Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011)

This paper reports on an empirical study aimed at elucidating reasons for success in the implementation of strategic decisions by 7–Eleven in Thailand. The 7–Eleven convenience store is a business format franchising operation, which includes the product or service, the brand name or trademark, and the operating system developed by the franchisor and it has experienced significant growth. The Charoen Pokphand (CP) All Public Company Limited (PCL) is the operator of the 7-Eleven convenience stores in Thailand and it has been involved, therefore, with creating opportunities in the franchise system for that market. Potential franchisors have staff trained and support provided for all aspects of their businesses. To have better chances for success, 7-Eleven needs to evaluate itself in order to improve its systems. People are one key success factor in the franchise business, particularly in terms of the representative of the franchisor, who as an agent of the company reflects the company’s image. For the company to achieve sustainable growth, emphasis should be placed on organizational and human resource development. Both parties in the business must provide high levels of cooperation to each other. The franchise business is a special relationship in which the parties can mutually share the benefits.

Today, the most important element of economic is management and here, looking scholars management is the process in efficient use of resources therefore being numerous human and material resources are useable. Money and capital are important factor in the economy but when this factor is satisfactory that be managed optimal way also human and software resources are important factor in the economy but when these factors are useful that be managed optimal way. The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between leadership styles of managers with organizational commitment that staff are under their supervision and productivity in the Iran’s economy in a sample and also investigated some demographic characteristics associated with leadership style variables of managers and staff organizational commitment. Stationary or non stationary variables were analyzed by Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and in order to analyze the data, is used analysis of variance and regression analysis.

The general objective of this study is to examine the impact of School’s Resource Center (SRC) on teaching and learning process among secondary school teachers. The specific objectives are; to identify factors influencing the utilization of the SRC and the problems associated with it. In general, 100 school teachers from three secondary schools in Tanjung Malim, Perak were selected as our respondents. Sample selection was made based on purposive sampling and the data obtained were processed by using quantitative method. The results obtained reported that, on average teachers used the SRC twice a week. The reasons for the usage are; to make use the printing and non-printing media available at the SRC, and to participate in various activities and programs organized at the center. In terms of problems, there was no indication on the presence of any serious problem except the SRC should sustain its resources. In particular, the SRC must continuously upgrade the collections of printing and non-printing media with most updated and contemporary issues. Apart of that, the SRC must make available technical assistant(s) to help out the SRC users (students and teachers) anytime needed. In terms of effect, the utilization of SRC encourages group study among students and this approach not only helped to improve students understanding and to inspire their reading interest, but also offered motivation to students in understanding the content of a particular subject better.

The logistics industry plays an important role in the global supply chain system. While environmental issues have become critical concerns all over the world, there is a challenge for logistics practitioners and academics to include environmental issues in logistics operations. However, scant attention was paid to environmental issues in the logistics industry. This article aims to understand the trends, gaps, and research opportunities of environmental issues in the logistics industry. Reviewing related literature suggests three broad research areas: the substance of environmental logistics practices, the determinants of environmental logistics practice adoption, and the consequences of implementing environmental logistics practices. Advice for logistics practitioners and opportunities of future research for academics are discussed.

This study intends to investigate the expectations of knowledge workers from their organization. The firms that understand the expectation of their knowledge workers can more effectively satisfy the needs and increase the productivity of their knowledge workers, which ultimately lead to gaining of competitive advantage. Literature does not depict any research study related to knowledge worker productivity that focuses on Pakistani organization. Hypothesized model consists of organizational culture, reward and technology and their effect on knowledge sharing and finally on knowledge worker productivity. Questionnaire was developed based on rigor method of constructs operationalization, including face, content and reliability. The sample size was 210, which was selected randomly from telecom sector. The data is analyzed by structural equation modeling. The results depicts that if the organization focus on organizational culture, reward and technology, it can achieve highest degree of productivity of knowledge workers. Therefore, the organizations must develop a strong strategy for identification and retention of their knowledge workers. In order to increase the knowledge worker productivity, management required to learn the expectation of knowledge worker from them and organization. Study has significant importance for management in strategic planning, human resource management strategy and retention program.

The decades leading to the third millennium was marked with concerted efforts by governments to raise their knowledge generation and contribution profile in the community of nations. Thus, all kinds of financial and promotional incentives have been offered to academics and researchers to publish papers in international journals, particularly ISI journals. It is argued that quantity and quality of articles published in ISI journals is an indication of scientific capabilities of a country and a yardstick for assessing its development. This research study aims to identify barriers that academics face in publishing papers in ISI social/humanity science journals. A questionnaire based on extensive literature review and a series of unstructured interviews was developed and tested. A stratified sampling method was used to collect data from academics of four social/humanity science faculties of a provincial university in the northwest of Iran. The findings revealed that respondent’s perceived lack of proficiency in a foreign language, poor information technology infrastructure and inadequate access to international scientific databases and uncontrollable factors related to the nature of social science disciplines and political climate as the major barriers that prevent or de-motivate them to publish in ISI journals. The research findings were discussed and concluded, and recommendations were made to reduce or remove barriers to publishing in ISI journals.