Assem Bin Bandar, Qusai Farouq Almeqdadi, Jiangling Liu

Over the past two decade the importance of the employee retention has grown. Most of the organisations understand that human resources are one of the primary factors for the organisational success and their growth. In the globalised world the competition between the organisations has increased and they are not going back to pay the price to acquire and retain the best talents in the market. Efficient and dedicated employees will drive the organisation towards goals. In the Human resource management the employee retention is one of the top most priorities for the organisation’s performance.

Ajay Sangha, Dilmaya Khadka, Karim Tasneem

This paper provides an insight into the operations management of Primark in the context of queuing problem at the tills. We analyse this problem in light of various queuing theories to determine the most optimal theory. We provide a wide range of recommendations to handle this problem at Primark. This case study and the recommendations will not only help the company in question, but could be used by the retailers in other sectors to improve their operations, consequently achieving efficiency and higher degrees of customer satisfaction.

Munir Hussain

The fast spreading of wireless technology services are more focusing on businesses area rather than targeting customers. Even now, this advancement in the mobile technology continues to bang the international business market intensely, modern mobile technologies and their applications are more focusing the mobile business area. Today, the world of electronic transactions is switching from E-commerce to M-commerce. In order to solve critical issues in M-commerce it becomes vital to understand different concepts and technologies associated with M-commerce. The first part of this paper gives overview of M-commerce in terms of their characteristics, applications, and issues pertaining to it, including many critical issue such battery power consumption in M-commerce transactions. Battery is one of the most important and scarce resources in mobile devices thus to extend the mobile devices battery lifetime, it becomes important to save the battery resource as much as possible. The second part of this paper focuses on exploring various aspects of enabling mobile payment systems, mobile payment modes and characteristics and the payments system requirements.

M Adeel, L N Tokarchuk, M A Azam, S K A Khan

Communication between mobiles using technologies like Bluetooth, MMS, SMS, Mobile and Home Broadband can increases their susceptibility to mobile security threats. In the past few years, mobile malware has emerged as one of the major threats for modern-day mobile devices. Since the first malware outbreak in 2004, hundreds of mobile viruses, worms, Trojans and spyware and over thousands of their variants have been discovered. With such a large number of ever-evolving malware, it is challenging to develop an electronic system capable of detecting such malware. In this work, the statistical data generated as a consequence of interactions on mobile devices and the mechanism of recording this data against statistical parameters on mobile devices is discussed. We also provide a detailed taxonomy of the low and high-order statistical parameters, and discuss how these parameters (besides utilisation in other scenarios) can be affectively utilised in the detection of a variety of security attacks and malware types.

Syed Usman Jamil, Khalid Khan

The early internet user needs were coped by current internet architecture that was based on host-centric communication model. Now a day, usage as well as requirements of internet is changed however mostly internet users are interested to access large amount of data/information regardless of physical location.  This paradigm changes in the internet usage model along with mobility support, better security and pressing needs of users has invited researchers to consider radical changes in the internet architecture. By following this direction, we have reviewed many on-going efforts of researchers in which the future internet can be developed on the foundation of Information- Centric Networking. 
To sync billions of objects over the internet is promised by the internet of things (IOT). To deploy numerous individual IOT architectures, in domains of diverse nature, the ongoing trend is to deploy a common IOT platform, so that objects may be accessible and synchronized with applications across domains and organizations. To achieve this goal, limited proposals are developed to model unified host centric IOT infrastructure operate at upper layer of current host centric internet. Therefore, fundamental mismatch is evident in between the today’s host centric nature of internet and IOT system having information centric nature. We propose to develop common set of services and protocols to resolve this mismatch, which form a platform for IOT, on the basis of ICN paradigm, which may be named as ICN-IOT platform.  ICN-IOT merger is the ICN salient feature and therefore enables seamless scalability, mobility support and efficient service and content delivery. 
The main aim of these investigations is to find out the core functionalities of ICN architectures, overview of IOT functionalities and architectural requirements, and the review of ICN over IOT implementations and their advantages and challenges to sketch out the key unresolved challenges in this field of networking research.   

M Adeel, L N Tokarchuk, M A Azam, S K A Khan

MPeersim is a simulation environment for mobile and mobile P2P networks. It simulates different types of mobile nodes and communication technologies such as Bluetooth, MMS, and SMS. With a primary emphasis of evaluation of MPeersim in terms of simulation statistics, this paper will elaborate on various MPeersim functionalities in context of availability of generic, node, and network-specific simulation parameters, node and network-specific statistics available for various types of analyses, and on the capabilities of MPeersim in terms of presenting empirical data in different formats including graphs and visualisations for monitoring purposes. Providing a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between parameters and statistics will assist researchers in planning for developing simulation environments.

