Journal of Business and Economic Analysis

Globalization has led to intense demand for diverse, multi-talent, and creative workforce to sustain market competitiveness, innovation, and corporate performance, while simultaneously intensifying challenges for higher education to transform. In Taiwan, universities have responded by formalizing and continuously restructuring their overall systems to cultivate creative talents for sustainable growth. The study has examined the practices that enable creative education at the National Chengchi University (NCCU) using data from different sources, i.e., semi-structured interviews, content analysis, and personal observations. Current findings suggest that creative education at NCCU is characterized by supporting environment and resources; interdisciplinary faculty teams; innovative HR practices for student recruitment; rich course content focused on students’ holistic development; teaching methods based on students’ experience, interaction, and teamwork; and conducive environment for creative learning.

Recognizing the limits of our knowledge and being dissatisfied with incomplete understanding is a major driver of scientific progress. Humanity’s experience over the last 300 years is ample demonstration of this. If we look carefully enough at the data, it is clear that we are progressing not only in terms of scientific discovery but in applications of science that are highly beneficial to our quality of life, such as medicine, agriculture, finance, transport and energy. Economic growth, in terms both of financial gain and improvement in real living standards, depends on creative thinkers who can mine and exploit such new knowledge, both as entrepreneurs and as policymakers. Public policymakers may err in the way new technology is applied, however, because they are not well-equipped to take into account the psychology of human reactions to innovation and change. Entrepreneurs with their own resources can exploit market forces to check whether an innovation is able to address the real needs and desires of the population, and if not, to change the application so that it does respond to true demand. The human thirst for knowledge seems only to accelerate rather than be satisfied by advances in knowledge and technology, so the opportunity for applying new science to human problems has a bright future. I n Brunei, for example, one area could be the development of solar farms and other forms of renewable energy, for which we examine the pros and cons in this paper.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the prohibition of gold credit products as the current issue in the world of Islamic Economics and finance and its implications for the interest of the society in using Islamic banking products in Indonesia (a case study in Bank Syariah Mandiri in Semarang City). This research uses the Logistic Regression method to analyze the impact of prohibition of gold credit products on society interest in using Islamic banking products. The results indicate that even though there was a prohibition ruling of buying gold credit products after being previously allowed, the interest of the society in using Islamic banking products did not decrease at all. What underlines the society’s consideration of not reducing their interests in using Islamic banking products is the abundance of alternative Islamic banking products that can be chosen by them according to their preferences. The result of this research can potentially contribute to the revision or renewal of Islamic economics and finance legal policies made by Dewan Syariah N asional Majelis Ulama Indonesia (DSN MUI) namely the Fatwa DSN MUI Number 77/DSN-MUI/VI/2010 about Sale and Purchase of Non Cash Gold.

Brunei is seeing a proliferation of bottled companies established in the country in the last decade, driven by cheap water supplies, easily available water filtering systems and demand by the public. This research found 16 ‘companies,’ ’producing’ and distributing over 34 brands of bottled waters in the country. Since bottled water industry is ’popular,’ it is necessary to understand how the industry is being monitored and regulated by the government as it involved products consumed by the public. Since most of the bottled water companies use water drawn from the pipes supplied by the government, it is also important to understand how the government is protecting, monitoring and regulating this valuable resource from exploitation. This paper is a preliminary research on the bottled water industry in Brunei Darussalam.

This study analyzes the transformation of marketing strategies from traditional to ’digital’ and find s out the efficacy of ’Facebook’ marketing for small or micro-enterprise brands; in the case of the restaurant industry. The study looks for the answers to questions such as How ’Facebook’ has changed the means of marketing in the case of small restaurant brands. Two restaurant brands were considered for the study. A qualitative case approach was adopted for the study. Major findings of the study have revealed that Facebook marketing is the direct, easiest and economical mode of communication with current and potential customers through ’Facebook page’, to disseminate information regarding brand and services through ’Facebook posts’, ’Comments’ and ’Chats’; besides, to maintain rapid feedback service to customers’ queries. In addition, through ’Facebook’ activities i.e., an instance of ’Likes’, ’Reviews’, ’Check-ins’, and ’Share’, customers themselves ensue as a source for promoting the brands. Nevertheless, for these small or microbrands’ Facebook Marketing, per se, it is an inexpensive technique for effective marketing; additionally, it fosters mutual relationships and increases the level of customer engagement.