Sweet talking to ethnic customers : a field experiment on the links between entrepreneurial business planning, cultural sensitivity and sales growth

The purpose of this study was to test whether calculated inclusion of cultural sensitivity in a selected entrepreneurial business planning (EBP) process could increase sales growth in a test market and to explore the implications of a positive answer for the theory and practice of entrepreneurial business planning. Execution of a pretest-posttest control group experimental design measured and compared the implemented effectiveness of a planned entrepreneurial initiative based on cultural sensitivity. Though small in scale and limited in focus, the initiative qualified as an example of entrepreneurial business planning (EBP) and could be used to apply, test and extend aspects of the developing theory in this field of entrepreneurship research. Since the initiative was planned to overcome a culturally-defined impediment to business growth, it also offered opportunity to explore the specific importance of cultural variables in the context of EBP.

A planned sales-promotion was offered to a control group (receiving information in English) and a treatment group (who received the information in the language of ethnic origin). The sixty subjects had been chosen at random from a population of route-trade retailers of defined ethnic origins (Greek, Lebanese and Chinese) and randomly assigned to control and treatment groups. Monthly sales averages of the promoted product were measured before and after treatment. A Chi Square test was used to evaluate the relative proportion of the control and treatment groups who accepted the promotional offer. A two sample t-test procedure and complementary non-parametric Mann-Whitney test were performed to compare the mean sales-performance change of the two groups. Analysis showed that there was a significant increase in mean sales when the planned entrepreneurial initiative was communicated in the relevant language of origin.

The experimental results have specific practical relevance to revitalising the deteriorating route-trade segment of the Australian confectionery market through increasing the sales growth of wholesalers who are prepared to act entrepreneurially and include cultural sensitivity as an element in planning and implementation. By introducing cultural sensitivity as a necessary extension of a plan’s communications role, the results also have general theoretical implications for the developing paradigm of entrepreneurial business planning.

The expectation-performance gap in generic skills in accounting graduates : Evidence from Sri Lanka

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the generic skills that are important for the career success of accounting graduates in Sri Lanka from the perspectives of university educators and employers.

Design/methodology/approach
Bui and Porter's (2010) expectation-performance gap framework was modified to match with the context of the current study. Data collected via questionnaire survey was analysed for non-parametric tests: the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Mann-Whitney test, using SPSS version 20, and quantified the expectation-performance gap and its components.

Findings
The major finding of this research is that the main cause for the expectation-performance gap, as identified in the analysis of the constraint gap is university educators’ low confidence in teaching the required generic skills for career success of graduates. However, university educators are aware of the employer expectations of graduate accountants in terms of generic skills. Employers indicated that many of the generic skills are not achieved by the accounting graduates.

Practical implications
Findings of this study reflect the importance of expanding the accounting curricula by embedding and assessing generic skill development activities. In addition, it is vital to develop the capacities of university educators in terms of teaching and assessing generic skills in accounting degree programmes.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature as one of few studies that investigate the generic skills development of accounting graduates in Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka.

Venous thromboembolism and underutilisation of anticoagulant thromboprophylaxis in hospitalised patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a well-recognised extra-intestinal manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Despite the widespread support for anticoagulant prophylaxis in hospitalised IBD patients, the utilisation and efficacy in clinical practice are unknown. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and clinical features of VTE among hospitalised IBD patients and ascertain whether appropriate thromboprophylaxis had been administered. Methods: All patients with a discharge diagnosis of Crohn disease or ulcerative colitis and VTE were retrospectively identified using International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision codes from medical records at our institution from July 1998 to December 2009. Medical records were then reviewed for clinical history and utilisation of thromboprophylaxis. Statistical analysis was performed by Mann-Whitney test and either χ2 tests or Fisher's exact tests. Results: Twenty-nine of 3758 (0.8%) IBD admissions suffered VTE, 13 preadmission and 16 during admission. Of these 29 admissions (in 25 patients), 24% required intensive care unit and 10% died. Of the 16 venous thrombotic events that occurred during an admission, eight (50%) did not receive anticoagulant thromboprophylaxis and eight (50%) occurred despite thromboprophylaxis. Most thromboembolism despite prophylaxis occurred post-intestinal resection (n = 5, 63%). Conclusion: Thromboprophylaxis is underutilised in half of IBD patients suffering VTE. Prescription of thromboprophylaxis for all hospitalised IBD patients, including dual pharmacological and mechanical prophylaxis in postoperative patients, may lead to a reduction in this preventable complication of IBD. © 2014 Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

