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This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 1812-5654 - ISSN (Online) 1812-5662
Published by Asian Network for Scientific Information (ANSInet)

[30 journals]

Skincare Product Usage: Implications on Health and Wellbeing of Africans
- Abstract: The knowledge of chemical composition of skincare products will go a long way in reducing the hazardous effects often associated with their use. This study sought to determine the association between educational levels and knowledge of the chemical composition of skincare products and also their impact on the health and general wellbeing of users in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, it was intended to stimulate interest on development of products suitable for the African skin. Questionnaires were randomly administered and summary tables created for the pre-processed data to which descriptive statistics was applied. The strength of associations was evaluated using Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results indicated a weak positive correlation between the level of education and knowledge of the chemical composition of skincare products. It also revealed an over-reliance of respondents on foreign skincare products for beauty enhancement. Respondents previously harmed by specific products or who are uncomfortable with some of their effects opted for a change of brand and were willing to participate in a new product survey. The end-users generally desired products with germicidal effects and ability to impact smooth, healthy skin devoid of skin reactions. The study also showed that referral by other users, as opposed to radio, TV or internet advertorials, is the fastest way to introduce a brand to a new user. The findings emphasize the need for enlightenment at all levels and for manufacturers to produce quality skincare products with desirable health attributes.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Intuitionistic Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach in Ranking of Human Capital Indicators
- Abstract: Evaluation on Human Capital (HC) development and a knowledge based economy becomes increasingly important as several approaches have been proposed. One of the popular methods in multi criteria evaluation is the pair-wise comparison of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This study aims to rank human capital indicators using a hybridization of the AHP and two-sided evaluation in Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS). The new Intuitionistic Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (IFAHP) is used to evaluate the four main indicators of HC. The IFAHP approach measures indicators of HC by considering positive attributes and negative attributes of HC indicators concurrently via expert judgments. A fourteen items questionnaire was employed to elicit linguistic data from three experts in the field of HC management. Linguistic judgments of the indicators in pair-wise comparison evaluation are computed using the five step algorithm of the IFAHP approach. The results show that the creating result by using knowledge is the highest in the ranking. Of the four indicators, Employee’s Skill Index is the lowest in the ranking. The ranking surely reflects the importance of the indicators in managing HC especially in Malaysian enterprises.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Effects of Operational Variables on Rotary Valve Metering System for a Variable Rate Technology Fertilizer Applicator for Oil Palm
- Abstract: In the Malaysian oil palm plantation, fertilizer application was observed to be done manually or mechanically at uniform rate without due consideration to nutrient variability. The available constant rate mechanical fertilizer spreaders on oil palm plantation were found to be susceptible to excessive fertilizer application. On the other hand, Variable Rate Technology (VRT) could be used to forestall the hazards of excessive fertilizer application. However, full knowledge of the operational variables of the metering system of a VRT applicator has become inevitable for proper utilization of this technology. A rotary valve metering system test rig was designed and constructed for the purpose of studying the characteristics of the system. A linear regression equation was developed to relate the discharge rate of the metering system to the screw conveyor speed, rotary valve speed, fertilizer bulk density and repose angle. The coefficient of determination (R2) of the regression equation was 98.65%. The screw conveyor speed, the rotary valve speed and type of fertilizer were found to have statistically significant effect on the discharge rate of the system. It was observed that the discharge rate of the system decreased with increase in rotary valve speed. The outcome of this study will enhance the use of rotary valve in the VRT fertilizer applicator for oil palm.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Efficiency of Actinomycetes Against Phytopathogenic Fungus of Chilli Anthracnose
