Published in M. Bray, A.E. Mazawi & R.G. Sultana (eds.), Private Tutoring across the Mediterranean: Power Dynamics and Implications for Learning and Equity (pp. 167-176)., 2012
This chapter presents an exploratory study of discourses about private tutoring. Slovenia, as a y... more This chapter presents an exploratory study of discourses about private tutoring. Slovenia, as a young democracy just entering its third decade, is still struggling to embrace the free market economy. It has many grey areas with no or little tax regulation. Private tutoring has been widely recognised as one of the strongest components of the shadow economy, but no previous research has been undertaken on its scale and implications. For the present study, a qualitative analysis was chosen to explore the content and nature of discourses on different forums and websites reflecting both demand and supply of tutoring. The findings are discussed and compared with international knowledge about the phenomenon.
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Papers by Armand Faganel
empirical section of the paper comprises a case study that highlights a specific municipality’s efforts to revive its heritage city center. The main attraction in Koper is its well-preserved medieval city center with five-centuries-old Venetian architecture. An analysis of the municipality’s initiatives is performed and a qualitative study that investigates the perceptions and experiences of stakeholders regarding the situation and the municipality’s actions to preserve commercial activity in the city center. The results of the semi-structured interviews conducted with three distinct stakeholder groups are analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. The findings reveal that the chosen municipality has achieved relative success in revitalizing its heritage city center. Concurrently, stakeholders’ perspectives are utilized to identify potential drawbacks and explore opportunities for mitigating them. This paper concludes by presenting its theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of heritage city center revitalization, not only in the selected municipality but also beyond. These insights can inform the appropriate sustainable policy development and marketing strategy.
of Slovenian and Austrian higher education institutions in the field of business and economics. We analysed the content of these statements by using WordSmith tools, a suite of programmes for identifying key words in each text, generating word lists in frequency order, and/or studying certain words in context.
First, we searched the Internet and saved mission statements of all Slovenian and Austrian business and economics higher education institutions (HEIs) that had such a document in English. For our research, we first created two corpuses (one for the Austrian HEIs and one for the Slovenian HEIs) in plain text format. After that we used WordList to create two-word lists and used Concord to see how the most frequently used words in those two lists are used in the context.
We analysed and interpreted the results by highlighting the main characteristics of the discourse used in the sample texts, as well as pinpointing the main differences and similarities.
Design/Methodology/Approach – Our research employed supervised machine learning methods tuned on historical responses to a casino’s direct marketing activities to improve the company’s RFM segmentation model. Demographic variables were also included with the aim of improving the power of the models employed. Finally, we attempted to improve the best-performing model by hypertuning its algorithm parameters.
Findings and Implications – The best and most intuitive model was found to be that using decision trees with Recency (from RFM) together with age and the awarded amount (from the demographic element) as independent variables. Surprisingly, the company’s own RFM segmentation was also found to perform well.
Limitations – Not all machine learning methods used for classification were included in our research nor did we use ensemble methods to improve the models’ power. While all models developed are applicable to similar data, they could lose their accuracy when applied to data from a different industry. The company’s own RFM model was not analyzed but was included in the model as is. Further insight could be gained by determining its optimal parameters.
Originality – This study contributes to the existing literature by showing how direct marketing efficiency modeling using standard RFM could be improved with the addition of a company’s customer property. It also provides insight into how classification algorithms perform on a casino database of direct marketing activities.
public interest, and for the benefit of all interested stakeholders, internal and external. Although understanding and definitions of social responsibility vary, a short literature overview has been offered. Through the content analysis of Slovenian universities’ texts in their missions, strategies, last published self-evaluation reports, and quality manuals, the appearance of the term social responsibility has been verified. However, as there are many different definitions of social responsibility, study results do not show a homogeneous assertion of this term in documents. Consequently, it is impossible to find a unified philosophical view of a university's role in society. Nevertheless, findings show some differences in how public and private universities deal with these questions.
The demand and competition for farmed fi sh is increasing worldwide, and so is the awareness of the importance for further development of sustainable small business. In this view innovation is crucial to promote sustainable business models that can achieve a solid economic performance and at the same time take care of the natural environment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature about sustainable business models by an in-depth case
study of a small fi sh farming company. The exemplary case study of a sustainable business model in aquaculture has been analysed by use of an enhanced business model canvas that links various market oriented elements of a business model with the needs of society.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper developed a single equation microeconomic error correction model (ECM) with the Engle and Granger two-step method. With the ECM approach, the paper performed application on the KPIs and estimated short- and long-term effects between them.
Findings – From the final ECM model, it can be recognized that the total turnover has been increased, by increased maritime throughput. Increasing the maritime throughput means a reduction in electricity consumption per tonne reloaded and increasing consumption of fossil fuels and water. Revenue per unit of maritime throughput has a negative regression coefficient, which may lead to an increase in income or increased amount of maritime throughput and simultaneously reducing the cost per tonne reloaded. Results are reflecting the impact of sharp declining in maritime throughput with the greatest added value in the years 2007 and 2008. All these results and observations suggest that an error correction mechanism exists and that the paper set up a stable model, which describes the dynamics of short-term determinants of the long-term service performance.
Research limitations/implications – The following limitations exist to this study: sample size and quality of the data that were available and the quantitative analysis in the four perspectives of the Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard (BSC). Since this is the case study that investigates the impact of the KPIs' on the results and causalities between them, the paper also encountered the data, which are treated as a business secret. Further research into the impact of introducing the four perspectives of the BSC to monitor the implementation of strategies and strategic projects is recommended.