Temporal variation of faecal indicator bacteria in tropical urban storm drains

Human faecal contamination poses a widespread hazard for human health. In urban areas, sewer leakage may be an important cause of faecal pollution to surface water. Faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) are the most widely used indicators to monitor surface water quality. However, assessing whether a water body is meeting water quality criteria is made difficult by the high variability of FIB concentrations over time. In this study, the variation of FIB concentration in surface water from tropical urban catchments is investigated. Eleven urban sub-catchments were sampled hourly over 24-hr and samples analysed for FIB. It was found that FIB show a diurnal pattern that is characterised by daytime FIB concentrations that are significantly higher than nighttime FIB concentrations. This observed diurnal variation of FIB closely follows that of sewer flows and contrasts with observations in rural streams where FIB concentrations are known to be low in the daytime and high during the night. Field tracer tests provide qualitative evidence of sewage exfiltration and transport to drains via preferential flow paths. The diurnal FIB variation and field tracer tests indicate the likelihood of surface water contamination due to leaking sewers. The results further suggest that contamination of surface-water drains is likely a widespread problem in tropical urban areas due to extensive drainage networks and the persistence of FIB under tropical conditions. Because of FIB variation over time, the time at which samples are collected is important in being able to capture the daily maximum and minimum FIB concentrations. The Kruskal-Wallis test shows that hourly sampling from 04:00 to 07:00 and from 12:00 to 15:00 results in significantly different FIB concentration (minimum and maximum, respectively). Furthermore, the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test shows that sampling at 12:00 and 14:00 results in significantly higher FIB concentrations, while sampling at 05:00 and 04:00 or 05:00 and 06:00 results in significantly lower FIB concentrations, than sampling at other hours of the day.

Complications associated with operative fixation of acute midshaft clavicle fractures

The aim of this study was to review the complication rate and profile associated with surgical fixation of acute midshaft clavicle fracture in a large cohort of patients treated in a level I trauma centre.Patients and methods: We identified all patients who underwent surgical treatment of acute midshaft clavicle fracture between 2002 and 2010. The study group consisted of 138 fractures (134 patients). There were 107 males (78%) and 31 females (22%) and median age of 35 years (IQR 24-45). The most common mechanism of injury was a road traffic accident (78%). Sixty percent (n = 83) had an injury severity score of ≥ 15 indicating major trauma. The most common fracture type (75%) was simple or wedge comminuted (2B1) according to the Edinburgh classification. The median interval between the injury and operation was 3 days (IQR 1-6). Plate fixation was performed in 110 fractures (80%) and intramedullary fixation was performed in 28 fractures (20%). There were 85 males and 25 females in the plate fixation group with median age of 35 years (IQR: 25-45) There were 22 males and 6 females in intramedullary fixation group with median age of 31 years (IQR 24-42 years). Statistical analysis was performed using Independent sample t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and Chi-square test. Significant P-value was < 0.05.Results: The overall incidence of complication was 14.5% (n = 20). The overall nonunion rate 6%. Post operative wound infection occurred in 3.6% of cases. The incidence of complication associated with plate fixation was 10% (11 of 110 cases) compared to 32% associated with intramedullary fixation (9 of 28 cases) (P = 0.003). Thirty five percent of complications were related to inadequate surgical technique and potentially avoidable. Symptomatic hardware requiring removal occurred in 23% (n = 31) of patients. Symptomatic metalware was more frequent after plate fixation compared to intramedullary fixation (26% vs 7%, P = 0.03).Conclusions: Intramedullary fixation of midshaft clavicle fracture is associated with higher incidence of complications. Plate fixation is associated with a higher rate of symptomatic metalware requiring removal compared to intramedullary fixation. Approximately one in three complications may be avoided by attention to adequate surgical technique.

Reliability and validity of a reactive agility test for Australian football

Purpose: The aim of this study was to test the reliability and construct validity of a reactive agility test (RAT), designed for Australian Football (AF).

Methods: Study I tested the reliability of the RAT, with 20 elite junior AF players (17.44 ± 0.55 y) completing the test on two occasions separated by 1 wk. Study II tested its construct validity by comparing the performance of 60 participants (16.60 ± 0.50 y) spread over three aged-matched population groups: 20 athletes participating in a State Under-18 AF league who had represented their state at national competitions (elite), 20 athletes participating in the same league who had not represented their state (subelite), and 20 healthy males who did not play AF (controls).

Results: Test-retest reliability reported a strong correlation (0.91), with no significant difference (P = .22) between the mean results (1.74 ± 0.07 s and 1.76 ± 0.07 s) obtained (split 2+3). Nonparametric tests (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney) revealed both AF groups performed significantly faster on all measures than the control group (ranging from P = .001 to .005), with significant differences also reported between the two AF groups (ranging from P = .001 to .046). Stepwise discriminant analyses found total time discriminated between the groups, correctly classifying 75% of the participants.

Conclusions: The RAT used within this study demonstrates evidence of reliability and construct validity. It further suggests the ability of a reactive component within agility test designs to discriminate among athletes of different competition levels, highlighting its importance within training activities.