- Abstract: Phytopathogenic fungus as Colletotricum gloeosporioides is a cause of disease on chilli and wide varieties of agricultural crops resulting in yield loss. The aim of this study was to screened actinomycetes according to its ability to produce various secondary metabolites with inhibition activity against chilli anthracnose. Firstly, actinomycetes from previously study were tested for antagonistic activity toward the fungus by the dual culture technique. Finally, extracellular antifungal metabolites produced by selected isolates were evaluated for antifungal potential toward the fungus with agar core technique. Eighty three strains of actinomycetes were screened for their antifungal as well as phytopathogenic activity. Among these, 26 isolates were shown the inhibition activities against Colletotricum gloeosporioides chi in which was isolated from infected chilli. The culture supernatants obtained from 21 actinomycetes strains were affective against the fungus. More interestingly, 7 isolates produced affective thermostable compound that having activity after treated with temperature of 121°C for 20 min. In total, the isolate R58 was most promising on the basis of its interesting antimicrobial activity and it could reduce anthracnose disease of chilli comparing to the absence of biocontrol agent. Based on morphological character, its 16S rDNA sequence and phylogenetic tree analysis, isolate R58 belong to the Streptomyces malaysiensis. These findings have increased the scope of agriculturally important actinomycetes.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Effect of Using Agro-fertilizers and N-fixing Azotobacter Enhanced Biofertilizers on the Growth and Yield of Corn
- Abstract: Corn is an important crop and is grown widely around the world. Corn is a food source for human as well as animal and processed into industrial product such as ethanol. Corn is one of the important productions of Malaysia as the climate is suitable for corn growth. In this study, organic fertilizers such as biofertilizer, N-fixing Azotobacter enhanced biofertilizers and compost were added to the soil to determine best practice in using organic fertilizers for higher corn yield and growth. The study was conducted in plot experiment with five replications based on randomized block design in the summer of 2012. All plots were manually harvested and yield was adjusted to 15% moisture. Grain yield (total corn harvested) at maturity was determined by harvesting the two central rows of each plot. Statistical analysis was performed on the effect of fertilizer treatments on plant growth, corn yield and nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium contents of plant materials. The means were compared according to Duncan multiple range test. The results showed that organic fertilizers in the form of N-fixing Azotobacter enhanced biofertilizer increased yield with positive effects on measured plant height, weight and leaf index. Given the significant enhancement in growth and yield of corn taking place mainly with N-fixing Azotobacter fertilizers under organic condition, the mechanism for this beneficial effect could be due to the more balanced nutrition and improved absorption of nitrogen and other mineral nutrients by the corn.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Likelihood Ratio Type Test and its Critical Values for Structural Change of Unknown Changepoint
- Abstract: This study considers the problem of testing for a structural change of unknown timing in a regression coefficient in the linear regression model. This is a non-standard testing problem and practical important situation facing applied modelers. Simulation methods were used to generate a range of exact critical values of the Likelihood Ratio (LR) type test for different sample sizes, numbers of regressors and types of regressors. We found that the critical values depend on sample size, the number of regressors and to a less extend on the type of explanatory variables. We recommend using the LR type test statistic for testing structural change of unknown timing with our critical value.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
A Memory-based Bees Algorithm: An Enhancement
- Abstract: The Bees Algorithm (BA) is a new population-based optimization algorithm inspired by the foraging nature of bees. In the basic version of the Bees Algorithm, the algorithm performed a combination of neighborhood search and global search. However, the current BA has the disadvantage of not fully imitate all physical and social aspect of bees’ nature. In this study, enhancements to the BA will be introduced as Memory-based Bees Algorithm (MBA) by adding memory (local and global) to two types of bees to make the algorithm more natural. The results of comparing the proposed Local-MBA, global-MBA and MBA (combination of Local-MBA and global-MBA) are tested using several benchmark functions. They had obtained approximately 59.34, 73.02, 74.9 and 75.44% improvement on mean number of evaluations over the basic BA, respectively. Novel fitness values of two engineering design problems are obtained by applying MBA. The proposed algorithms have great potential to be used in many optimization problems.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Prediction of Heating Values of Oil Palm Fronds from Ultimate Analysis
- Abstract: The heating value is one of the most important properties of biomass materials, as it can be used for design calculations or numerical simulations of the thermal conversion systems of biomass. The heating value can be determined experimentally or numerically. The determination of the heating value experimentally (by using a bomb calorimeter) involves laborious measurements while an ultimate analysis can be performed using automatic equipment. In this study, a multiple linear regression analysis was used to develop an empirical equation for the estimation of the higher heating value of Oil Palm Fronds (OPFs) using an ultimate analysis. An empirical equation based on the main elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (HHV = 0.879C+0.321H+0.056O-24.826) was the most accurate model, with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.92, Average Absolute Error (AAE) of 1.4% and Average Bias Error (ABE) of 0.16%.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Intelligent Query Refine and Expansion Model for the Retrieval of E-learning Resources
