Issue #2 (cont. 2) (Volume 15 2017)

The question addressed in this paper is linked to the future of knowledge management. The problem is that we don’t know how knowledge resources will benefit the organization of the future. The purpose in this article is to give some tentative answers to knowledge management, organizational design and leadership issues in the global knowledge economy.

This article is devoted to the study of insurance business development in Ukraine and Russia in the late XIX – early XXI centuries, generation and identification of special aspects of formation and use of sacred art elements in corporate identity of insurance companies.
The purpose of this article is to discuss the concept of management of visual communications in insurance companies, an important component of which is the formation and development of brands in the insurance market, which include elements of sacred art.
Corporate identity gives insurers a new methodology for managing marketing communications. The author proves the corporate identity of insurance companies and its place in the system of marketing communications. Due attention is paid to corporate identity of National Joint-Stock Insurance Company “Oranta” (Ukraine), Insurance LLC “Oranta” (Russia) and Insurance Company “Rossiya” (Russia). There are given examples of the use of Orans (Oranta) and the Burning Bush icons inscriptions in corporate identity of insurance companies. The author describes icons in corporate identity of insurance companies and definitely their role in the communication process. Conflict situations over the use of the Orans brand in Ukraine are analyzed. The need to be careful enough in using sacred symbols in the corporate style of insurance companies is emphasized. Evolution of the logo insurance companies is presented.
Examples of integrating corporate identity into the strategy and tactics of insurance companies are shown.

In this article the research of theoretical and methodological approaches to ensuring the sustainable development of the agrarian sector within the region based on the methods of state regulation was conducted. Regulatory and legal measures of the agrarian sectors sustainable development within the regions in crisis where conditions have been developed.
The structural scheme of the system of state regulation for pricing of the products in the agrarian sector has been developed. The algorithm for the state regulation of prices for the agrarian market is proposed.
It is proposed to construct of an effective management system of sustainability agrarian sector development of the region to combine all actions of management subjects of agrarian relations by the following elements: state regulation, market self-organization, management of agrarian sector.
Currently the most optimal agrarian sectors of the region have an innovative development scenario in which innovative resources are used, shifting resource-technological equilibrium in the direction of production growth through more efficient use of natural, financial and other resources as an additional source of sustainable development of the regional agrarian systems.
A targeted model of sustainable development of the Vinnitsa region agrarian sector has been developed on the basis of an innovative scenario that envisages achieving this by giving the agrarian sector of the region the main and basic guidelines of development by means of organizational and rational interaction of agroindustrial regional system with the external environment, ensuring its ability to self-development, efficiency of functioning, flexibility and adaptability.

The problems of organizing the functioning of the land market in Ukraine remain unregulated. Gradually, they have moved from the economic plane to the political one, thereby exacerbating social tensions in the society. The current state of land relations requires immediate reforms in terms of granting the right to almost 7 million citizens to dispose of their property. Therefore, the issue of completion of land reform and the introduction of agricultural land market is a responsible step for the state and provides for the development of a set of measures based on the forecast of socio-economic consequences for the whole society. This step may be related to the transfer of land to private ownership, formation of a multi-sectoral economy on the basis of ensuring equal development of various forms of management, ensuring conditions for the efficient and rational use of land.
The authors emphasize that the draft laws on land turnover submitted for discussion do not specify the issue of transparency of the possible introduction of a free land market and contradict each other. They do not take into account the international experience of developed countries.

Since the government opened to the establishment of new private banks in 1990s, the competition in banking industry has become fierce in Taiwan. Especially, the establishment of financial holding companies after 2000s has resulted in the merge among financial institutions. The competition in banking industry becomes even fiercer. The price war of interest rate among banks gradually shortens the deposit and lending rate difference in banking industry that banks could no longer survive with the traditional business of deposit and lending rate differences. Banks have to attract customers with different service quality, satisfy customer needs, and create new profits for banking industry. Generally speaking, service quality is related to customer satisfaction after receiving service, and satisfaction becomes the internal assessment indicator of financial industry for customers. A lot of excellent foreign businesses or national financial institutions present brilliant competitiveness in the field of finance by the specialty and service quality. Taking Land Bank of Taiwan as the research subject, this study aims to discuss the effect of service quality on customer loyalty and corporate performance in financial industry.
It is discovered in this study that an enterprise enhancing the service quality through the mediation effect of customer loyalty could effectively promote the corporate performance. For this reason, the relationship between customer loyalty and service quality, corporate performance are established in this study, and the results of the analysis could be the reference for banking industry in Taiwan.

