Sonja Bickford

Online Information System – Russia Aims to Ease the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Market Entry Barrier into Northwestern Russia

Finnish companies have a growing and keen interest in entering the changing and improving Northwestern Russian market. According to the World Bank’s rankings for the ease of doing business, Russia ranked at 92 out of 189. The country was however recognized as one of the 29 countries which had improved their rankings in 2012/13 according to reforms in at least 3 of the 10 measured topics. In addition to being ranked in the 50th percentile in the ease of doing business, the Russian business environment and culture must also be considered when deciding to enter a market sector abroad. In understanding the Russian business culture for example, as defined by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Russia is described as a culture of high power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and pragmatism meaning that the business culture includes the right personal contacts, bureaucratic business processes, and an orientation where the situation, context, and time have meaning for the outcome of the issue at hand. In other words, the culture and businesses thrive on the network of contacts, understanding the processes and systems, as well as on direct personal communication. In addition to the ease of doing business improving and the cultural differences, development projects in specific must go through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process which has proven to be a market entry barrier into the Northwestern Russian region. It has been found that the EIA process and system in Russia is complex and hard to navigate, even by native developers. The issues of identifying the EIA best practices of the private sector in Northwestern Russia and thus easing the market entry barrier posed by the Russian EIA system and its process for Finnish as well as other international companies looking into entering the Northwestern Russian market are addressed with a toolkit. This toolkit is a free of charge; open, online information service – Russia (ISRussia) designed specifically from the gathered research, feedback, and needs assessment and analysis of Finland’s private sector and thus is specifically designed for the companies.

A comparison of scholarly productivity among current professors who obtained terminal degrees

ABSTRACT Although scholarship is important in higher education and faculty productivity expectations are continually increasing, we still do not understand the holistic view of faculty productivity. This study takes a different viewpoint on faculty productivity examining differences by university classification and by discipline. Most importantly, we sought to obtain the effects of the delivery mode of terminal degree on later faculty productivity. The mode of terminal degree via Internet delivery looks attractive to students, but this study found that this has implications for future research productivity. These three elements illustrate a different scope that has important implications for administrative leaders looking to hire future faculty as well as students thinking about becoming a future faculty member. To capture this view, 600 faculty members from 59 American universities were surveyed. From this survey, five different variables emerged to create an overall faculty scholarly productivity factor. This factor was then compared against university classification, discipline, and mode of terminal degree. Results showed surprising significant differences between university classifications and disciplines as compared to scholarly productivity. One of the most noteworthy findings was that there is a significant difference in faculty productivity based on the mode of terminal degree. Furthermore, no difference in later faculty scholarly productivity exists between that of a hybridized, online degree and a purely online degree. Again, these results indicate significant finds which have a high influence on faculty scholarly productivity, which holds important implications for the future of the university.

Cyber InSecurity: A Post-Mortem Attempt to Assess Cyber Problems from IT and Business Management Perspectives

Jane,aveteranAccountingemployeeatSachemManufacturing,Inc.,recentlyfellvictimtoaphishing attackthatinfectedhercomputerwithransomware.Janethenfurtheredtheattackbyloggingintokey companysystemsperpetuatingtheproblem.Aseriesoffranticphonecallsfollowedasstafffrom InformationTechnology(IT)scrambledtounderstandtheproblemandputthebrokenpiecesback together.Unfortunately,thedamagewastoodeepandtheproblemreachedouttohinderameeting thattheCEOwashavingwithanimportantclient.Fingerpointing,namecalling,andheadshaking tookoverthe“WarRoom”asthetopexecutivessoondiscoveredthattheirmanagerial,technical,and politicalshortcomingsweremoreubiquitousthantheycaredtoadmit.TheCEOblamedITfornot preventingthesituationandfornotcommunicatingeffectivelywithmanagementinunderstandable terms.ITblamedtheCEOforlimitingnecessarytechnicalresources. KeywoRdS Business and IT Relationships, Business Management, Cybersecurity, Hacking, Information Technology, IT, Leadership, Ransomware

Kinesiology in 360 Degrees

ABSTRACT Kinesiology is a diverse field revolving around a core ideology of physical activity. Because of its multidisciplinary nature, kinesiology is an area that is made for interdisciplinary collaboration. This article evaluates kinesiology and the wide range of potential interdisciplinary collaborations, specifically through the lens of the areas of biology, technology, business, education, law, psychology, sociology, and recreation management. The evaluation further explores barriers to potential collaborations and proposes a model for success. Using the diffusion of innovations theory as a framework, this article outlines who needs to be involved and gives a recommended model of implementation. In the end, the rocky road of interdisciplinary collaboration within kinesiology can be successfully navigated. Furthermore, this evaluation finds that interdisciplinary collaboration is essential in the field of kinesiology and should be strategically implemented.

Environmental impact assessment: introduction to a policy instrument manifesting sustainable development

It is generally understood that the first national EIA procedure established was the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA 1969, as amended) of the United States in 1969. Thereafter, the EIA procedure first spread to the commonwealth countries of Canada and Australia, and then to Europe and also to some developing countries (Gilpin 1995; Harrop and Nixon 1999). International banks like the World Bank or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) started to make EIA a precondition for any loan they gave (Bastmeijer and Koivurova 2008, part 3). At the moment, practically all states have their EIA systems in place (Yang and Percival 2009). Even the transboundary EIA, an extension of domestic EIA to foreign states and other actors has, in the words of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) become