ABAC Journal: Vol. 38 No. 2 (July-December 2018)
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ItemPolitical security abstacles and challenges of Timor-Leste's ASEAN membership(Assumption University Press, 2018)The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has implemented its foreign policy by participating in various international organizations. To enhance its relation with other countries, particularly at the regional level, Timor-Leste is working hard to achieve its full membership in ASEAN and has already shown its seriousness to do so, submitting a formal application in 2011. This research focuses on political-security, aiming to find and describe the obstacles and challenges to political security in Timor-Leste, in support of the country joining ASEAN in the near future. Obstacles that have already been resolved by Timor-Leste, include the political security crisis of 2006, a problem of displaced persons, reconciliation and issues regarding veterans. The issues that still need serious attention from the government, in order to be overcome, include unlawful martial arts groups, boundary issues, and comprehensive security. While, political security challenges for the country are good governance, democracy, human rights, the electoral system, and national security.
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ItemStrengthening employee's engagement in e-commerce business department through an ODI approach(Assumption University Press, 2018)This action research dissertation is aimed to enhance the level of employees’ engagement in a flux business environment that deals with e-Commerce business operations. As a start-up firm; the focal organization often experiences certain unalignments between executives and employees or even among employees themselves. This study is expected to add extra knowledge to an academic body; while, also enhancing business results via improved employee engagement. The paper aims to determine whether an existing engagement model could be re-applied to ecommerce where operation is highly dependable on the talent, commitment and creativity of the business’ personel. The study also compares levels of significance between pre-ODI and post-ODI that are concerned with “employee efficiency” and “organization performance”. Furthermore, ODI papers studying “employee engagement” in relation to the digital industry are still considered rare and limited. In conclusion, there are 3-major phases in this action research study; namely pre-ODI, ODI and Post-ODI. The research results shall elaborate whether there are significant changes in participant quantitative responses in a comparison between pre-ODI and post-ODI.
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ItemOnline impulse buying behavior amongst undergraduate students in Tianjin, the people's republic of China(Assumption University Press, 2018)The aim of this study is to understand online business, regarding impulse buying behavior amongst undergraduate students in Tianjin, China. This study concentrated on the Taobao.com platform, and considered variables of website quality (security, navigability, and visual appeal), hedonic shopping value (product novelty, fun and escapism), and product knowledge (word of mouth and social norms), to learn how online shop owners increase their profits by encouraging impulse buying behavior. The results suggest that Taobao.com online shop owners manage their websites to be physically attractive; consider changing their products; and even improve shopping through word of mouth regarding the products they offer.
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ItemThe effectiveness of blended learning: a case study(Assumption University Press, 2018)Recent policy announcements by the Thai government: Thailand 4.0, and its education component: Education 4.0, advocate the use of innovation and digital technology in schools and universities to improve the quality of education. We explore here the effectiveness of blended learning at an institute of higher education with a case study for one subject taught at the undergraduate level at Assumption University. Blended Learning in this study is defined as supplementing traditional classroom lectures with an online eLearning course in the same subject, using the same lecturers and course materials. Students had the opportunity to watch online video lectures before and/or after attending classes throughout the semester. At the end of the semester an online survey was conducted to determine the frequency of access to the online course, the level of student satisfaction, and the effectiveness of blended learning in terms of their understanding of the subject. Lecturers were interviewed to determine their view of the success or otherwise of the program and to inquire about exam results. Evaluation of survey questionnaires and lecturers’ opinions revealed that students were satisfied with the program because it had impacted positively on their understanding of the subject and had improved their exam results above prior expectations.
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ItemLanguage and attitudes of invisible minds: an appraisal analysis of cyber discourse(Assumption University Press, 2018)This study examines the interactions of different participants on Yahoo Singapore and Yahoo Philippines using the Martin and Rose (2011) Appraisal Theory, focusing on the interpersonal aspects of discourse, ATTITUDE is used as the framework for a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Blogging in the cyberworld, as a different channel of communication, allows the people of a society to discuss issues that matter most to them. The method used to foreground the underlying discourse is an attempt to understand the influence of various elements of the environment surrounding the respondents and participants. This study is an attempt to identify how the discourse employed in the cyber community is influenced by different elements in society, to provide some understanding of how blogging can be used as a potential tool for learning and education. Blogging, as part of social networking is not only about self expression but also provides a broader perspective in terms of teaching and learning that can be insightful. This is because understanding how choice shapes language, and how language shapes choice, is important in the learning process. Since education is regarded as one of the main phases for change, learning to be aware of what is going on in the world is just one of the aspects of the ‘cyber world’ that can be taught to students, and also can have a big part in changing how teachers and students view education, specifically regarding English Language Teaching (ELT).