Corporate social responsibility in SMEs
Corporate social responsibility is an important aspect of modern business practice and yet it is little covered in the research literature in the context of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Researchers in Iran hope to remedy that situation and have surveyed 720 owners and managers from SMEs in order to see whether social responsibility is reflected in or correlates with business success. “The results indicated that there was a significantly positive correlation between all four dimensions of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary social responsibility and development of SMEs,” the team reports. As such, they suggest that legislation and giving more authority to SME owners and managers could foster better business practice and improve economic outcomes.
Doshmanli, M., Salamzadeh, Y. and Salamzadeh, A. (2018) ‘Development of SMEs in an emerging economy: does corporate social responsibility matter?‘, Int. J. Management and Enterprise Development, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp.168-191.
Natural teaching
ICT, information and communications technology, is a force for good in teaching natural sciences to young children, according to a study from Greece. Mobile devices and hands-on activities improve teaching of the concept of gravity and the movement of planets in five to seven year olds, the research finds. Specifically, the use of a programming environment known as ScratchJr has many benefits and that more broadly speaking, while ICT cannot displace conventional teaching, it has a major role to play as a teaching tool. Preschoolers playing and experimenting is considered important in the emergence of inventive, creative, and enterprising minds, the modern tools of ICT can facilitate this.
Kalogiannakis, M., Ampartzaki, M., Papadakis, S. and Skaraki, E. (2018) ‘Teaching natural science concepts to young children with mobile devices and hands-on activities. A case study‘, Int. J. Teaching and Case Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.171-183.
What is up?
The cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP) service known as Whatsapp is popular with a wide demographic of users. It has also emerged as a useful marketing tool for many companies and organizations and yet the research literature has shared scant information about its capabilities and limitations. Now, a team from India has investigated the paradigm and looked at how such an application might break what the researchers call the vicious circle of traditional campaigns. Their empirical research shows there to be a statistically significant impact on marketing response rate in WhatsApp campaigns with factors such as personalization, message frequency, and brand awareness, for instance.
Theerthaana, P. (2018) ‘The paradigm of WhatsApp campaign management: breaking the vicious cycle of traditional campaigns‘, Int. J. Internet Marketing and Advertising, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp.138-158.
American potholes
Researchers from Brazil, Canada, and the USA have investigated real load effect on roads with pertinence to the formation of potholes. They have quantified and evaluated the vertical loads applied to the “pavement” [the road surface) by the wheels of a commercial vehicle during pothole events. “The results suggested that the pothole’s depth is a parameter that directly influences the vertical load, while the vehicle’s speed is more likely to impact in the contrasts at low velocities,” the team reports. Fundamentally, transient loads on a vehicle, such the ones imposed by potholes, are expected to cause further damage to the road as well as to the suspension of the vehicle. This is important for all road user given that the team has found that a pothole just 80 millimetres in depth can apply a vertical load on the vehicle’s wheels more than twice that of the static load.
Kubo, P., Larocca, A. and Dawson, J. (2018) ‘Assessment of the vertical load applied to the pavement on pothole events by a commercial truck‘, Int. J. Heavy Vehicle Systems, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp.223-234.