Munir Hussain, Syed Usman Jamil

Today, mobile commerce flexibility has totally changed businesses in the world due to easy mobile-based online bookings and payments. Its implementation is not limited to any single area but it can be utilized in all sorts of situations and organizations in various ways. It can be utilized in banking, electronic publication distribution, online sales, online payments for different utility bills and online booking of airlines etc. These kinds of online booking, buying and selling, and their payment services are available to anyone 24/7 in the world. When using these types of facilities, one needs to understand and study different types of characteristics of this new technology i.e., it is important to understand different modes of payments, various technologies using mobile payment system, and different M-commerce payment protocols. As we know that energy consumption is a critical issue in M-commerce, so it is important to reduce battery power consumption as much as possible. In this paper, we will explore some of the most popular mobile payment protocols step-by-step to fully understand their working environment.  

Adnan Ashraf, Yousaf Raheel, Muhammad Adeel, Asghar Hussain

Soft drinks market is the third largest revenue participant of Central Board of Revenue in terms of sales tax and excise duties. Pakistani beverage market has been growing since its inception. With several local and international companies interested in this lucrative business, this paper attempts to provide a much sought-after insight into various aspects of Pakistani consumer market by providing a consumer engagement and segment multimedia strategy for a future beverage product as a case study. The theories on consumer engagement and their application in perspective of Pakistani society, and a detailed analysis of considerable factors in consumer engagement in context of segment multimedia strategy are the highlights of this work. Although focused on Pakistani market, this case study is perfectly applicable in context of other Asian and African countries with similar socio-culture environment.

Adnan Ashraf, Yousaf Raheel, Muhammad Adeel, Asghar Hussain

Over the years, tourism industry has remained a key player in Pakistani economy. It has although seen its worst downfall in history due to the incidents of terrorism in the past 15 years, in the recent years, this industry is on the rise/booming again. Airline industry has played a key role in connecting far-flung tourist heavens of Pakistan to the mainland. After researching the Pakistani airline industry, this work provides a preliminary marketing plan for a proposed commercial helicopter service for a leading airline in Pakistan. The paper includes a comprehensive internal and external analysis of the airline to assess the feasibility of the proposed service. Besides providing a situation analysis, this paper also includes a detailed 4 Ps analysis, and an evaluation of value addition for the consumer in the proposed marketing strategy.

Yousaf Raheel, Mohammad Amer Shahzad

This paper provides an evaluation of the past, present, and future strategic plans of Vodafone. To design any strategy for future, it is imperative to analyse the important parts of strategic plans of the company in the past. Thus in this work, we provides a detailed analysis of Vodafone’s strategic plan from the past decade. Similarly, to identify the aspects of strategic importance for Vodafone in the present times, this work provides an overview of the key components of the current strategic plan of Vodafone. Finally, based on the study of the past and present strategies, and critical variables affecting telecom industry in general and Vodafone in particular, this work proposes some critical components of any future strategic plan for Vodafone. Based on the analysis as part of this work, we also propose various improvements to the value chain of Vodafone.

Michael James Wood

This paper discusses the management and development of information systems in a small to medium sized cash and carry organization based in the United Kingdom. The paper discusses development for IT requirements, maintenance and the Input/outputs of operations for employees working in data processing or an IT department. Social and ethical issues are also discussed as well as how data base management systems can be useful to produce reports for middle to higher management.

Daniel Jones

The paper analyses the significant elements of information technology in the supermarket chain Tesco. The overall purpose of information systems in an organisation will be identified and explained. In the paper, it talks about how Tesco revolutionises the supermarket sector with innovative ideas to stay ahead of the competition. Tesco innovates on current systems and makes them personal to the company. The paper highlights the role of information systems to keep Tesco working efficiently and effectively. They are the key to automating manual processes to aid productivity, development and enable real-time data to make decisions — Tesco uses systems such as a software package called ‘GOLD’ to maintain a competitive advantage. As the leader of the supermarket sector, the business must continue to innovate ideas to remain competitive. Network systems that are associated with Tesco are analysed to highlight the importance of communication between all the stores, depots and head office. Tesco has a system that is centralised and consolidated into a single infrastructure.

