by Ines Harzli
Case Study
Background: Accreditation ensures a very high level of control of the risks that laboratories may face during their cycle regardless of a systemic situation, internal or external change or even in a state of crisis. MULTILAB, which is an Agri-Food and Environmental analysis laboratory, decided in 2018 to start the project accreditation for the microbiological analysis unit according to the new version of the ISO / CEI 17025: 2017 standard. This study evaluates 3 processes at MULTILAB to identify, evaluate, and control all the risks related to each process using a risk management process. The aim of this study is to reduce the identified risks of the 3 chosen processes in MULTILAB to ensure a complete identification of probable risks to enable then the laboratory to succeed the transition and accreditation project. Methods: This study was performed from March to May 2018 in MULTILAB. The samples chosen for the study were 3 processes of MULTILAB; Monitoring and Measurement as a management process, Request Review as realization process and Provision of Skills as a support process. The internal process sheets which include all the data relating to the processes were used to collect data. The risks are defined according to the 5M method and the risk process used comprised 3 phases; identification, assessment and action phase. To evaluate the risks, different rating benchmarks were used for each process. After the definition of the risk’s likelihood and severity, the criticality was calculated and then the priority number was defined for all risks. For the action phase, different actions were defined according to the priority level of each risk in each process to reduce or eliminate risks. Results: The total number of identified risks was 85 in MULTILAB; Skills Provisioning process had the majority of identified risks (37 risks), Monitoring and Measurement process represented 25 risks and Request Review process had the lowest number of risks (23 risks). Regarding the 5M method, in a total of 3 processes, the highest number of identified risks belongs to the Methods (30 risks) and there are no risks that belong to Machines within MULTILAB. Regarding the treatment priorities, the majority of the identified risks for the three processes were moderate risks. Conclusion: A risk management approach is necessary to succeed not just in the accreditation project according to the new version of the ISO17025: 2017 standard but also to succeed in all next projects and to ensure the credibility of the tests carried out. Most of the risks identified do not require immediate action, but permanent control and monitoring can mitigate and even eliminate them completely.
Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2021, 9(3), 130-144. DOI: 10.12691/jbms-9-3-5
Pub. Date: October 18, 2021
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by Omar Osman and Stephen M.A. Muathe
Original Research
The research sought to investigate the impacts of market entry approaches on the Kenya Banks’ performance with Equity Bank being the used case study. In particular, the study sought to analyse the effect of licensing strategy and partnership strategy on Kenya Banks’ performance. The preferred research design for the study was descriptive deign on a population of 394 management staff of Equity bank branches operating in Nairobi County. A sample of 119 respondents was picked via stratified sampling method. The study used a questionnaire to collect the required primary data while secondary data was collected from published financial statements using data collection sheet. Descriptive statistics including mean scores, standard deviations and frequencies were utilized in analyzing research data. Further, regression analysis helped establish the effect of market entry strategies on performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The results show that the effect of licensing and partnership on performance of commercial banks in Kenya was statistically significant. This study concludes that Kenya commercial banks that seek to enter new market in the region must adopt market entry strategies that have the highest effect on the performance. The study recommended that management of any organisation or firm that seeks to enter into new market must carefully analyse the strategies that will maximize output. The choice of market entry strategy depends on a number of factors that must be considered.
Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2021, 9(3), 123-129. DOI: 10.12691/jbms-9-3-4
Pub. Date: October 06, 2021
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by John Wiredu, Qian Yang, Paul Otoo and Johnpaul Ogochukwu Igbonaju
Original Research
The last 30 years have also seen a dramatic global decrease in fertility in the developing world. World Bank has made known that significantly greater stages of Feminine work force participation can be connected to more returns on human capital and education. Feminine work force involvement is a major macroeconomic phenomenon which signifies growth and development for any country, and one vital part of this subject is the connection between potency and feminine labor force input. The study uses data from 18 countries in West Africa for the period of 1995 to 2015, to assess the outcomes of potency on female workforce involvement using the pooled OLS and Fixed Effects Method. The dependent variable was fertility rate whilst the independent variables are female workforce input, male work input, and growth rate. The study finding shows that the fertility rate over the period of 1995-2015 has a negative effect on female work force input and has been declining.
Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2021, 9(3), 114-122. DOI: 10.12691/jbms-9-3-3
Pub. Date: September 24, 2021
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by Muhammad Abdus Salam, Trisha Saha, Md Habibur Rahman and Prantika Mutsuddi
Original Research
We contribute to the identification of challenges of using mobile financial services focusing on COVID-19 pandemic by extending Technology acceptance model. The pandemic has caused significant shifts in online transactions that will influence individuals, organizations, communities, and nations. In this paper, we will apply partial least square method to explore challenges of mobile banking adoption in crisis situation which people consider in mobile financial transactions. The challenges include perceive risk, perceive privacy, cost, privacy, and customer satisfaction. Perceived risk and perceived privacy also result in perceived security of customer information but quality of mobile banking services and perceived capability have positive impact on customer satisfaction to mobile banking services. Our results, in line with mobile banking literature, show that users are confronting challenges in using mobile financial services though they want to conduct banking staying at home and ensure health safety. In particular, people want to get a stress free life that is being hit by the pandemic itself. Indeed, these challenges were vulnerable before crisis and still exist. Investment to enhance integrity, transparency, and communication can help to eliminate the challenges of using mobile financial services and enhance the well-being of users.
Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2021, 9(3), 101-113. DOI: 10.12691/jbms-9-3-2
Pub. Date: August 11, 2021
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by Dilhari Attygalle and Geethanadee Abhayawardana
Original Research
Employee productivity is recognized as a key factor for the development of any organization. Through many research in the past, “work environment” has emerged as one of the most significant aspects that greatly contributes towards employee productivity. When employees are reverted to a work from home scenario, the work environment can change substantially due to varied reasons such as social, economic and cultural scenarios, different than usual. This research investigates employee productivity in relation to a new work environment that has emerged due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study aims to find factors impacting on employee productivity under this new work environment and views employees, as subgroups or segments, within the new setup. A survey based on 60 employees of a non-government organization in Sri Lanka, is used to exemplify the approach to meet the study aims. Employee Productivity is considered as a binary variable, the two categories being positive productivity and non-positive productivity, compared to the situation prior to Covid. The classification tree, with an accuracy of over 88%, revealed that, four features, namely, complying with daily hours of work, overall experience of working from home, ease of focusing on work and clear communication regarding work, significantly impacted on productivity. The analysis also showed that among the five different employee subgroups that emerged from the analysis, 36% of the employees forming the largest positive group seemed to be able to comply with the required hours easily, had a good overall experience and were able to focus well at home. On the other hand, 42% belonging to the largest non-positive group stated that their work expectations were communicated but they were not able to comply with the due hours or work per day. The proposed evidence-based quantitative approach has shown promising results in studying employee productivity during a work from home scenario.
Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2021, 9(3), 92-100. DOI: 10.12691/jbms-9-3-1
Pub. Date: July 11, 2021
4390 Views5 Downloads