Knowledge Management and Customer Relationship Management for Accounting Services Companies

By combining the abilities to respond directly to customer requests and to provide the customer with a highly interactive, customized experience, companies have a greater ability today to establish nurture and sustain long-term customer relationships than ever before. The ultimate goal is to transform these relationships into greater profitability by increasing repeat purchase rates and reducing customer acquisition costs. Customer relationship management （CRM） has a significant potential to leverage an organization＇s performance, but it does not come without a clear sense of destination and typically without pain. For the research methodology we use the database of customers of a Romanian accounting services company Vulpoi ＆ Toader Management SRL, which is an important player in this market. The goal of our paper is to find out the link between knowledge management （KM） and CRM for this company and how these ＂innovations＂ contribute to increasing the value of the business.     

A Statistical Power Comparison of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-Sample Test and the Wald Wolfowitz Test in Terms of Fixed Skewness and Fixed Kurtosis in Large Sample Sizes

In this study, the statistical powers of Kolmogorov-Smimov two-sample （KS-2） and Wald Wolfowitz （WW） tests, non-parametric tests used in testing data from two independent samples, have been compared in terms of fixed skewness and fixed kurtosis by means of Monte Carlo simulation. This comparison has been made when the ratio of variance is two as well as with equal and different sample sizes for large sample volumes. The sample used in the study is： （25, 25）, （25, 50）, （25, 75）, （25, 100）, （50, 25）, （50, 50）, （50, 75）, （50, 100）, （75, 25）, （75, 50）, （75, 75）, （75, 100）, （100, 25）, （100, 50）, （100, 75）, and （100, 100）. According to the results of the study, it has been observed that the statistical power of both tests decreases when the coefficient of kurtosis is held fixed and the coefficient of skewness is reduced while it increases when the coefficient of skewness is held fixed and the coefficient of kurtosis is reduced. When the ratio of skewness is reduced in the case of fixed kurtosis, the WW test is stronger in sample volumes （25, 25）, （25, 50）, （25, 75）, （25, 100）, （50, 75）, and （50, 100） while KS-2 test is stronger in other sample volumes. When the ratio of kurtosis is reduced in the case of fixed skewness, the statistical power of WW test is stronger in volume samples （25, 25）, （25, 75）, （25, 100）, and （75, 25） while KS-2 test is stronger in other sample volumes.     

Semantic Differential as an Assessment Tool of （Dis） Advantages of QMS in the Light of Accredited Certification in Poland

This article is a continuation of the issue in the field of assessment of （dis）advantages resulting from the implementation of the quality management systems （QMS） in a structure of the organization. The publication uses the results of studies conducted in the range of assessment＇s information completeness provided by the certification bodies （CBs） in the context of advantages and disadvantages of the QMS implementation in accordance with PN-EN ISO 9001. In addition, an attempt to define a tool for the QMS assessment of （dis）advantages in the organization has been made. The basis for empirical analysis of the issue was the information provided by an accredited management systems CBs recommended by the Polish Centre for Accreditation （PCA）. There are 33 units in Poland, which were granted by PCA with the accreditation within the range of ISO 9001：2008. In the first stage of the research work, a substantive analysis of websites content among mentioned CBs has been carried out. In addition, the paper proposes use of semantic differential method （SD） to evaluate （dis）advantages of the QMS. SD adaptation for the assessment of the QMS （dis）advantages is the authorial concept. The authors hope for polemic in this area. In the face of obtained results, an authorial SD construction has been proposed, which is useful and may help in the formulation and conveying of the relevant （reliable） information to potential clients in the range of （dis）advantages resulting from the QMS implementation to the organization. As a consequence, the recommendations have been set, which are kind of guidelines that could significantly influence the realignment of the information state conveyed on the internet by the CBs.     

