Modern Perspectives in Economics, Business and Management Vol. 3

With the global progress of industrialization and digitization, an individual’s material needs are gradually sublimated to the pursuit of life satisfaction and spiritual pleasure. The Cultural and Creative Industry (CCI) has been formed accordingly based on this phenomenon and many firms are developing towards culture, environment, art, literature, and other aspects. According to the literature, these firms exist in the form of micro businesses or workshops through a local foundation and are less capable of marketing, promotion, and connecting with new consumer groups. Over decades, governments have attached greater attentions to the development of the Micro Cultural and Creative Industry (MCCI) and set about implementing relevant grants, programs, and professional guidance mechanism. However, the question of why MCCI is still faced with considerable difficulties regarding product management and brand marketing remains ambiguous. This knowledge gap becomes the focal motivation for this article. The study is to ascertain the issue and advise the operators and managers of MCCI on how to determine their products for Profitable Core Trade (PCT) and establish marketing strategies in line with the industrial characteristics. The results and marketing guidelines presented in this study are expected to enable the operators and firms of MCCI to properly establish their respective marketing strategies and channels, and, moreover, proactively to achieve further sustainable business.

Strategic flexibility is a mindset that enables businesses to deal effectively with a future they can forecast while still securing a stable market position in an uncertain and volatile environment.

In this context, organisations that use this approach stay nimble. The primary goal of this chapter is to investigate the impact of strategic intelligence and its dimensions (foresight, visioning, and motivation) on firm performance, as well as the role of strategic flexibility and its dimensions (production flexibility, marketing flexibility, and competitive flexibility) in mediating such an impact in biotechnology industry firms. The hypotheses were analysed and tested using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) program and AMOS software. After conducting the analysis to test hypotheses, the researchers found that strategic intelligence has significant positive impacts on firm performance, positive impacts of strategic intelligence on strategic flexibility, and positive impacts of strategic intelligence on firm performance in the presence of strategic flexibility as a mediator variable. .

There is no doubt that information and the way it is applied, represents a hot topic for researchers in the field of knowledge integration management (KIM), as an integrating part of the much more extensive area of study: the knowledge based society/economy (KBS/E). The society/economy development is a very complex and multi-factorial process, in the context of the existence of some new specific scientific methodology, as a transdisciplinary thinking perspective of the knowledge. The present paper combines original concepts about the eco-socio-economic (ENSEC-ESE) systems in relation to the sustainable development, where the most important issue becomes "the identification, stimulation, evaluation and implementation of creativity", by trans-thematic identifiers (know what), phenomenological descriptors (know how), and logical explicators (know why) in order to transform a monodisciplinary space in a transdisciplinary one, as breadth through depth approach of knowledge (in extensis de profundis). To be creative for innovation means to explore, and possibly to transform, in a sustainable way, the "conceptual space” into a living system, as a “practical transdisciplinary knowledge space”. The present paper proposes an attempt to connect transdisciplinary, globalization, and sustainable development in a very interesting way with apokataphatic method, to identify what is (“yes”), what isn’t (“no”), and how does work (“go so”) sustainability in the environmental-sociopolitical-economic (ENSEC) systems. The presented model allows to analyse such systems through the eco-ecological efficiency e and ecological parameter _T  with specific values for resilience, viability, and disaster. The paper reconfigures energetic sustainable development in the context of transdisciplinary M.E.N. (Megawatt, Ecowatt, Negawatt) paradigm, presenting the ways to transform all kind of energy, as are found in the energetic transformations diagram, including waste, as resource through circular energetic scheme (2+2)R’s - reduce & recycle, reuse & recombine in order to get electricity as a very usable clean energy.

Since the reintroduction of the East African Community (EAC), there has been a clamor for the establishment of a single currency. This is due to the effect of multiple currencies in cross-border transactions, which has caused the value of goods and services to rise.  Just like some countries within the European Union have some. While it may be ideal, a critical feasibility study is required to determine the role of a single currency in driving EAC economic development. The single currency will serve as a means of payment for cross-border trade and payments, familiarize the public with the benefits of monetary integration, and encourage EAC monetary policy coordination. The study was centered on a single research question: what role does a single currency play in EAC economic development? The study was based in Arusha city the headquarter of EAC. According to the findings of the study, the majority of respondents are well-versed in the factors that encourage EAC member countries to pursue the adoption of a single currency for economic development. These factors include and not exhaustive: enhancing currency stability, reduction of financial risks, reduction of transaction cost, reduction of exchange rate fluctuation, enhancing price transparency and reduction of inflation that impact on trade within the region. According to the study, in order for effective integration to occur, it is necessary to investigate various monetary union models, design the integration process, and put in place a mechanism for gradually implementing monetary integration.

