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The paper is focused on the sports tourism offer giving the example of Croatia. Emphasis is placed on the quality of the sports tourism offer — that considered being the key of success on the tourism market. The aim of the paper is to stress the need for developing sports tourism offer required by the tourists of today. Sport is a part of the health tourism offer. Health, recreation, sport, fitness, beauty and leisure time are the elements of the quality of life. Sport is not adequately represented in the Croatian tourism offer. This paper suggests measures that need to be taken in order to increase the share of sports in the tourism offer. Such measures should lead to aligning the supply with the demand, and to increasing financial effects. Tourism plays a very important role in the economic development of Croatia, and it deserves high priority in the development strategy.

Current received wisdom would seem to suggest that a simple deployment of web‐based technologies will provide the platform for competitive differentiation in the dynamic and agile world of mass customisation. It is argued here that technology is but one element of infrastructural renovation required to support intranet applications. An emerging pattern in these applications is support for the soft networks which exist within all organisations and which embody the key raw asset for competitive advantage: knowledge. The discussion reviews the emergence of Knowledge Management as a discipline, presents a model for the flow of commercial knowledge through an organisation (Knowledge Economies), and looks at the cultural and organisational ramifications of knowledge programs (Knowledge Cultures). On this basis the technological superstructure is discussed in the context of one intranet application: Corporate Digital Library. The principal assertion of this paper is that applications of this type can only be said to be commercially successful when they are deployed in support of knowledge‐based initiatives where first order benefits can be realised, improved market performance in particular. A proto‐typical benefit statement is provided.

This study aimed to examine the adoption of consortium blockchain technology to ensure interoperability for the transparency of budgetary control in Ghanaian local government.

This study is based on the design science research (DSR) observational technique for developing a consortium blockchain budgetary control system for Ghana's local government.

The study resulted in the design of a consortium blockchain monitoring and evaluation system to set up a mechanism to monitor various budget projects, processes and transactions for Ghana's local government. The findings also proved Ghana is ideally positioned to gain an advantage from designed artefacts such as ours, given its digital financial service (DFS) policy. In addition, the evaluation of the designed artefact proves there will be a positive impact on budgetary processes by addressing transparency concerns; however, the success of this concern depends on how the local government organisation embraces the artefact.

The study sheds light on budget monitoring and evaluation tied to peer-to-peer (P2P) participation in the public sector via an advanced administrative digitalised networking and communication algorithm (A Distributed Ledger Technology - blockchain). The difference between the designed artefact and the traditional M&E system is argued. The study is limited by the paradoxes and inefficiencies of the integration of blockchain into the Ghanaian local government but, at the same time, presents a high level of certainty and possibility.

The proposed artefact has presented relevance because it is a new solution to existing concerns like trust, transparency, accountability and compliance, thereby improving local government budget administration.

The study has offered unique and new methods, guidelines and designs for tracking various budget projects and processes beyond the conventional technology-driven approach via DSR, exhibiting a unique solution for solving budget transparency, trust, accountability, compliance and data accessibility concerns.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of the ISO 9001 quality management system on customer satisfaction and show an application of an analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based method for measuring the customer satisfaction index (CSI). This will be useful to anyone who wants to have an ISO 9001 quality management system in his or her organization.

This paper describes an ISO 9001 quality management implementation process based on ISO 9001 requirements, and uses the AHP method for weighting effective criteria on customer satisfaction. All data were obtained via questionnaires and assessed with EXPERT CHOICE 11 software.

According to the results of the weighting, the factors influencing the satisfaction of a kitchen worktops customer, price and sales terms of this product has a significant impact on customer satisfaction and, in competitive conditions, this criterion has a determining role in the creation of utility for customers. ISO 9001 quality management system has been able to increase the CSI within an 11-month period of study.

This paper is the first to use the AHP method with a new approach in a case study, offering a complete, comprehensive method for assessing customer implications.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the need for managers of public universities to pay attention to performance management practices and information communication technology (ICT) adoption in order to achieve successful managed performance.

Using a disproportionate stratified purposive approach, a sample of 900 employees was drawn from four public universities in Uganda.

The results revealed that performance management practices that are vested in agency relations and goal setting with ICT adoption are necessary in the achievement of managed performance in public universities.

Building a positive employer‐employee relationship and involving employees in setting goals and targets is crucial for successful management of organisations. ICT adoption will further facilitate service quality, service delivery and cost reduction.

This paper calls for a new approach to managing employees in public universities in developing countries and Uganda in particular.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate those teaching and learning factors that either hindered or encouraged preservice teacher participants to succeed in their first year of study. The impact of administrative support alongside pedagogical styles that facilitated a sense of engagement for first year preservice teachers is also discussed.

This research builds on the work of Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot’s use of “portraiture” to “capture the complexity and aesthetic of human experience” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffmann Davis, 1997, p. 4). The use of portraits as a tool for creating a first year student narrative, rich in its canvas of human emotions, is central to the work that follows. Qualitative data that were gathered in this research project are presented.

The portraiture methodology in this paper enabled the researchers to capture a sense of belonging for first year university students that involved more than procedural matters, orientation events and attendance at information sessions.