Threshold Effects in the Capital Account Liberalization and Foreign Direct Investment Relationship

This paper examines how capital account liberalization （CAL） affects foreign direct investment （FDI） inflows. Authors use a dynamic panel model encompassing 14 Middle East countries over the period from 1985 to 2009. The findings suggest that countries that are able to reap the benefits of the capital openness policy satisfy certain threshold conditions regarding the level of financial development and institutional quality. Thus to promote FDI, governments in this region should develop a set of policies that not only focus on financial openness, but also on the improvement of the financial system and legal institutions.     

ARDL Investigation of Macroeconomic Mechanisms on ASEAN-5 Stock Earnings Equation

The objective of Autoregressive Distributed Lag （ARDL） investigation of macroeconomic mechanisms on ASEAN-5 stock earnings equation can contribute to analyzing and demonstrating macroeconomic forces acting a statistically and economically significant effect on rate of return of securities for a given time through the application of the ARDL approach to cointegration when the variables are mixed degrees of integration in cointegrated time series, i.e. I（0） and I（1）. This results in a long-run or a short-run relationship between macroeconomic force acting for a given time affecting 24 quarterly rates of return for listed companies in Information and Communication Technologies OCT） sector of Stock Exchange of Thailand （SET）, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index （KLSE） index （Malaysia）, Financial Times Share Index （FTSI）, Philippine Stock Exchange （PSE）, and Jakarta Composite Index （JKSE） （Indonesia）. The impulses of three ASEAN macroeconomic forces---GDPt, EXt, and INTt acting for a given time influence the earnings of selected 23 1CT returns for listed companies on both domestic investments and outsider investments in the same period. This paper has investigated how other-concerning macroeconomic force acting might interrelate with rate of return of securities in the ICT sector, debt and financial innovations, in line with some significant formalized facts. The funding of capital inflow in part of ICT securities was statistically globally significant to recognize significant achievement in ICT specific pathways to distinction as the science of accomplishment. The public sector performing as a key purchaser of ICT security solutions related to integrate the ASEAN exchange members into modern capitalization can lead to adverse effects, such as risky investment-hub interventions due to the mixing financial systems in three ASEAN regional integrations through investments.     

Two Questions of SHRM in Literature： Moderators of HRM Firm Performance Link

This paper aims to discuss differences between human resource management （HRM） and strategic human resource management （SHRM）, and aims to discuss convergence or divergence between American and European HRM. Therefore, research question is what the similarities and differences are between European and American HRM. Research methodology is based on critical review of HRM literature. Therefore, this study aims to increase conceptual ability of human resource （HR） professionals. Major result is that HRM is related with employee performance, and SHRM is related with firm performance. Secondly, European HRM is becoming similar to American HRM. The difference between European and American HRM is social context and social partners. European HRM considers social partners in management of HR.     

Principal Features of Building Social Accounts Matrix and Improving Statistical Database for Eco-countries

With common borders of the population, total area, and GDP （PPP-based） of Economic Cooperation Organization （ECO） member states are estimated as 416 million persons, 7.9 million m2, and US$2.7 trillion respectively （2010 data）. Although heterogeneous in the extent, there is economic development, overall, with serious energy and transport-transit relations among countries that is reflected in growing trade turnover year-by-year. However, there are still rather unused resources and capacity in such areas of cooperation among countries as exchange of energy, transport services, agricultural and industrial goods, use of opportunities for tourism, promoting investment and innovation processes and other areas. Certainly, maximum and optimal use of these resources calls for availability of analytical means capable of accounting for relations both within member states and among them. The implementation of computable general equilibrium （CGE） modeling in each member state would thus be of great significance in resolution of these problems both in terms of accounting for input-output linkages within the countries as well as enabling impact of main trading partners and goods and services among countries. The analysis carried out indicates that there are a number of problems in application of CGE model in most of the member states. As such, input-output tables are not compiled in some countries, while in others despite the fact that these tables are compiled, there are no attempts to build the model, yet in other countries, even if the CGE model is implemented, there are difficulties in taking into account the real results in the face of serious problems related to improving national accounts system database. Summarizing these problems, it is possible to conclude that to ensure the application of a CGE model,there is a great need to work out procedures of compilation of a social accounts matrix （SAM） that lies on the basis of this model, for which the relevant statistics of a member state must be improved     

