Finance

This paper proposes a research framework involving two indicators of national competitiveness namely quality of governance and financial sophistication. Specifically, it proposes to examine the role of governance in influencing the level of financial sophistication among emerging economies in Asia. Good governance is needed to increase the wealth of people in a country as this will create positive influences at the regional and international scopes. On the other hand, a sophisticated financial markets is required to ensure the availability of capital especially from banking and capital market. The proposed framework is an important area of research as it will highlight the significance of governance practices as a major element in determining the level of financial sophistication in which suitable policies are implemented through good governance are expected to ensure a better access to financing that could improve the country’s economic growth.

The banking industry has undergone a sea change after the first phase of economic liberalization in 1991 and hence credit management. While the primary function of banks is to lend funds as loans to various sectors such as agriculture, industry, personal loans, housing loans etc., in recent times the banks have become very cautious in extending loans. The reason being mounting non-performing assets (NPAs). NPA account not only reduces profitability of banks by provisioning in the profit and loss account, but their carrying cost is also increased which results in excess & avoidable management attention. Apart from this, a high level of NPA also puts strain on a banks net worth because banks are under pressure to maintain a desired level of Capital Adequacy and in the absence of comfortable to assess the health of various categories of loan assets in various categories of banks.

This study examined the impact financial deepening on non-oil sectors to growth in Nigeria over the period 1985 – 2017 using the Johansen approach to co-integration analysis and Vector Error Correction Model. Controlling for the possible effects of exchange rate and trade openness on economic activities, this study found that financial development exerts impact in the long-term and indicates no relationship in the short run in building and construction. In particular, money supply showed a negative relationship with Building and Construction sector contribution to GDP sector in the long run. Second, credit to private sector showed that there exists a positive relationship with the non-oil contribution to GDP output. Therefore, the development of financial sector intermediation could be the right strategy to lessening the dominance of the mono-resources economy called the oil sector in the Nigerian economy.

Despite increasing attention paid to intangibles research since the end of the 20th century, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the interactions among different intangible elements and their performance implications due to the lack of appropriate intangible measurements and the low level of intangible disclosure in the public domain. This paper seeks to investigate the role of intangibles in the Indian banking by studying 46 banks, seven years (2005-2011) quantitative data. The empirical results show that top management human capital (HC) has a positive impact on either customer relationships or bank financial performance, and the combination of different intangible elements tends to better explain the variation in banks’ return on assets than they do individually. They also depict a positive relationship between relational capital and banks performance. Hence it is advisable for banks to build up on their intangible assets to gain competitive advantage and distinguish themselves from competitors in a world where in the hunt for market share firms are resorting to copying tangible assets and capabilities possessed by others to beat each other.

The research was carried out to investigate inventory challenges facing the performance of logistics firms in Kenya, Freight Forwarders Kenya Limited a leading Logistical company in East and Central Africa was used as the case study. The general objective of the study was to investigate the inventory challenges facing logistic firms. The specific objectives were to analyze how inventory cost, lead time, technology and level of inventory affects the organizations performance. The researcher used relationship marketing theory, deterministic inventory model and Economic Order quantity theories in the course of the research to relate how the challenges are affecting the performance of firms. Sampling method was employed in the cause of data collection for analysis a target population of 68 employees of FFK was targeted and a sample size of 58 was used In the course of research. The researcher collected primary data from Freight forwarders Kenya Limited by means of questionnaire’s those who gave their input were Top level managers, Middle level managers, supervisors and low level employees. Secondary data was also utilized from existing literature in analyzing and coming up with conclusions. Data was analyzed using descriptive analysis and inferential analysis using the SPSS Statistics to come up with sound conclusions regarding inventory challenges facing Logistical challenges in Kenya.

