf of Cronin and Taylor methodology and a data regression method, through the coefficient of determination (R2) was determined that the independent variables explain the variability or variance of 82.9% in consumer satisfaction and that the explanatory variable which has the most influence in absolute value over the explained variable is reliability, due to its standardized beta is 0.301, being the highest score among the variables. To achieve the objective of this study, a quantitative and correlation investigation was designed, where data was collected from a survey structured by five dimensions, measured by 22 items. It was applied to a random and representative sample of 385 consumers, with a 95% level confidence and a ±5% of permissible error. An inferential statistical analysis allowed observing a positive relation between consumers' satisfaction level and quality service. The results showed that Servperf is a valid instrument with psychometric characteristics of high reliability that makes it appropriate to measure quality service. The same way, it was observed an index of service global satisfaction of 69.27%, which according to the scale used implies clients are satisfied with the received service.

In this paper, a short historical review and the research results are presented, which are focused on the quality management systems used by the Hungarian SME's. The research was based on an original empirical survey, conducted using a random sample of fifty managers from small and medium sized Hungarian enterprises. All of them use certified quality management systems. The paper presents their current state in the light of their responses, under several aspects. In conclusion, suggestions are given for the problems, such as measurement, development, and education on the research topic.

The aim of this paper is to examine stress and time in educational management in Maroua University. These two phenomena are profound in educational issues in Cameroon due to the complex administration or management. Education comprised of diversity of activities ranging from administration, discipline, teaching, evaluation and learning. Each of these activities requires time schedule to avoid stress in the face of pressure. Administration requires planning, organizing, controlling, commanding, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. Each of these managing variables requires time, just as discipline, teaching, evaluation and learning should need. The situation may be affected by higher authority interference and cause a rush thus affecting every schedule in the system on this note, it is necessary that every administrator on management cadre should develop a list of activities such as admissions, examinations, sports, vacations and other ceremonies which requires his attention on daily, weekly, or monthly bases and there after allocate in a tentative fashion the most appropriate times for dealing with such activities. Some profile recommendations are: strict adhering to schedules to avoid overlapping or prolongation to other programs; the schedules should be pasted or placed at a convenient point in the office for reference to avoid forgetfulness: as an administrator, time should be allocated for meeting or consulting with visitors and subordinates; he should delegate functions to his accredited subordinates to crave chance or time for essential duty; he should review the school or organization programs on daily, weekly or monthly bases the degree to which his administration goals have been attained and he (i.e. administrator) should crave time for rest i.e. holidays, relaxation and various forms of physical exercises to revitalizes the body for subsequent activities. The paper recommends planning which is vital in management to avoid time waste which is scarce and organizing to avoid repetition and also derailed. Hence, a healthy climate may encourage staff participation in decision making, program, daily routines to avoid time constraint and stress, which by-products are hypertension, insomnia and poor or unsuccessful accomplishment of education programs in Maroua University in particularly and nation wide in general.

The purpose of this paper is to show how trust as an organizational value contributes to employee competence utilization in the case of innovation capability. Thus, it is the objective of this paper to analyze the positive impacts, but also potential limits of trust in business management. The research paper uses two different quantitative empirical studies drawn from German and Austrian mid-sized companies to empirically test this interrelation. As a result, the paper determines particular aspects of trust such as accountability, shared norms and the ability to take responsibility to be interrelated with the usage of employee competences and underlines a positive connection between product innovation performance and trust. However, the trust concept needs enriching elements to be balanced towards a feeling of mutual reliance and support creativity instead; inclusions of bridging social capital, elements of distrust and a pioneering spirit are to be mentioned here.

Nowadays the LEAN tools with their proven efficiency are indispensable parts of the production management. I think there is no producing enterprise that cannot utilize a wide variety of these LEAN tools. The question now is how these tools can support companies in increasing the efficiency of their supporting IT processes. In this study I will demonstrate how these well-known LEAN tools from production management can be used in IT management to create more cost-effective, efficient and transparent solutions during the IT system development and IT operation activities. I will show respectively without attempting to be comprehensive the most important tools of the LEAN management and I will analyse how these tools can be used in the IT sector. At the end of this study I will demonstrate what the IT managers think about the practical use of these tools.

According to the South African Small Business Act No. 102 of 1996 Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) are regarded as separate small business entities owned by one or more owners; operating in various sectors of the national economy. SMMEs play a significant role in contributing to the South African economy, particularly by means of providing employment opportunities and assisting in the equal distribution of wealth. Albeit the latter prior research reveals that 80% of SMMEs do not survive beyond their first five years of existence. Plausible reasons for the latter include the influence of micro-economic factors and macro-economic factors; resulting in direct, inevitable risks being placed on the overall existence of SMMEs. In order to identify and manage these risks, SMMEs need to make use of adequate risk management strategies. More often than not a risk management strategy should eliminate and/or mitigate risks and provide reasonable assurance that business objectives will be achieved in the foreseeable future. To assist in the attainment of the latter, combined assurance initiatives should be used since it is believed to enhance both the understanding and treatment of risks; providing management with optimum assurance that its relevant objectives will be met in the foreseeable future. Stemming from the above, the perception was formulated that SMMEs do not have adequate risk management strategies in place due to the lack of combined assurance initiatives. This research study consisted of survey research whereby 30 questionnaires were collected from SMME management (i.e. owners and/or managers) all of whom had to adhere to a strict set of delineation criteria. It was found that SMMEs make use of semi-formal risk management strategies to mitigate and/or eliminate risks which are somewhat effective, but applicable risks are not optimally managed due to a lack of ample combined assurance initiatives.