Dr. Julie Beardsell, Professor of IT Strategy and Member of the Academic Council at Monarch Business School Switzerland, represented the University at the CIO Summit held on 1 February in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Over 100 participants took part in this unique event which focused on the subject of “The CIO of tomorrow”.  A mix of local and international speakers was on stage, including Crawford del Prete, IDC Boston, Dr. Peter Wilton, University of Berkley, California, and Rick Bakken of Microsoft.

Dr. Beardsell was quoted as saying, “The event included some excellent speakers and interesting discussions about the future role of the CIO; particularly how CIOs need to become more strategic, which is especially challenging due to the operational demands of the role. This was a successful event with plenty of good content to think about.”

It is a pleasure for the administration of UGSM-Monarch Business School Switzerland to announce the official relaunch of the Monarch Management Review under the Open Journal System. The Open Journal System has been developed by the PKP-Public Knowledge Project through its federally funded efforts to expand and improve access to research. The PKP is supported by Simon Fraser University in Canada and Stanford University and the University of Pittsburgh in the USA.

View The Journal  |  Archive Page   |   Volume 1, Issue 1

The goal of The Monarch Management Review is to provide a vehicle for both the faculty and guest authors of UGSM-Monarch Business School Switzerland to publish scholarly work in journal form to help advance the field of management research. It provides an opportunity for its authors to act as “thought-leaders” within the field of management scholarship.  The Monarch Management Review is considered an open publication where authors are encouraged to submit articles covering traditional and non-traditional subjects on a wide-range of interests within the domain of management study and economics. Interdisciplinary articles are also greatly appreciated. The Review will be published on a semi-annual basis.

New Researcher Contribution Program

Unique to the Monarch Management Review is the launch of the New Researcher Contribution Program, where existing doctoral candidates and recent graduates with less than 5 years from graduation may submit articles for publications. This program is meant to specifically highlight the exciting work of young scholars and provide the critical avenue for publication that is often difficult for new researchers to find.

Volume 2, Issue 1

The second Volume of the Monarch Management Review will be published April, 2012 and is presently taking submissions. Interested parties should send their manuscripts to mmr@ugsm-monarch.com.

Dr. Yiorghos Leventis, Professor of International Relations her at Monarch Business School Switzerland and Director of the International Security Forum, participated upon invitation in the debates of the 25th Winter Course of the International School on Disarmament & Research on Conflicts-ISODARCO. The week long winter course held at Andalo – Trento, Italy, 8-15 January 2012, focused on the theme of Security in Cyberspace: Targeting Nations, Infrastructures, Individuals. Professor Leventis chaired sessions of the course. He also held discussions on future research cooperation with the Director of ISODARCO Professor Carlo Schaerf  of Tor Vergata University in Rome, the course’s director Dr. Gianpiero Giacomelo of the University of Bologna, Professor Alessandro Pascolini from the University of Padova and Dr. Steve Wright from Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.

The university would like to thank Dr. Leventis for his representation and hard work.

  It is the pleasure for the Faculty of UGSM-Monarch Business School Switzerland to rebroadcast a Design Thinking seminar by Monarch Doctoral Student Mr. Robert Chitty. Robert recently spoke to an MBA class at the University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Bob has over 25 years experience in the design field. He founded The Gordon Group in 1987 in Ottawa, Canada and through his efforts, the company has grown into one of Ottawa’s largest and most respected communication and marketing firms. He has directed many complex, large-scale campaigns and has won the trust and admiration of clients in both the private and public sectors. Bob is a member of Boston’s Design Management Institute. Bob holds a M. Phil. in Business Research from UGSM-Monarch Business School and is presently completing his Doctoral program at Monarch.

It is with pleasure that UGSM-Monarch Business School announces that Dr. Kamsaris, Professor of Organizational Behaviour & Psychology has been recently published in the Cyprus Journal of Science, Vol. 9 for his article entitled, “The Human Resource Factor In The Construction Industry: In What Way Does The Organizational Culture Affect It?”. The article was written in collaboration with Angeliki Trochana of Herriot Watt University.

This paper aims at answering the strategic question, “In which way do the values embedded in an organisational culture affect the human resource factor “n” in the Greek construction industry”? The construction industry is operating within a continuously changing environment a fact which influences the performance of construction companies. In addition, it has been criticized of poor performance because of the little development of its human resources. In an attempt to improve the performance of the construction industry there is a need to examine in what way the organisational culture and the Human Resource Management influences the performance of a construction organisation. Research was undertaken in 21 Greek construction companies. The primary data collected was through a closed questionnaire and overt participant observation. 210 full-time engineers participated in the research whereas the data collected was analysed. Having discussed the findings of this research, suggestions for improvements are given. The limitations of the research are also acknowledged and recommendations for further research are given.