To test the model of stakeholder influence capacity mediator, with the reference to the textile sector, relating the corporate social responsibility independent variable with non- financial performance dependent variable. The sampling approach used was non-probability type convenience sampling. The data was collected from the registered textile mills in APTMA (All Pakistan Textile Mills Association) from Faisalabad region. The questionnaires were filled by the managers working in different divisions of textile mills including Sitara textile mill, AMTEX, Interloop, Masood textile mills, Itehad textile mill, Sarfraz textile mill, Five Star textile mill, Dawood Export (Pvt) Ltd, Nishat textile mill, National textile mill (Pvt) ltd. The questionnaire was based on five point Likert scale. An instrument was supported for internal consistency and reliability. The results concluded that there are significant and positive relationships between corporate social responsibility and stakeholder influence capacity directly, corporate social responsibility and non-financial performance and relationship between corporate social responsibility and non-financial performance with the mediating variable stakeholder influence capacity. Though initially, CSR dimensions are distinguished into philanthropic, economical, ethical, social and environmental. NFP can be measured with respect to customers, employees and suppliers. Stakeholder influence capacity can be evaluated with respect to social and environmental. The future research should apply the proposed model in this study and the results to other service sectors and geographic locations in order to develop its generalizability. In order to manage swift change and worldwide competition in business environments companies should center on the adopting strategies which strategy can affect the stakeholder influence capacity in array to improve the non-financial performance that marks the future indication of survival of the firm. The previous researches did not appraise the relationship of corporate social responsibility and non-financial performance with the mediating variable stakeholder influence capacity of the firms. The present study also demonstrates the different dimensions of the CSR and stakeholder influence capacity with the non-financial performance of the firms.

The role of growing financial sectors is already marked with good attention of the policy makers, investors, academicians and researchers in Bangladesh. To accelerate and sustain the economic growth, the dimension of finance research is very critical which subsequently results diversified types of researches being conducted continuously in this area. At the same time, assessing the directions of researches is also very important to find out the gap in the research vicinity and to explore uncovered issues keeping in mind that the world of finance is vast and there is little success in Bangladesh in terms of area wise research conducted. Moreover, the financial crisis of the world allows us to think further and look back on the finance researches being conducted and its evolution. This paper is an attempt to analyze the dimensions of financial researches that published in Bangladesh from 1973 to 2006. This study analyzes 549 papers covering from available issues (612 issues out of 750) of 18 journals published by well reputed academic institutions in Bangladesh. This paper categorizes the existing finance publications into different major areas and sub-areas. The category of finance researches is also segmented in three time periods based on the research trend in three decades. Finally the paper highlights the most focused areas and its outcomes, where most of the researches have been conducted but still need to do further study, and unexplored areas, where research works is highly required. This paper will be helpful for the financial institutions, researchers and policy makers.

This paper investigates the influence of terrorist activities taking place in Pakistan on KSE (Karachi Stock Exchange) for the period of 01/2005 to 12/2010 using the GARCH & GARCH- EVT to identify the relationship between these two variables, the study establishes that the terrorist activities adversely affect the financial markets and in case of KSE, it is highly significant relation. Reason for the negative relationship exists because of the foremost increase in number of terrorism attacks in Pakistan.

Electricity has played a central role in the economic development of countries since the wake of industrialization of nations and the demand for this strategic commodity and input has undergone a significant growth. This has caused researchers to become more focused on the factors affecting price and production costs and seek solutions to increase the efficiency in power generation. The general objective of this research study was to establish the strategic management factors affecting performance of thermal power generation companies in Kenya. Four key strategic management factors were selected for this study that affects performance of thermal power companies in Kenya which formed the specific objective of the study, they include; cost of fuel, customer relationship management (CRM), quality management and competitive strategy. The finding of this study was to assist shareholders in decision making process in terms of the investment to engaged in, government in reviewing and formulating policies in the energy sector and managers in focusing on their competitive areas while seeking solutions in there weaker areas in terms of performance. Literatures and theories were reviewed to seek various opinions and views from different authors in the area under study. Three theories of resourced based view, Stakeholder and resource dependency theories were considered. The conceptual frame work presents the relationship that exists between dependent and independent variables. The study criticized some of the literatures and presented the research gap where this study seeks to fulfill. The research study applied a descriptive research design. The target population was the 80 employees of Rabai Power Limited comprising of the four departments of operation, maintenance, procurement and administration. The sample size of 67 respondents out of the total population was obtained using the Slovin?s formula for sample determination. This was equivalent to 84% of the target population which was drawn using simple stratified random sampling technique to promote the need for efficiency and representativeness from various departments. Both primary and secondary data technique was used to collect data for the purpose of analyzing these factors that affect performance.

The General Concept: Higher Expected Returns Require Taking Higher Risk Most investors are comfortable with the notion that taking higher levels of risk is necessary to expect to earn higher returns. In this note, we explain Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) that has been developed to make this relationship precise. By applying CAPM to Pharmaceutical sector at Karachi Stock Exchange we examined that Beta ( ), the measure of systematic risk in CAPM, has significant impact on returns of the securities.