This study aims to examine the effect of Employment Development Index (EDI) on economic growth, and the effect of EDI on poverty level and the effect of economic growth on poverty level in Indonesia. This study used descriptive and exploratory analysis with secondary data source, that is, EDI, economic growth, and poverty level in 33 provinces of Indonesia during the period 2012–2013. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the form of force conditions between these three variables. The findings revealed that the effect of EDI on economic growth is insignificant, it was caused by the GDP unable to drive the economic growth and the EDI affects significantly on the poverty level in Indonesia. Then, the effect of economic growth on poverty level is insignificant, which means the economic growth is unable to be the basis for alleviating poverty in Indonesia.

Existing forecasts of Russian energy sector development have a number of general provisions and differ in approaches to their construction. The most realistic forecast is made within the framework of the Energy Strategy of Russia for the period up to 2035. However, the dynamism and high uncertainty of economic processes, international relations, domestic policy and the rapid growth of scientific and technical progress need a systematic correction of any forecast. The purpose of the article is to develop theoretical provisions and practical recommendations for making a forecast for the development of the Russian fuel and energy complex based on the application of the factor approach.
The forecasting results are used in the development of management decisions, therefore, the authors of the article take into account the influence of various factors while making the forecast, but they (factors) are all quantitatively commensurable. To make a reliable forecast, the internal environment of the research object is studied in detail, organizational and economic problems in the development of the Russian fuel and energy complex are revealed, and methods for their elimination are suggested. The external environment is also analyzed and trends in the development of world energy markets are revealed. To forecast the state of the fuel and energy complex, an integral indicator is chosen reflecting the level of its technical and economic development.

Risk management is one of the prominent issues which are pivotal to the success of a business and may adversely affect profitability if not properly practised. Therefore, the main objective of this paper was to determine risk management practices in manufacturing SMEs in Cape Town. The research conducted was quantitative in nature and constituted the collection of data from 74 SME leaders, all of whom had to adhere to a list of strict delineation criteria. All data collected were thoroughly analyzed through means of descriptive statistics. From the findings made, it is clear that SMEs in the manufacturing sector do in fact understand risk management initiatives applicable to ‘manage’ their respective businesses towards sustainability, but not to a large extent. It was found that respondents are unaware of the elements which make risk management effective, which ultimately aids to the development of problems for SMEs. All employees, managers and owners must coordinate their efforts together to identify and manage organizational risks within their ambit to obtain total risk coverage, as well as provide assurance that these risks are effectively managed from a coordinated approach. Further studies may be carried out to identify measures that can be taken to improve the effectiveness of risk management practices in SMEs.

Previous research has studied the effects of materialism, value corruption and falsity, which were identified by Pollay and Mittal (1993) as negatively impacting the beliefs about advertising. Few, if any, assessed negative beliefs about Facebook advertising. This paper assesses such beliefs and how these beliefs influence attitudes toward advertising on Facebook. To meet the objectives of the study, 269 undergraduate students completed the questionnaire. Regression analysis was used to examine a relationship between the beliefs about Facebook advertising and attitudes. In line with hypotheses developed for this study, results showed that respondents of this study view Facebook advertising as promoting materialism, corrupting society’s values and misleading and thus negatively impacting their attitudes toward Facebook advertising. This paper concludes with the discussion of results and offers the limitation of the study. The study also provides directions for future research.