Again, our congratulations to Dr. Kamsaris. You May Download The Article Here!

UGSM-Monarch Business School Switzerland is happy to announce that a recent paper witten by Dr. Iqbal on SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement) is being published in the February 2012 issue of Journal of World Investment and Trade, Geneva a ISI Journal published by Brill, Netherlands. The paper is entitled: “Is SAFTA a Myth or Reality?” We congratulate Dr. Iqbal on the achievement and provide a summary of the article below.

The concept of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) is the out come of Uruguay Round. Since then, the different regions have created regional trading blocks. Recognizing the role of trade and investment flows in the process of regional economic integration, a trade block among SAARC members was created April 1993 known as SAPTA. Later on SAARC region was declared as a Free Trade Area (FTA) and accordingly, SAFTA was formed on January 1, 2006. Keeping in mind the flow of trade among SAARC countries, it appears that the spirit behind its creation has been defeated and it is a myth and not a reality.

Since the 1990s, the South Asian countries also made efforts to enhance trade and investment flows with their neighbors, with the larger objectives of achieving a reduction in poverty and enhancing development in the region. Under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), the member countries vividly portray their inherent dissimilarities and also point toward a somewhat uncomfortable scenario of unequal distribution of potential gains from the regional cooperation scheme. Although all the SAFTA members are low-income developing countries, four of them (that is: Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Nepal) are among the least developed countries (LDCs) because of a number of overriding problems that constrain their economic growth and development.

The 13th SAARC summit in Dhaka in November 2005 saw the addition of Afghanistan into the association. With this, economic interaction in South Asia switched over from SAPTA (SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement) to SAFTA. SAPTA’s record in a decade of its operation is not encouraging as it could not take intra-regional trade beyond four per cent ($7 billion) of the total regional trade.

ASEAN intra-regional trade was only seven per cent from the present figure of 49 per cent; NAFTA could boost its intra-regional trade to 44 per cent and the EU to 67 per cent. The SAFTA is expected to reach this level. It is very clear from the foregoing analysis that that regional FTAs which have played a significant role in the uplifting of various weaker member nations is going to play the same role in the development of South Asian region through SAFTA. Albeit, the pinnacle of an economically integrated South Asia with the fruition of mutual interests and cooperation is still a long way ahead, but SAARC has laid the groundwork for its realization to be possible, and for obstacles to be overcome.

UGSM-Monarch is happy to announce that Dr. Ilias Vlachos of the faculty of Management Studies has co-authored a new book on Intelligent Agrifood Chains along with two colleagues Dr. Michael Bourlakis and Dr. Vasileios Zeimpekis. The book is published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Food has a fundamental position in society, ensuring health, happiness and political stability. Consequently, the management of food chains and networks is one of the most important aspects of the modern food industry. Yet food is difficult to handle along long supply chains, with a limited window for storage and handling time, and the risk of spoiling if incorrectly handled or processed. These issues can lead to logistical problems that can severely affect product quality and freshness.

Intelligent Agrifood Chains and Networks offers a timely discussion of the current state of food logistics, and indicates the major ICT problems that can occur during production, warehousing, transportation and retailing. Emphasis is given to new technologies and intelligent systems that are able to process time-dependent information, handle emergencies, and support logistics operations in food management. In particular, the authors show how telematics and RFID can be implemented in the supply chain. The book also includes real-life case studies, in which actual food logistics problems and their solutions are presented, demonstrating how systemic and logistics approaches may be combined.

The book is directed at academics, researchers, and students seeking the necessary background in terms of the interplay between the food supply chain and ICT. Its comprehensive review of current issues in the food supply chain will be of interest to managers and technicians working in the food industry, while its technological focus will be invaluable to food scientists and technologists working in research and industry environments.

Monarch Business School Switzerland would like to congratulate Dr. Koumparoulis, the Director of the Economics Department, in publishing a new book on economic theory entitled: “Analytical Tools for Expectations Theory and the Envelope Theorem: A technical exposition”. The book is being published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishers and is divided in to two sections.

The first section presents the need for Expectations Theory. Virtually all economic decisions, other than the trivial, involve time. The most obvious example concerns the decision to invest when outlays are incurred in the current period in order to generate future income streams to be realized over the life of the asset. In the case of a project such as the Channel Tunnel, for example, the asset life may be considerable and even if the most distant returns are virtually entirely discounted the time profile of the pay-off period will run into several years.