- Abstract: Today Internet Search Engines, employing intelligent and innovative programming skills, do almost exhaustive search of data contained in websites through number crunching operations at enormous speed but as the search results usually run into hundreds of pages, it is not therefore always possible for an average user to make effective use of such huge collections of data produced as output. While input queries to the Search Engines are usually in the form bag of words, most Information Retrieval systems of Search Engines use models based on statistics of word counts for identifying and ranking the documents in the order of their relevance. In order to make further progress and achieve refinements, researchers have extensively studied the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), concept of Intelligent Agent (IA) to Information Retrieval Tasks. In this study, the query reformulation has been performed based on the statistical probabilistic language modeling technique. The comparative study on the precision recall before and after query expansion been studied and the plot has been plotted.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Vowel Recognition using Discrete Tchebichef Transform
- Abstract: Spectrum analysis has become an elementary operation in vowel recognition. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) has been used as a famous technique to analyze frequency spectrum of the signal in vowel recognition. Traditionally, vowel recognition required large FFT computation on each window. This study has proposed the Discrete Tchebichef Transform (DTT) as a possible alternative to the popular FFT. DTT has had lower computational complexity and it did not require complex transform with imaginary numbers. This study has proposed an approach based on 256 DTT for efficient vowel recognition. The method used a simplify set of recurrence relation matrix to compute within each window. Unlike the FFT, DTT has provided a simpler matrix setting which involves real coefficient numbers only. The experiment on vowel recognition using 256 DTT, 1024 DTT and 1024 FFT has been conducted to recognize five vowels. The experimental results have indicated the practical advantage of 256 DTT in terms of spectral frequency and time taken for vowel recognition performance. 256 DTT has been produced frequency formants that were relatively similar output of 1024 DTT and 1024 FFT in terms of vowel recognition. The 256 DTT has become potential to be a competitive candidate for computationally efficient dynamic vowel recognition.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Optimization of Multilevel Image Thresholding Using the Bees Algorithm
- Abstract: Image thresholding was the process of converting grayscale or even color images into images that had fewer classes of possible pixel values. Thresholding methods could involve finding either a single threshold value (bi-level) or multiple thresholds (multilevel). Bi-level thresholding method was straightforward, but multilevel methods involved exhaustive searching that required large amounts of computation time. One meta-heuristic optimization method to solve the computation time problem was based on bee’s behavior in nature. The recently introduced variant of this method was the Bees Algorithm (BA). BA mimics honey bee foraging activities. It had been proven to be the most powerful fair optimization method for sampling a large solution space because of its fair random sampling. In this study, Otsu’s BA-based method was used to reduce computation time in multilevel image thresholding. Two standard images, Lena and Peppers, were thresholded using the peak signal-to-noise ratio as the image quality index. The effectiveness of the proposed method in terms of its peak signal noise ratio and computation time was measured. The results were then benchmarked against other optimization algorithms, such as Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Honey Bee Mating Optimization (HBMO), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and excessive search. The experiments showed that the quality of images generated by the BA was the best among all of the methods. The BA also used the shortest computation time to find more than 4 thresholds. This result demonstrates that the BA was an outstanding method for optimizing multilevel image thresholding, especially for large threshold values.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Face Recognition in Compressed Domain by Applying Wavelet Transform and Feature Vector Optimization
- Abstract: In this study, a novel method for extracting feature vector in the form of entropy points from compressed images was proposed. This efficient approach for performing face recognition systems directly into wavelet based compressed domain which involve wavelet based image compression/decompression for feature extraction, an efficient feature optimization technique and a method for image classification. This is accomplished by stopping the decompression process after entropy decoding and utilizing the entropy points as input to recognition systems. During the experiments, firstly, a standard recognition algorithms used like principal component analysis, independent component analysis and kernel PCA for optimizing feature vector and kd-tree based method for image matching. Secondly, an improved version of canonical correlation analysis method is applied for feature projection. Finally, cascade forward neural network based algorithm for better matching of facial images for image classification. The experimental results proved that the proposed approach is effective in achieving face recognition in compressed domain with additional reduction of computational time and storage requirements.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Application of Classification based Data Mining Technique in Diabetes Care
