Jokull Johannesson

UK, Russia, Kazakhstan and Cyprus governance compared

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the corporate governance standards of Cyprus, Russia, and Kazakhstan to those of the UK to facilitate investment decisions. The paper aims to discover governance gaps creating a potential for alignment to UK standards.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a qualitative case study of four countries based on the OECD criteria of 118 corporate governance measures.Findings – The findings indicate that the corporate governance standards in Cyprus match 92 per cent of the UK standards, Russian standards match 75 per cent, and Kazakhstan ones 63 per cent. The greatest contrast to the UK standards were for Cyprus in the area of disclosure and transparency category, Russias was in the area of responsibilities of the board, and Kazakhstans was highest in the two areas mentioned above and low overall.Research limitations/implications – The paper identifies areas of governance that could be aligned to UK standards. Further research is needed to com...

Business growth in a tough economy

In a global recession, executives face new challenges and opportunities in strategy formulation and the first alternatives to come to mind are cost reduction and restructuring, but these will result in poor performance and place the firm at a disadvantage in the coming economic recovery. Executives need to focus on the growth opportunities and many executives may use the Ansoff Matrix to analyse their strategies. This paper addresses some of the concerns and ambiguities that are imbedded in the Ansoff Matrix, clarifies them, and proposes an extended Ansoff Matrix, giving eight growth vector strategy alternatives that are easier to use.

Russia-Ukraine balance of military power

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the most serious test of European security in the 21st century and the forgone conclusion is that Russia can easily prevail in the conflict, but this has not been the case. This article uses balance of military power analysis to report findings on the plausible outcome of a war between Ukraine and Russia. I report findings based on realist theoretical perspectives that indicate Russian victory is unlikely because of relative balance of power where Russia has to face multiple threats diverting its military power while Ukraine can concentrate its military power for a single purpose. The findings suggest implication for policy in Russia, Ukraine, EU and the United States of America.

Russia’s war with Ukraine is to acquire military industrial capability and human resources

The Russia-Ukraine war presents a serious challenge as to understanding of President Putin’s geopolitical intentions. This article uses a resource dependence perspective to explain Russia’s motives for invading Ukraine. The invasion is driven by Russia’s resource gaps in military-industrial capacity and human resources, and the fact that these resource gaps could be substantially mitigated by control over Ukraine’s resources. The findings suggest implications for further research, policy and international business developments.

GROUP UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SUPERVISION, STUDENT EVALUATIONS, PERFORMANCE AND STAFF RESOURCE EFFICIENCY AT A NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY

Dissertation research is considered a critical part of undergraduate degrees in many countries and in Norway the production of a research based dissertation is considered a benchmark for science based university business degrees. The challenge is to achieve the dissertation research objectives with the resources available to universities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of group based dissertation research supervision on student evaluations, performance and staff resources at a University of Agder (UIA) Norway. This study reports on two years of experience of the group dissertation research supervision, involving 121 marketing and leadership major students, organized in 40 groups and supervised by two professors at the UIA School of Business and Law. The main motivation for the selection of the group dissertation supervision approach was cost savings. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness of group dissertation supervision in terms of student evaluations, performance and resource efficiency. The research questions were: 1. how does the group supervision affect students’ performance and completion rates? 2. how does the group supervision affect the student evaluations? 3. how does the group supervision affect resources efficiency? A case study methodology using mixed approach was used to accomplish the aims of assessing students’ performance, evaluations, and resource efficiency [1]. The 2015 and 2016 student cohorts were used for the study. The findings show the group dissertation research supervision to be a success in terms of students’ performance and evaluations. The group approach to dissertation supervision generated large financial surpluses hence a practical solution to resource strapped institutions. However, the social implication of generating large financial surpluses at the plausible expense of quality of the education needs further research.

Cultural Narratives, Early Occupy Movement, and the TEA Party: Revolts Against E-SCAD and SCAD

“A democratic awakening”, says Reverend Dr. Cornell West, who has written several books of various foci weaving philosophy, theology, pedagogy, and critical theory to highlight social injustice. Upon the writing of this chapter in late October, Dr. West, a seasoned activist and currently Princeton University professor of religion and African American studies, has been arrested twice at Occupy Wall Street (OWS) rallies — first at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, and days later in New York, heading a march against that city’s police department’s “stop and frisk” policy, which effectively legitimates gender and racial profiling, since it primarily targets the city’s black and brown men. Organized by existing associations already challenging the policy, the rally began in Harlem and was endorsed by the governing General Assembly of demonstrators at Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of OWS. Seven hundred demonstrators were arrested at the debut of OWS — 27 September 2011. By Halloween eve, an interactive map on the site OccupyTogether.org collates affiliated “actions” in over 600 cities across the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.