 Clearly, in such an undertaking, any sensible decision must involve making an estimation of future demand patterns, energy prices and the costs of alternative means of transport. Such estimates may be based upon the extrapolation of past trends or, alternatively, may be based upon the different scenarios involving optimistic or pessimistic assumptions and generating a range of possible outcomes with differing probabilities applied to each. In either case, the investment decision is based upon a set of expectations concerning future costs, prices and markets. This work examines the uncertainty surrounding the investment act in more detail. Moreover, other choice situations are indicated where a sensible or welfare maximizing decision cannot be undertaken without some estimate of the conditions expected to pertain in the future.

In the second section the book demonstrates that the Envelope theorem is presented in the general literature in a fragmented and rather elliptical way that distorts its very meaning. When placed in its proper perspective, the Envelope Theorem is shown to involve comparisons of the performance of alternative policies; namely, comparisons between the maximum (or minimum) value function of an optimization problem attained under the optimal policy and the value of the objective of the problem under any other economically relevant policy.

Students should take note that the next defense date has been schedule as the week of April 2nd, 2012 by the Administration. The defenses will take place at the Graduate House in Zug. All students wishing to defend their dissertation/thesis should contact the administration before December 15th in order to be scheduled. Students will need to present to the administration authorization from their supervisor to be scheduled. The subsequent defense date is scheduled for the week of September 17th, 2012. All students not scheduled for the week of April 2nd will be required to wait until the week of September 17th to pass.

Program Objective
This is a course about boards and corporate governance from strategic management and organizational behaviour perspectives. The understanding of value creation and the human side will be focused . The objectives is to let the students explore and be a part of a stream of corporate governance research that is rooted in management theories and approaches. We will in the course introduce, explore and discuss topics, theories and methods, and we will challenge dominant concepts and wisdom about boards and corporate governance.

Topics include board processes and team dynamics, board leadership, interactions and influences inside and outside the boardroom, board-management relationships, trust and power, norms and codes, value creation and board tasks, board composition and board member compentences and identities, compensation, ownership types and structures. Boards and corporate governance will not only be discussed in light of listed corporations, but also in relation to family firms, entrepreneurial firms, etc. We will also address the evolution of the corporate governance debate, including lessons from the present financial crisis. Comparisons across countries and systems will be made.

The teaching mode will be interactive. The course will have three main parts. First, challenges from practice and existing knowledge will be introduced and discussed, and an accumulative sorting logic will be suggested. Second, various issues will be explored in-depth based on discussion of selected articles. Third, the students will be challenged and supported in writing their own articles and research proposal based on the content of the course. Course evaluation will be done based on these efforts. Inputs from the publishing process will be given. The use of various research methods will be discussed throughout the course, including experiences from using various qualitative methods.

Program Coordinator
Prof. Morten Huse, Norwegian School of Management BI

Faculty
Professor Morten Huse,Norwegian School of Managment BI/Tor Vergata University, Rome
Professor Hans van Ees, University of Groningen
Professor Alessandro Zattoni, SDA Bocconi and Parthenope University
Associate professor Jonas Gabrielsson, Lunds University, Sweden

Time & Location
The seminar will be held at the EIASM, Brussels, Belgium
The programme will start on March 19, 2012 and is scheduled to end March 23, 2012

Participation Fee
The participation fee is 1500 €. (VAT Excluded) This fee includes participation to the seminar, the documents, lodging and full board.
Doctoral students will be assigned rooms for two. Should you wish a single room, an extra fee of 25 € (VAT Excluded) per night will be charged to you.Cancellations made before February 15, 2012 will be reimbursed with 10% deduction of the total fee. No reimbursement will be possible after this date.

EIASM Scholarships
The Institute offers a limited number of scholarships of 700 € each. Scholarships are strictly limited to students coming from an EIASM Institutional Member (the Academic Council). Allocation of the scholarships is entirely at the discretion of the European Institute.

Applications
Interested doctoral students should register online (and add the required documents) no later than January 10, 2012. Besides doctoral students, other researchers may participate. The number of participants will be limited to create a stimulating environment. The selection among the applicants will be conducted by the Institute’s Faculty. They will review the following documents which should necessarily complement each application

• The applicant’s curriculum vitae demonstrating his/her capabilities of doing research
• A letter of recommendation of his/her local faculty supporting the application
• A two-page description of his/her doctoral research, indicating the general objectives.

For More Information, Please Contact:
Ms. Nina Payen
EDEN Manager, EIASM -  PLACE DE BROUCKÈRE-PLEIN – 31 – 1000 BRUSSELS – BELGIUM
Tel: +32 2 226 66 61 – Fax: 32 2 5121929
Email: nina@eiasm.be