Italian Banking Sector and Value Creation

The finn value is the fundamental topic of corporate finance. The value creation is the aim of economic initiatives, strategies, corporate policies, and all business activities, including banking. It depends, among other things, on size, legal form, and business model. Therefore, this paper wants to demonstrate and explain the differences about the value created in the Italian banking sector, where there is much diversity regarding size, legal form, and business model. This paper estimated and compared the value of Italian listed companies from 2010 to 2012 and found the result： Banks create more value if they are big and operate in investment banking. Furthermore, it proved that legal form hasn＇t influenced performance and value of banks.     

Sino-European Trade Competition in Latin America and the Caribbean

The article studies trade in goods between China and the Latin American and Caribbean （LAC） countries and between the European Union （EU） and LAC during the years from 2000 to 2013. From the beginning of the 21st century, big changes in LAC＇s trade patterns have been observed. The article contains possible explanation of them. The analysis is based on the ECLAC （Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean） data. Merchandise trade between China and LAC grew significantly over the period from 2000 to 2013. In 2013, the value of merchandise exports from China was higher than from the EU-28 in the case of 12 LAC countries. Chinese imports of goods surpassed the European ones in five countries in the region. In order to increase its exports of manufactured goods and imports of natural resources and agricultural commodities, China combines trade arrangements with foreign aid policy. Besides, a rapid development of bilateral diplomatic ties between China and LAC is observed. The EU-LAC trade relations have worsened during the last decade mainly due to financial crisis and development of the EU-Asia trade relations.     

Impact of Financial Development on the Environmental Quality in Iran

In recent decades, undesirable environmental changes, such as global warming and greenhouse gases emission, have raised worldwide concerns. In order to achieve higher growth rate, environmental problems emerged from economic activities have turned into a controversial issue. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of financial development on environmental quality in Iran. For this purpose, the statistical data over the period from 1970 to 2011 were used. Also by using the Auto Regression Model Distributed Lag （ARDL）, short-term and long-term relationships among the variables of model were estimated and analyzed. The results show that financial development accelerates the degradation of the environment; however, the increase in trade openness reduces the damage to environment in Iran. Error correction coefficient shows that in each period, 53% of imbalances would be justified and will approach their long-run procedure. Structural stability tests show that the estimated coefficients were stable over the period.     

Defining the Entrepreneurial Capital Construct

The purpose of this paper is to show preliminary results from an international research project on intellectual capital and value creation led by Lappeenranta University of Technology （Finland）. In the case of this paper, results from Italy will be reported and specifically. The Italian analysis focuses on the entrepreneurial capital （EC） and it analyses how large Italian companies develop and enhance this intangible element. The main research question is： What is the current level of EC in Italian organizations and how does it affect value creation.＇？ To this end, the research addressed the different definitions of EC that literature offers. As a secondary step, this paper analysed the variables suggested by previous literature and proposed an original definition for the research project. The definition is that EC is a stock of competences and the personnels＇ attributes related to proactive, risky, and aggressive decision-making and behaviour. This research provides researchers and managers with unique insights into the evolutionary nature of the relationships between distinct 1C variables and draws a picture on the state of art of corporate EC in the selected sample. This research highlights and improves companies＇ abilities to manage their EC. Furthermore, this research will set the agenda for improving the EC practices of Italian companies and will allow future comparison with firms from other countries that are participating in the same project identifying different pathways to success.     

The Impact of Innovation in Small Industrial Operations to Increased Competitiveness： Empirical Evidence

The present research work in the Small and Medium Enterprise （SME） and industrial sector explains the impact of the relationship among innovation in the SME operations of Aguascalientes to find the most competitive one; to this end, a questionnaire was intended for managers where the results have been analyzed using the statistical package Structural Equation Modeling Programs （EQS） support which through structural equations has responded to the objective. In this sense, it can be concluded that innovation has a positive relationship with the operations and in turn, this relationship shows a positive impact on the competitiveness of SMEs in Aguascalientes. For this study, a sample of 150 companies has been used.     