- Abstract: The present research work relates data mining to medical informatics. The proposed work shows various models for each type of diabetic intervention and analysis is carried out using classification based data mining technique. The Area Under Curve (AUC) of ROC (Receiving Operating Characteristics) plots are calculated, the confusion matrix is formed, through which accuracy and cost of interventions have been evaluated. The AUC of ROC for all six modes of diabetic interventions are obtained and have been distinguished which mode of intervention is more appropriate. The accuracy and AUC of the model depend on the cost of model which is always inversely proportional to the cost of the model. Present analysis predicts that smoking cessation is the best intervention followed by exercise, diet, weight and drug for the diabetic control. Therefore, the results are quite impressive in predicting the diabetic intervention control resulting in high AUC of ROC and high accuracy with lowest cost.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
An RFID-based Variable Rate Technology Fertilizer Applicator for Tree Crops
- Abstract: Variable Rate Technology (VRT) fertilizer application could reduce pollution through leaching and volatilisation. A VRT fertilizer applicator for band application of granular fertilizer on tree crop was designed, developed and tested. The applicator was equipped with a long-range Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader to detect the stored tag ID on the available passive RFID tags attached on the trees. When the control program received the RFID tag ID on the tree, it related the tag ID to the information in a database and triggered the VRT fertilizer applicator system to apply precise amount of fertilizer to that particular area. Based on the experimental evaluation of the response time of the VRT applicator, it was found to take 2-3 sec to changes in application rate depending on the magnitude of the change. The VRT applicator has a field capacity of 7.22 and 7.71 ha h-1 with field efficiencies of 0.54 and 0.52 at the travelling speed of 4.43 and 4.92 km h-1, respectively. The use of RFID technology has proven to be able to serve as alternative solution for geo-location determinations for the fertilizer applicator in the plantations where the presence of tree canopies has hindered the use of GPS technology.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Water-table Control Using Ordinary Kriging in the Southern Part of Cameroon
- Abstract: In this study, application of the kriging technique for the spatial analysis of groundwater levels is shown. The data set consists of measured elevations of the water table at about 70 points during the last five years (2009-2012) in Sangmelima region (South-Cameroon). From these measurements, an experimental variogram was constructed to characterize the spatial variability of water level. Pentaspherical, spherical, exponential, power, linear and gaussian variogram models were fitted to the experimental variogram. The model having the least error 1.77 and 0.001 according to the cross validation criteria was selected by comparing the observed water-table values with the values predicted by empirical variograms. It was determined that, linear model is the best fitted model for the studied area and can be used as tool to conduct desertification control process in this equatorial zone.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Characterization of Redistilled Liquid Smoke of Oil-palm Shells and its Application as Fish Preservatives
- Abstract: Oil-palm shells as an agricultural waste can be pyrolysed producing gaseous material that can be condensed into liquid smoke. Redistilled liquid smoke has been proven effective as fresh fish preservative due to its antibacterial activity. In the present study, the redistilled liquid smoke is evaluated as fish preservative of fresh catch and as fly repellent in fish salting-fermenting process. The tests included total volatile base-nitrogen levels in fish muscle and antibacterial activity using agar diffusion method. The content of various organic acids in liquid smoke reached 9.2%, mainly consisting of acetic acid and phenolics, at pH of 3.2. There were no harmful compounds such as tar and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The redistilled liquid smoke concentrations of 8, 9, and 10% were able to maintain the freshness of pomfret fish up to 24 h. In these levels of redistilled liquid smoke solution, diameters of clear zone formed on the antibacterial test ranged 10-20 mm, meaning that the liquid smoke fell into strong antibacterial category. It is suggested that the content of carboxylic acids, phenolic compounds and carbonyl serve as a natural preservative to replace the use of synthetic preservatives in salting fermented fish.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Granite Sludge Reuse in Mortar and Concrete
- Abstract: The disposal of solid wastes produced in granite industry to the environment without any treatment cause not only economical but also serious environmental problems. In this study Granite Powder (GP) which produced as solid waste from the cutting and polishing of granite rocks was reused as additive to mortar and concrete cement. Incorporation of GP in mortar and concrete in ratios of 10, 20, 30 wt.% improved mortar and concrete compressive strengths and the concrete workability. The experimental results show that GP can be used to replace cement or fine aggregate in concrete which provide not only solve an environmental problem by safe disposal of GP but also reduce the stress on the limited natural resources and the cost of concrete production.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Pedestrian Performance Measures of an M/G/C/C State Dependent Queuing Network in Emergency