M Adeel, L N Tokarchuk, M A Azam, S K A Khan4

Mobile malware has emerged as one of the major threats for modern day mobile networks. Since the first inception a decade ago, hundreds of types of mobile malware and their variants have been discovered. Interactions between mobile using technologies like Bluetooth, MMS, SMS, and mobile and home broadband, leave significant usage footprints on mobile devices. If acquired and processed, these footprints can be utilised for a variety of purposes including the detection of mobile malware. This work is aimed at introducing various behaviour parameters against which the footprints can be recorded, and the processing of these parameters to produce high-order parameters that can prove very effective in different types of device and network-specific analysis including detection of malware. It is important to state that this work is limited to presenting a comprehensive taxonomy of behaviour parameters only, and a discussion on the mechanism of utilising the behaviour parameters in analysis such as detection of malware is beyond the scope of this work.

Rabia Afzal Minhas, Khola Rafique, Ali Javed, Muhammad Awais Azam

The success of mobile applications depends upon its usability. Of all the non-functional requirements, usability dimension is the foremost requirement for mobile applications. Usability of mobile applications should be high so that users can interact with them easily. There have been many models proposed that help developers for making mobile applications more usable. But they did not address all of the issues. In our paper, we propose a framework which is hybrid of multiple models like ISO, Moe, Voelle, Nielsen Zhang and Pacmad. In this paper, we also introduce a novel feature “Waste-app” for efficient utilization of memory. It automatically cleans up cache and the apps which are in use for a long time. Proposed methodology shows that inclusion of this new feature and the new hybrid model gives better results in usability aspects.

Maryam Fizza, Munam Ali Shah

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of an emerging mobile wireless communication technology, i.e., 5G. We provide a concise view of the advancements which are currently being investigated to deploy 5G wireless technology in an effective and beneficial way. We aim to provide an easy and state of the art view of architectures, applications and challenges of the 5G technology. We group existing approaches and provide a critical overview of the underlying details adapted by the 5G technology.

Bernd Sanger, Emine Beyza Arikan, Mehul Mehta, Asma Hosseini

Market efficiency refers to the accuracy and quickness with which prices reflect market related information. Decisions of investment by an investor in a market is influenced by many factors, one of the most important is the market efficiency. Research reveals that if a market is efficient, it is extremely difficult to make excessive returns. In an efficient market there exist next to none undervalued securities. With the first stock exchange started functioning in 1875 Indian stock markets have been lucrative for the traders from around the world. This paper attempts to analyse the efficiency of the Indian capital markets. Research from the literature and the interviews of the renowned investors have been used to reach a conclusion. Some tips in context of investment strategy have also been provided.

Muhammad Hassan Raza, Munam Ali Shah, Muhammad Kamran Abbasi

A smart city is an interconnection of objects in which each object plays a role of a source node. The data and information is collected from the source node for further computation and communication. A city can only be called a smart city if certain attributes are available such as clean water, good transport, energy efficiency, well-structured infrastructure, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile health (m-health), and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the things that form a smart city. We focus on applications and technologies and identify different challenges in a smart city. Furthermore, the critical evaluation of different standards, architectures and frameworks form part of the paper. 

Munir Hussain, Khalid Khan

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technology is still immature and thus faces a variety of problems due to limited memory, CPU and battery power resources. WSNs are prone to active and passive attacks. While the former is capable of affecting minimal resources, the latter type of attack is difficult to launch but very powerful in terms of affecting critical resources. Most shared key security protocols used in WSNs are not scalable as they depend upon third party or KDC. Although in some situations this concept works well, besides reducing scalability, finding a trustworthy third party is also very difficult in KDC concept of key sharing. This paper gives a brief overview of WSNs, posed security threats to these networks and relevant security issues. This paper also brings in a novel key sharing model for traversing secret key in WSNs that does not depend on third party concept and hence it is a more scalable and secure.        

Braydon Guascoine, Surintan Binti, Zhang Yongtan, Panagiotis Lekakos

This paper is aimed at evaluation of the supply chain of Sainsbury’s, one of the leading UK retailers in context of delivery of fruits and vegetables. We will assess supply chain of Sainsbury’s in context of key components such as inventory, facilities, transportation, and warehousing technologies. We attempt to analyse how Sainsbury’s manages their supply chain function to ensure the effective and efficient flow of fresh fruit and vegetable into operation, so as to better serve customer and reduce costs. We will explore their practices and discuss how recent improvements in their supply chain have helped Sainsbury’s become a more efficient and cost-effective.