Entrenched Board in New Public Firms： An Empirical Study of Chinese IPOs

This study empirically investigates the impact of managerial entrenchment on firm financial performance of Chinese firms initial public offerings （IPOs）. Using 142 firms listed in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange （SZSE）, which was collected from the Guotaian Research Service Center （GTA-RSC） databases, this study uses two proxies to measure firm performance and three proxies to measure managerial entrenchment. The two proxies for firm performance are Tobins＇ Q and return on assets （ROA）, and the three proxies for managerial entrenchment are entrenchment 1, entrenchment 2, and entrenchment 3. These three entrenchment proxies are derived from the principal component analysis （PCA）. Though previous studies of managerial entrenchment and firm performance variables suffer from endogeneity, with respect to the corporate governance it is unclear as to which variables are endogenous and which are exogenous. This study confirms that the data are linear and no endogeneity issue should be address in this study, but only heteroskedasticity, non-normality for Tobins＇ Q are a problem, therefore, the regression method employed for Tobins＇ Q is the generalised least square （GLS） and the ordinary least square （OLS） between estimators for ROA. The regression result for Tobins＇ Q reveals that managerial entrenchment is negatively impact on firm performance. The results are in contradiction to the stewardship theory for new firms whereas the managerial entrenchment for new firms is positive. Furthermore, only one entrenchment proxy yields a significant coefficient. In conclusion, the negative results of entrenchment proxies were caused by the different institutional structures and legal systems which are the Chinese corporations that are still largely owned and controlled by a state and hence the centralised state controlled was responsible for all managerial actions.     

Public and Private Investment in the Port Sector in Mexico, 2000-2010： A Study Through Data Envelopment Analysis

Knowing the level of efficiency of investment applied in ports of Mexico is relevant information for the design of port policies that contribute to its development and thus to greater freight movement. The objective of this paper is to analyze the technical efficiency obtained from International Mexican Ports, through the use of the technique of Data Envelopment Analysis （DEA）. It uses data regarding public and private investment in ports applied during the period 2000-2010 and its influence on the number of Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit （TEU）. Because it has been applied the DEA-CCR （the linear programming model） model input oriented, thus not only the efficiency is calculated in ports, but benchmarking is also obtained to determine the efficient ports that serve as reference to those who were found to be inefficient. The results obtained showed that Manzanillo and Progreso were the most efficient ports. On the other hand, the ports that were not efficient for any of the years reviewed were Mazatlan and Lazaro Cardenas. Generally, public investment has been increasing over the period, and public policies are not designed to allow the ports to have an international projection.     

HRM and Quantitatives： Decision Tree and Vector Analysis in HRM Theory

Research topic of this paper is to discuss theory of Human Resources Management （HRM） and to discuss using of quantitative methods in HRM. Firstly, five variables establish HRM theory. They are HRM practices, positive organizational behaviors, individual performance, performance of business departments, and firm performance. Transactions among those variables enable Human Resources （HR） practitioners to apply HRM theory in their organizations. Secondly, this paper discusses use of quantitative methods in HRM. They are vector analysis and decision tree analysis. Those analyses enable HR practitioners to make effective HR decisions. Decision tree sets HR alternatives to efficiently implement HRM practices in organizations. Research question is how HR practitioners apply quantitative methods in department of HRM in firms. Finally this research comes out a conclusion that quantitative methods may be used in HRM.     

Environmental Analysis of Packaging for Soft Drinks Using the Life Cycle Assessment Methodology

The knowledge of a product＇s life cycle is the first step on the search of sustainable development. The life cycle assessment （LCA） is an important method because it allows an environment accounting, where the extraction of natural resources and energy of the nature are considered and the ＂returns＂ to the same one and allows in evaluating relative potential the environment impacts generated. The present work had as objective to make an analysis of material and energy flows of the life cycle of three types of packaging for soft drinks： glass bottles of 390 mL, aluminum cans of 350 mL, and bottles of PET of 2,000 mL. The study considered processes since the extraction of raw materials for production of the packaging until the stages of recycling, after the consumption of the soft drink. For the research, an inventory analysis followed the LCA methodology. The main critical points of generation of negative environmental impact during the life cycle of each packaging had been the identified and quantified data in this study. The consumption of natural resources like water and other raw materials and energy, the generation of atmospheric emissions, solid wastes and wastewaters had been the analyzed categories. The results showed that, in accordance with the scenes and defined variables, the most important conclusion was that the bottle of glass presented a less favorable scene to the environment in comparison with other packaging.     