Practical implications – The presented quantitative approach is useful in combination with a qualitative approach, which is a common practice in determining the causal relations resulting in the strategic map of BSC. Simulations of the developed model are possible on all levels of management, by combining the KPIs, and consecutively acquire new knowledge about their relations. Developed quantitative approach supports improving the monitoring of operational efficiency of an organization, improving business processes, project efficiency and achievement of the strategic goals.
Originality/value – Developed approach supports identification and classification of strategic goals and their KPIs that are best suited for inclusion in the BSC strategic map, improvements to the monitoring of implemented strategic initiatives and achievement of strategic goals.
empirical section of the paper comprises a case study that highlights a specific municipality’s efforts to revive its heritage city center. The main attraction in Koper is its well-preserved medieval city center with five-centuries-old Venetian architecture. An analysis of the municipality’s initiatives is performed and a qualitative study that investigates the perceptions and experiences of stakeholders regarding the situation and the municipality’s actions to preserve commercial activity in the city center. The results of the semi-structured interviews conducted with three distinct stakeholder groups are analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. The findings reveal that the chosen municipality has achieved relative success in revitalizing its heritage city center. Concurrently, stakeholders’ perspectives are utilized to identify potential drawbacks and explore opportunities for mitigating them. This paper concludes by presenting its theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of heritage city center revitalization, not only in the selected municipality but also beyond. These insights can inform the appropriate sustainable policy development and marketing strategy.
of Slovenian and Austrian higher education institutions in the field of business and economics. We analysed the content of these statements by using WordSmith tools, a suite of programmes for identifying key words in each text, generating word lists in frequency order, and/or studying certain words in context.
First, we searched the Internet and saved mission statements of all Slovenian and Austrian business and economics higher education institutions (HEIs) that had such a document in English. For our research, we first created two corpuses (one for the Austrian HEIs and one for the Slovenian HEIs) in plain text format. After that we used WordList to create two-word lists and used Concord to see how the most frequently used words in those two lists are used in the context.
We analysed and interpreted the results by highlighting the main characteristics of the discourse used in the sample texts, as well as pinpointing the main differences and similarities.
Design/Methodology/Approach – Our research employed supervised machine learning methods tuned on historical responses to a casino’s direct marketing activities to improve the company’s RFM segmentation model. Demographic variables were also included with the aim of improving the power of the models employed. Finally, we attempted to improve the best-performing model by hypertuning its algorithm parameters.
Findings and Implications – The best and most intuitive model was found to be that using decision trees with Recency (from RFM) together with age and the awarded amount (from the demographic element) as independent variables. Surprisingly, the company’s own RFM segmentation was also found to perform well.
Limitations – Not all machine learning methods used for classification were included in our research nor did we use ensemble methods to improve the models’ power. While all models developed are applicable to similar data, they could lose their accuracy when applied to data from a different industry. The company’s own RFM model was not analyzed but was included in the model as is. Further insight could be gained by determining its optimal parameters.
Originality – This study contributes to the existing literature by showing how direct marketing efficiency modeling using standard RFM could be improved with the addition of a company’s customer property. It also provides insight into how classification algorithms perform on a casino database of direct marketing activities.
public interest, and for the benefit of all interested stakeholders, internal and external. Although understanding and definitions of social responsibility vary, a short literature overview has been offered. Through the content analysis of Slovenian universities’ texts in their missions, strategies, last published self-evaluation reports, and quality manuals, the appearance of the term social responsibility has been verified. However, as there are many different definitions of social responsibility, study results do not show a homogeneous assertion of this term in documents. Consequently, it is impossible to find a unified philosophical view of a university's role in society. Nevertheless, findings show some differences in how public and private universities deal with these questions.
The demand and competition for farmed fi sh is increasing worldwide, and so is the awareness of the importance for further development of sustainable small business. In this view innovation is crucial to promote sustainable business models that can achieve a solid economic performance and at the same time take care of the natural environment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature about sustainable business models by an in-depth case
study of a small fi sh farming company. The exemplary case study of a sustainable business model in aquaculture has been analysed by use of an enhanced business model canvas that links various market oriented elements of a business model with the needs of society.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper developed a single equation microeconomic error correction model (ECM) with the Engle and Granger two-step method. With the ECM approach, the paper performed application on the KPIs and estimated short- and long-term effects between them.
Findings – From the final ECM model, it can be recognized that the total turnover has been increased, by increased maritime throughput. Increasing the maritime throughput means a reduction in electricity consumption per tonne reloaded and increasing consumption of fossil fuels and water. Revenue per unit of maritime throughput has a negative regression coefficient, which may lead to an increase in income or increased amount of maritime throughput and simultaneously reducing the cost per tonne reloaded. Results are reflecting the impact of sharp declining in maritime throughput with the greatest added value in the years 2007 and 2008. All these results and observations suggest that an error correction mechanism exists and that the paper set up a stable model, which describes the dynamics of short-term determinants of the long-term service performance.
Research limitations/implications – The following limitations exist to this study: sample size and quality of the data that were available and the quantitative analysis in the four perspectives of the Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard (BSC). Since this is the case study that investigates the impact of the KPIs' on the results and causalities between them, the paper also encountered the data, which are treated as a business secret. Further research into the impact of introducing the four perspectives of the BSC to monitor the implementation of strategies and strategic projects is recommended.
Practical implications – The presented quantitative approach is useful in combination with a qualitative approach, which is a common practice in determining the causal relations resulting in the strategic map of BSC. Simulations of the developed model are possible on all levels of management, by combining the KPIs, and consecutively acquire new knowledge about their relations. Developed quantitative approach supports improving the monitoring of operational efficiency of an organization, improving business processes, project efficiency and achievement of the strategic goals.
Originality/value – Developed approach supports identification and classification of strategic goals and their KPIs that are best suited for inclusion in the BSC strategic map, improvements to the monitoring of implemented strategic initiatives and achievement of strategic goals.