These portraits draw wider attention to transition and retention matters beyond considerations of “who our students are” and illustrate how engagement and belonging are enhanced by how these students are engaged by skilful and knowledgeable tutors and group work and collegial approaches to the course.

Portraiture methodology enabled a more nuanced form of viewing “belonging” and “engagement” of these preservice teachers through more personalised forms of engagement with tutors, the development of groups and the practicum placement.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the influence of value management (VM) critical success factors (CSFs) on the implementation of VM activities in building projects with a view to promoting sustainability of construction industry in Egypt.

The VM CSFs and implementation activities were recognized from earlier studies; questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from relevant stakeholders, and the collected data was subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Consequently, the influence of VM CSFs on VM implementation was generated via partial least square structural equation modelling. In addition, through relative importance ranking analysis, the significance VM CSFs were examined.

The findings from the proposed model revealed a strong relationship between VM implementation activities and its CSFs; the relationship is at a moderate level with an effect of 22.0%. This indicates that, VM CSFs would be useful to implement VM in the Egyptian building industry.

Although these studies have been confined to Egypt’s VM studies; they may apply to other developing countries that have not carried out these studies. It is therefore vital, in those countries where the exercise has been entirely undertaken, to analyze the various measures to promote the application of the method.

This research would be of benefit to stakeholders in building industries to be aware of VM phases and its CSFs that demand utmost consideration. Also, the identified CSFs are expected to enhance the success and value of building projects by adopting VM.

The novelty of this research work will be a benchmark or board for decision-makers to eliminate the unwanted cost and enhance quality by adopting VM in Egypt’s building projects to achieve their sustainable projects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore critical success factors (CSFs) in interdisciplinary building design projects from the view point of the project members themselves. While there is a plethora of research on CSFs, there is a paucity of studies that examine CSFs within this unique project context.

Semi‐structured interviews, a survey and facilitated workshops were used to identify factors and their interrelationships within the project context.

Thirty‐one primary CSFs were distilled which were then further grouped into four interdependent group factors: management factors, design team factors, competencies and resources factors and project enablers. It would appear that there are factors that are particularly important in such project environments, which do not figure strongly in other project environments. These factors are related to the socio‐political dynamics of inter‐disciplinary team work such as passion and enthusiasm, shared values, creativity and innovation and represent so‐called “super soft factors” which reflect personal success and its importance in achieving positive project outcomes.

Although there has been significant research on CSFs in construction projects, little attention has been paid to those which are related to the collaborative design phase of such projects.

The results suggest that it is worthwhile for managers in construction related organisations and beyond to recognise the interdependencies which exist between the project context, processes and the project members' experience and affinity to the project and the team itself in project work to achieve desired outcomes.

This paper extends the CSF literature by identifying the nature of the primary factors and their interrelationships which influence project outcomes in collaborative design projects.

The purpose of this paper is to apply the image theory to the hospital context in order to add a perspective into the known complex relationship between physicians and hospital managers. This insight can enrich current intervention schemes used in health care to facilitate organisational change.

In this paper, the image theory of Alexander et al. on the known complex intergroup context of physicians and hospital managers is applied. The theory is operationalised in relative status, power, and goal incompatibility.

The data show the three variables are highly relevant and representative. Hospital managers see physicians as higher in professional status and power, and having different goals. Physicians see hospital managers to have higher power, lower status, and different goals. The study validates the applicability of the image theory in the Dutch hospital context. This results in a questionnaire suitable for performing a quick scan on the strength and direction of intergroup stereotyping within hospital organisations.

Data from the questionnaire give the opportunity to have insight in the way physicians and hospital managers perceive each other. This insight helps to focus attention on bottlenecks and possibilities in enhancing the co‐operation between physicians and hospital managers. Research on the relationship between physicians and hospital managers is scarce and mostly of a qualitative nature. This paper is executed in both qualitative and quantitative way, which enables us to empirically and statistically validate the data. The resulting questionnaire is applicable on an organisational intergroup level, while the focus in the extant literature is mostly on the interpersonal or intragroup level.

The purpose of this paper is to help companies address the problem of ever-increasing cybersecurity investment that does not produce tangible business value – this is achieved by explaining the relationship between cybersecurity and competitive advantage.

The impact of cybersecurity on competitive advantage was explored through a qualitative research study – the authors conducted an extensive literature review and conducted two rounds of semi-structured interviews with executives and security professionals from companies in four countries, from the financial, IT and security industries.

The analysis of the findings enabled the conceptualization of the Cybersecurity Competitive Advantage Model that explains how to build up cybersecurity dynamic capabilities to achieve long-term competitive advantage.

The research presents the theorization of the model based on an extensive literature review, gathered information, insight from qualified respondents and the authors’ experience in the field. While we controlled for saturation and rigorously collected and analyzed the data, the inductive approach followed may limit the generalizability of the findings.

The proposed model helps explain to executives how to differentiate their company in a novel way and how to retain that competitive advantage; security professionals can use the model to organize cybersecurity and communicate to their superiors more effectively.

The presented model differs from existing literature, cybersecurity frameworks and industry standards by presenting a method of avoiding technological bias and for achieving competitive advantage.