Manan Aslam, Muhammad Ahsin Ayub, Mudassar Yasin, Qumer Iqbal, Bilal Atta

Vegetable production is concentrated in peri-urban areas as related to the rural production areas because of increasing people preferences towards the ingestion of fresh vegetables and nutritious diet. Vegetables are good source of proteins, minerals and vitamins, which are essential for human health. Agricultural commercialization provides different opportunities for better income and sustainable livelihood for farmers having small land holdings. Nearly 63 different kinds of vegetables are grown in all provinces of Pakistan, but potatoes, cauliflower, brinjal, onions and tomatoes are frequently grown vegetables. These are vended by traditional marketing e.g. through farmer, wholesaler, pharia and retailer to consumers. In this perspective, this study was designed to explore marketing systems of three selected kharif vegetables including, ladyfinger, bitter gourd and brinjal. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 45 farmers. Questionnaires were developed and pretested to collect data from selected respondents. A regression model was estimated to analyze effect of major factors, affecting marketed surplus of vegetables. The results showed that peri- urban farmers sold high proportions of their vegetables. Better prices and market information are the main incentives for increased sales of the vegetables.

Safi Ullah, Muhammad Yunas, Muhammad Iqbal, Hina Gul

School’s outputs are graduates of the school who completed a given cycle of education in stipulated time. They have the requisite knowledge and skills induced by school. It may be in the form of different capacities created in students by schools such as competence in utilizing language, math, social and natural science and citizenship. Poor performance of output indicators may reflect various problems in programme design and implementation or adverse changes in external factors. Output indicators can be categorized into academic/cognitive and non-academic/non-cognitive. Academic/ cognitive outputs include learning skills, writing skills, knowledge of arithmetic, special knowledge of skills and specialization. In order to measure the cognitive outputs, the objectives of any particular age-group can be set, common curriculum can be devised and standardized tests can be formulated. Most parents expect that school will induce basic moral and ethical values in their wards as well as achievement in terminal examination. The school will also prepare students for their place in the wider society, not only in terms of cognitive skills but in social skills and interpersonal relationships, as well. Output indicators includes number of graduates at a particular level and their test scores; the information about dropout rate; completion rate, survival rate, examination pass rate, enhancing enrolment and minimizing dropout rate, increasing graduation rate are related to the efficiency of schools.

Emine Beyza Arikan, Bernd Sanger, Mehul Mehta

The efficient market hypothesis suggests that at any given time in a capital market, the prices of stock reflect all available information. Hypothesis implies that it is impossible to beat the market because the market price always incorporates all the relevant information that may influence the price of a stock. Some researchers, based on the historic evidence, contradict with this hypothesis and challenge the presence of a perfect rationale behind the hypothesis. Behavioural finance on the other hand combines behavioural and cognitive psychological theory with economics and finance to provide explanations behind the irrational financial decisions investors make. Using these theories, behavioural finance explains stock market anomalies such as severe rises or falls in stock price. Behavioural finance assumes that both information structure and the characteristics of market investors influence investment decision of the individuals. This paper provides a thorough analysis of efficient market hypothesis and behavioural finance by taking into account the literature and market statistics.

Braydon Guascoine, Surintan Binti

Before devising a strategy, it is requisite to perform the internal and external analysis of the company to better understand its market position. This paper aims to provide a detailed assessment of the UK retailer Sainsbury’s through PEST analysis, Porter’s Five Force model, SWOT analysis, 7S model and a brief financial position analysis. The research will not only help identify the current position and future opportunities for Sainsbury’s but will also help identify the variables through which other UK retailers could be assessed in future.

Assem Bin Bandar, Ahmed Alhoqail, Jiangling Liu

The study describes the relationship between the Human Resource Management practices and the employee retention. It has become essential to retain the best employees to the organisations performance. The research reviews relevant literature to identify HR practices that influence the employee retention and also the effect on the overall organisational performance by retaining the right and efficient employees. Therefore, it is important to have a productive and efficient workforce to collectively focus on the organisation’s success. In this paper we provide highlight the importance of employee retention in HRM, discuss the critical process and best practices in employee retention, briefly summarise the myths in the context, and provide a detailed discussion on the factors affecting employee retention.

Andrew Hlongwane, Hassan Hadad, Festus Kemi

Operational management lies at the core of a company’s management. It ensures that the business processes, finance, and the technology in the company is managed affectively to help realise the company’s vision and mission. This paper provides an overview of the financial management, the human resource management aspects of operational management, and information system management of Tesco, a UK retailer.