The increasing prominence of social media marketing in advancing the global reach and visibility of products and services is ideal for the South African tourism industry, which depends on local and international visitors for leveraging its business activities and competitiveness. However, what remains under-explored in tourism literature is the depth of integration of social media marketing into the competitive strategies of emerging tourism small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs). To address this grey area, this study explored the extent to which tourism SMMEs utilize social media technologies (SMTs) to extend their market share and the implications thereof for the competitiveness of their business operations. Drawing on a quantitative approach, a survey was conducted on 234 tourism SMMEs’ owner/managers in the Free State province of South Africa to establish the impact of social media marketing on the competitiveness of their businesses. Evidence suggests that tourism SMMEs employed social media marketing predominantly for online marketing of their products/services, promoting their products/services, attracting existing customers, and sometimes, for integrating it into their marketing strategies. Results of correlation analysis revealed that social media marketing is positively and significantly related to the competitiveness of tourism SMMEs. The recommendations for leveraging the integration of social media marketing into the competitive strategy of the small business are provided.

Quality management systems in public organizations influence the quality of service delivery outputs. The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of service delivery at Community Service Centres (CSC) of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Western Cape, South Africa. A mixed-method research approach was employed to gather data for the study. Both a survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews were used to collect the data. The sample data set contacted 300 respondents from three policing areas situated in the Western Cape Metropolis. The main findings indicated that clients were satisfied with the level of service they received from the SAPS. However, the main area of concern was the absence of service delivery initatives at three police stations.

Franchising plays a pivotal role in sustainable economic development through employment creation, improving the standards of living and increasing the growth of entrepreneurship worldwide. However, the volatile business environment in Zimbabwe has a negative impact on the growth of franchising in the fast food industry. The aim of the study was to uncover the challenges of franchising in a volatile business environment in Zimbabwe. The study focused on an under studied area of franchising in the fast food industry of Zimbabwe. The study is important, as franchising can be used as a tool for economic growth and the study breaks a new ground, as no similar studies have been conducted to identify the challenges faced by franchise entrepreneurs in a volatile business environment. Ten qualitative interviews were successfully conducted with franchise entrepreneurs using face to face semi structured interviews as data collection method and thematic coding was used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study indicate that franchise entrepreneurs face difficulties in obtaining operating licences from the Harare’s City Municipal Authorities and registering their businesses. Electricity power cuts severely affect the operations of fast food businesses. The majority of the entrepreneurs do not have adequate capital to expand and grow their businesses and they fail to meet lending requirements from the financial institutions, top-most among them being the provision of collateral security accompanied by rigid application procedures for funding. Recommendations made include that the government must play an active role in promoting franchising by setting up a vibrant franchise board and speeding up the business registration process.

The study examined the impact of sound corporate governance on economic growth in Zimbabwe using an econometric model. A multiple linear regression analysis was employed to examine the relationship. Secondary data for the period 1968 to 2015 was collected from World Bank’s Worldwide Governance and World Development Indicators databases. It was found that sound corporate governance is significantly correlated to economic growth in Zimbabwe in a positive and negative manner with a p-value of 0.000023235 at 5% level of confidence. On one hand, control of corruption is negatively significantly related to economic growth and, on the other hand, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism positively significantly related to economic growth. Government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and voice and accountability are insignificant in influencing economic growth in Zimbabwe at 5% level of significance. The findings from this article will assist policy formulation, policy implementation and future research. This article, however, is of great importance to government, private sector and the academia.

Fertilizer not only plays a major role in the profitability of the farmer’s business, but also represents an expensive farm input. The emerging farmer market segment is expanding and holds a great deal of potential for fertilizer companies to supply the growing need for fertilizer in this market. Almost all fertilizer marketing strategies of South African companies have been designed to cater for the commercial farming sector; however, if fertilizer suppliers want to focus on the emerging farmer market segment, they need to understand buying behavior of emerging farmers, as well as their needs when developing strategies to utilize opportunities in this developing market. This study aims to identify factors playing an important role in the buying behavior of emerging farmers in the Free State when purchasing fertilizer. The results show that service, brand, product, and learning or psychological factors highly influence emerging farmers’ fertilizer purchase decision. The study also finally draws recommendations and conclusions for managerial perusal.