Results Based Management (RBM) is an important concept in the strategic system approach. It is a systematic coalesce of efforts consciously made to achieve a desired result. It is a management approach purely shaped by the results. This study seeks to explore RBM in strategic system approach through the analysis of a life case study. This section discusses the results-based management logical framework and the theory of change. The logical framework of RBM evidently resides on the structured, logical model, which identities the expected outputs and consequently the inputs as well as activities required to accomplish the outcomes. The logical framework is structured around five items: assess, think, plan, do and review. The philosophical assumptions underlying this study are based on critical realism. This study seeks to establish the mechanisms applied in results-based management and the structures that are required via a life case study of the United Nations Organizations. In critical realism ontology, three aspects are considered, the real, the actual and the empirical. To understand the application of RBM in the case study, this study combines all the three aspects of an insightful analysis. The study draws important lessons in the implementation of results-based management model stemming from the introduction of changes in the RBM framework and the incentives for motivating the management to adopt results-based management. The study notes the existence of RBM on policy papers, but there is the minimal impetus to implement it practically despite its potential benefits in achieving the organizational performance. In occasional cases where the framework is implemented, there exists an inadequate degree of inclusivity, participatory and enabling environment. The life case study focused on the United Nation Organization and the modalities for the implementation of RBM. As a critical step in the evolution of logical framework approaches, RBM attempts to respond to some issues of the Project Cycle Management (PCM) and Logical Framework Approach (LFA) methods. People often ask what the difference is between PCM or LFA and Results Based Management. In a sense, RBM is PCM done right. It provides more tools and directives on what should be done to ensure that project design is performed in a participatory way, and to make sure that one takes into consideration any assumptions and risks. In conclusion, this work has explored the concept of results-based management as a management approach that targets at the improving results in a three-thronged model constituted of Short-, medium-, and long-term types of results, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. The concept is particularly prevalent in the public and not-for-profit organizations. The study has focused on getting insight on the results-based approach in program management and its application in a selected case study. The study explored the application of RBM in the United Nations Organizations such as UNESCO, UNDP among others with a focus on the global, regional and country-based implementation of RBM.

Export products and technology from the U.S. are subject to several regulations enacted by U.S. Congress.  A few government agencies are involved in review of proposed exports depending on complexity and purpose of end use.  These items and persons are also subject to changing political climate and occasionally international treaty obligations.

The present study aimed to understand the consumers’ perception about corporate social responsibility (CSR), to identify companies’ activities that consumers consider to be CSR activities and to recognize the benefits that the consumers derive from CSR. Based on 180 respondents, the study combines descriptive and explanatory research to report on what corporate social responsibility (CSR) means to customers and the value they gain from it. Consumers definitely derive social, emotional, and functional benefit from CSR, according to research. The research is inconclusive, and it is arguable whether CSR policy has any influence on their buying decision. However, consumers report another type of value, i.e., egocentric value that needs to be considered in future research for validation. Besides, the implication of the research five years post-publication explores new dimensions of CSR and consumer values, viz. culture, economic conditions, and industry standards for further investigation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the region's economies, but the severity and duration of the shock are extremely uncertain. Two immediate policy aims should be prioritised: health protection measures and economic support for both supply and demand.

The research work is centered on unemployment and inflation in Nigeria. Its main objective was to ascertain if the trade-off thesis holds in Nigeria. To achieve this, various data on unemployment and inflation were collected from 1988-2013, also other variables such as government expenditure, interest rates, and the gross domestic product were included. The result of the test revealed that unemployment and inflation are inversely related, thus confirming the existence of the Phillips curve in Nigeria, with inflation having a significant impact on unemployment in Nigeria. The work recommended that; Government should strive to develop the agricultural sector, Massive investments should be carried out in the real sector, free flow of information between employers and employees should be enhanced and that special attention be given to policy implementation.