Abstract: This conceptual paper explores different approaches for establishing born-global firms (BGFs) in developed and developing countries, with a special focus on Nigeria and Sub-Sahara Africa. It reviews the key constructs and frameworks that underpin new business development in born-global firms. Examples of these constructs are business development, dynamic capabilities, innovation, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and organisational learning. The research is important because of the relative lack of BGFs (Google, Amazon, Alibaba, and Facebook, for example) in Sub-Sahara Africa, compared to other parts of the world. Moreover, the frameworks for BGF new business development can be applied in subtly different ways in developed and developing country contexts. For example, BGFs in developed countries focus on niche products and services with breakthrough innovation, whilst those in developing countries, because of limited resources and capabilities, focus on underserved and mass markets, which do not require high level resources and capabilities. Realistic hypothetical examples of BGFs which directly underpin Nigerian and Sub-Sahara African higher education and economic development are used to illustrate the BGF business development constructs.

Keywords: Born global-firms, Worldhero 3E.com, Afrimarket.com, Business development, Innovation, Dynamic capabilities, Entrepreneurship, Higher education, Economic development.

Download

Abstract: Variances in cultural performances cause disagreement between team members.

The aim of this paper is to explore the influences of organisational multi-culture on leadership decision-making process.

Hypotheses were proposed to develop an appropriate conceptual research model. The data collection was accomplished using an online structured questionnaire survey with global respondents. 50 questionnaires were distributed and only 39 valid responds were returned.

Correlation and regression statistical analysis was applied to measure the relationships between independent variables: cultural diversity, communication, teamwork, learning and development, trust, obligation and cohesion, productive team work with dependent variable: leadership’s decision-making.

The findings show that leadership’s decision-making process was significantly influenced by organisational cultural diversity.

Keywords: Leadership, Cultural diversity, multi-cultural organization, decision-making.

Download

Abstract: In case one wants to study discussions in the social media one needs a template for doing this. The discussions can range from comments on some event to developing a deliberative democracy. This template, or scoring system, should give insight in developments in the substance of the discussion, but it should also allow considering the development of the structure of the discussion. In this text a template is proposed that covers both questions. The information that is collected by using the template might be useful in the context of (new) policy making; it can also be used to study opinions.

Keywords: discussion, deliberation, discourse, measurement, social media.

Abstract:  Subjective qualifiers of Wald’s theory of decision functions are the fuzzy events of the subsequent fuzzy set theory. Wald’s notion of subjective qualifiers involves applying integral transforms to convert states of nature into fuzzy events. Probabilities of fuzzy events and arithmetic formulas for fuzzy utility function values are readily derived from Wald’s integral transforms. We have applied Zadeh’s extension principle to Wald’s integral transforms and demonstrated that fuzzy mathematics is effective when applied to multiple subjective probability distributions conjoined by OR and AND operations. In this paper, we focus on no-data problems and construct a fuzzy Bayes’ theorem for cases in which a membership function and multiple subjective probability distributions conjoined by OR or AND operations are given. In addition, we devise a formulation for the corresponding decision making problem.

Keywords: Subjective qualifier, fuzzy event, membership function, subjective probability distribution, OR-conjunction, AND-conjunction.

Abstract:  There is very little understanding of how organisations manage social media. In particular, there is no established path of activities that guide a company down the path of social readiness, and the management and organisation of social media is under-researched. Consequently, many organisations experience significant problems with their social media business profiles (SMBP). Stage of growth (SoG) models represent a picture of evolution, where the current stage can be understood in terms of history and future, providing an opportunity to identify the stages, paths of evolution, benchmark variables, and dominant problems experienced by organisations at each stage. Following a review of four decades (1974-2014) of SoG model research, and a review of existing social media research and practitioner insight across multiple domains, the authors adopt Gottschalk and Solli-Saether’s (2010) [1] five step Stage Modelling Process as a research methodology to develop a stage model of SMBP implementation and management. The paper analyses the findings from Step 1 (Suggested Stage Model) and Step 2 (Conceptual Stage Model) of the Stage Modelling Process, before concluding with the key findings. This research contributes to academia by enhancing the existing four decades of knowledge of SoG models, extending it to the management of social media in an organisational context. This research is also a critical piece of research from a practitioner perspective, as organisations struggle to devise tactics and strategies to manage social media adoption and use..