- Abstract: Occupant safety is a major concern for a building in case of emergencies such as fire, bomb blast or earthquake. In such emergency situations, a quick and jam-free evacuation of pedestrian trapped in a network of corridors in buildings is most important. In this paper, we compared the throughputs for two different restrictions on the flow direction with the unrestricted flow for a facility. In this facility, occupants need to go through some source corridors which consists of multiple sources and from source corridors they can choose their nearest exiting corridors. The result indicates that in emergency situation a restricted flow direction of pedestrian increases the throughput of the network which eventually decreases the average evacuation time.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
FPGA Implementation of Low Power Digital QPSK Modulator Using Verilog HDL
- Abstract: Quadratute Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) is a modulation scheme commonly used in wireless communication system due to its ability to transmit twice the data rate for a given bandwidth. Even though the QPSK modulator consumes less power in a present devices but for a system such as satellite and mobile devices where their operations are power limited, this is an issue that needs attention. The objective of this study is to develop an implementable QPSK modulator that uses less power for operation. The proposed technique uses data stored inside a memory block to produce a symbol according to the input data. On the contrary, the conventional QPSK demodulation process requires a Direct Digital Synthesizer (DDS) to produce sinusoidal waveform and mixers to produce a symbol according to the input data. The proposed modulator successfully modeled with verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL), simulated with Xilinx Integrated Software Environment (ISE) version 12.4 software and implemented on Spartan 3E board. At the same time a QPSK demodulator has been developed using MATLAB tool in order to verify the functionality of the modulator. The measured performances of the modulator show the proposed architecture consumes significantly less 32 mw in total from the conventional architecture. The novelty of this work is that the researchers have focused on new methodology on reducing the modulator operational power. As a conclusion, the proposed architecture is not only able to operate as conventional QPSK modulator but at the same time significantly consumed less operation power.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Operating Point Estimation for an Absorption Process using Data Clustering Technique
- Abstract: As part of a tri-generation plant, an absorption process provides the means to recover the energy that otherwise would be lost to the environment. Since the overall efficiency relies on the amount of energy recovered in all subsystems, knowing the current performance of the absorption process is vital to proper management of the resources. This study proposes the use of data clustering technique to estimate the most frequent operating point experienced by the absorption system in a given year. The same technique is applied to identify operating point trajectory of the system over nine years. In order to demonstrate applicability of the proposed approach, an absorption system that is comprised of two 12 ton h-1 heat recovery steam generators and two 1250 RT double-effect LiBr-H2O steam absorption chillers is considered as a case study. It was observed that data clustering technique is an effective method in establishing the relationships between the supplied heat and the amount of energy recovered by each subsystem. The heat recovery steam generators were identified as operating at part load ratio of about 0.41. The clustering method clearly revealed that both chillers deteriorated in performance. The absorption systems were mostly run at part load ratio of about 0.8. As such, at this operating point the energy demand was by 43% higher than that required for a healthy system. The proposed technique is applicable for performance monitoring, optimization and multi-state reliability studies of the absorption system.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Training and Control of Performance of a Tactile Sensory Panel
- Abstract: The sensory measurement provided by a panel of experts to be objective, it must have the same level of reliability and reproducibility as the measurement obtained with a measuring instrument. These two essential criteria are in particular obtained by a sufficient training of the panel. The aim of this research is to establish a sensory evaluation method more reliable and reproducible by using a trained panel which helps the company to foresee the sensory profile of its products. And afterward predict the degree of consumers’ satisfaction of their products. This study, present the methodology followed to set up an objective sensory evaluation method using a trained panel for the evaluation of the textile fabrics handle. Indeed a group of judges is selected and trained to identify and to quantify the perceptions obtained, following the handling of the fabrics samples of various aspects. A list of 16 handle attributes is drawn up after principal components analysis. The performance of the panelists on the level of repeatability is controlled in order to diminish the variableness of the provided measurements. A control of the panelists’ performance is carried out during the test-retest study using the analysis of variance. These analyses permitted to set up a group of 10 experts selected among 15 trained judges according to the importance of their repeatability. This panel is validated to help the company to foresee the sensory profile of its products with a subjective evaluation method more reliable and reproducible.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