Optimization in Allocating Goods to Shop Shelves Utilizing Genetic Algorithm for Yogurt Sales Data

How to allocate goods to shop shelves makes great influence to sales amount. Searching the best fit allocation of goods to the shelves is a kind of combinatorial problem. This becomes a problem of integer programming and utilizing genetic algorithm （GA） being an effective method. Reviewing past researches, there are few researches made on this. Formerly, the paper concerning optimization in allocating goods to shop shelves utilizing the GA was presented by us. In those papers, the problem that goods were allowed to allocate in multiple shelves was pursued. In this paper, the problem that does not allow goods to be allocated in multiple shelves is examined and the concept of sales profits and sales probabilities is introduced. Optimization in allocating goods to shop shelves is investigated. An application to the shop shelves for yogurt is executed. Utilizing GA, the optimum solution is pursued and verified by a numerical example. Various patterns of problems must be examined hereafter.     

Corporate Social Responsibility——From the Perspective of Polish Enterprises

Corporate social responsibility （CSR） is becoming more and more frequently emphasized part of management in the structure of Polish enterprises. These results from the fact that growing awareness of consumers, destructive impact of industry on the natural environment, economic scandals, unethical behavior among entrepreneurs, bring about redefining the principles of a business activity on the market by entrepreneurs. As a result of the above, such values as honesty, trust, or responsibility take on greater importance. Additionally, more and more often, Polish entrepreneurs pay attention to the influence of the company on the environment, the way the stakeholders are treated, while striving to maximize profit. The present paper looks into the subject of social responsibility from the point of view of Polish enterprises. To verify this objective, there was the analysis of the due literature performed, and also carried out the survey among 174 entrepreneurs running their business activity in the area of Southern Poland. The research tool used in the research was the questionnaire （PAPI and CAWI）. In the conducted research, there were factors analyzed referring to knowledge of social responsibility among the people holding both managerial and lower-level positions, in particular opinion, is it important for enterprises to be driven by ethical standards？ How to implement CSR in their structures？ How to understood concept of CSR？ What are the reasons for the implementation of CSR in the strategy of the company？ The considerations （both the theoretical and practical ones） confirmed that the Polish enterprises feel the increased need to implement the activities in the field of social responsibility, which, in the present conditions, constitutes an important part of running a business activity.     

The Impact of Nationalisation on CSR Policy in Citadele Bank and CR Study of the Latvian Retail Banking Sector

The present research paper is dedicated to the analysis of the impact of nationalisation on Corporate Social Responsibility （CSR） Policy in Citadele bank （formerly Parex） and Corporate Responsibility （CR） study of the Latvian banking sector. The goal is to analyse the notion of nationalisation, the history of Citadele bank, and to scrutinise CSR policy and its aspects. Research aim is to explore the impact of CSR activities implemented by Citadele on customers＇ views after the nationalisation of the bank. The research methodology involves the analysis of the existing theoretical literature and a quantitative research method-survey conducted by an international research agency. The article also explores CSR activities of commercial banks in Latvia by applying the comparative method of research.     

Financial deepening and regional economic growth Analysis on Circum-Bohai-Sea Region

Financial deepening can improve economic growth by facilitating capital liquidity and promoting efficiency of allocating resource, which has played an important role in the development of the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta in China. As a new economic growth pole, Circum-Bohai-Sea Region should focus on internal financial deepening. In this paper, SWOT analysis is used to observe the level of financial deepening in Circum-Bohai-Sea Region, and some related policy suggestions are given in the end.