A Study on the Causal Relationship of Evaluation and Selection Criteria for the Professional Capabilities in Schools Administrative Operation
- Abstract: With the professional capabilities in school’s administrative operation as the subject and through the literature reviews, the study tried to synthesize five dimensions of professional capabilities in school’s administrative operation as the selection dimensions for enhancing the disciplines and performance in running school by the principals as well as the quality of school operation and efficiency: “school development”, “instructional leadership”, “administrative management”, “public relations” and “professional responsibility”. They also acted as selection dimensions for five professional capabilities that are most important for the school’s administrative operation. The questionnaires were issued to the principals of 34 senior high schools. The causal relationship of selection dimensions for the professional capabilities of school’s administrative operation were obtained through Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), in which the dimension of public relation, administrative management and professional responsibility were the professional capabilities most concerned by the school leaders for school’s administrative operation.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Behind the Mask: The Impact of Service Quality on Consumer Satisfaction and Loyalty Intentions
- Abstract: In recent years, due to rapid economic growth, increase of National Income and advance of lifestyle, the tendency of meeting customer’s satisfaction needs to be related to the idea of service quality and association in hospitality area has been a subject of debate for many years. This study critically examines various factors from service quality and its effect on consumer satisfaction. Human relation scholars have agreed on the basic principle that the issue of customer satisfaction and its importance of the application to the hospitality industry. The underlying service quality mechanism symbolizes a chain of events where persons from all over the world can mimic varied feelings as well as synchronize their facial expressions, body movements and verbal vocalizations with those of other people. Therefore, through unconscious or conscious induction of emotional states, this service quality means differently and eventually reaches a large group of people. From the service point of view, the same case applies to service providers who choose to wear unfriendly faces which are easy to excite a cold consumer atmosphere; moreover, this might seriously worsen customer relations leading to low profits and customer dissatisfaction. On the contrary, a service provider with lovely and friendly mood is easy to create quality and lasting consumer relations and further better marginal profits.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
A Review of Different Sawing and Drying Techniques Used in Processing Small-diameter Logs
- Abstract: The importance of small diameter logs in the sawmilling sector in the South East Asian region cannot be underplayed, as plantation-grown fast growing tree species is the main source of wood raw material for the rapidly expanding wood products industry in the region. The aim of this study was therefore to highlight the different sawing and drying techniques used in the processing of small-diameter logs from the fast growing forest plantations. A significant difference in processing yields and also the costs of the different techniques are obvious and the industry is poised to take advantage of the benefits provided by the saw-dry-rip (SDR) method of processing small-diameter logs. As opposed to the conventional live-sawing method widely used in hardwood sawing in the South East Asian region, the saw-dry-rip (SDR) method offers a more viable option to process the small-diameter logs, with significant reductions in rejects, while improving the overall yield. The overall economic benefits gained through the adoption of this technique warrants serious consideration by the sawmilling sector throughout the region.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013
Guanxi Embeddedness and Trust Building in Chinese Business Markets: A Confucianism Perspective
- Abstract: The study explores the concept of Guanxi by understanding its cultural roots and connotations and its impact on trust building. The Confucian philosophy of ‘lun’ and the way in which the five cardinal relationships of ‘wu-lun’ have had a significant influence on how Guanxi operates. The study also takes a deeper look at the way in which Guanxi influences the way in which trust works in Chinese business markets. The main argument is to investigate how Guanxi operates at many different levels in Chinese business environment in relation to trust building. The increase in globalization has posed some challenges on how Chinese businesses interact with global players in terms of trust. The various types of trust such as goodwill trust, competence trust and collective trust that are involved in the business transactions indicate how Guanxi has a strong influence. By exploring the role of Guanxi, the study develops propositions that Confucianism and Chinese cultural lead to a strong perception of Guanxi, Guanxi relates positively to trust building in Chinese business markets and trust relates positively to the success in business activities in Chinese business environment.
  PubDate: 20 April, 2013