Finance

The decision to spend on Research and Development (R&D) is very crucial for the growth of any firm. This study explores the determinants of R&D intensities in selected Indian firms that spend on R&D activities. The impact of business house affiliation on R&D activities is also taken as a crucial factor determining R&D activities. The study found that R&D behavior for the period 2003-2009 is different from the year 2010. The year 2010 being the recovery year there has been significant rise in R&D spending among the selected firms. As there are some interrelated variables in the model, the simultaneity in the models is verified with Hausman tests and then two-stage least square method is applied for the empirical estimation and analysis. Outward orientation, profitability, imports of capital goods, advertisement etc. turned out to be important determinants of R&D intensity. Business group affiliation as such has a negative role in R&D intensity except for top-50 business houses in certain year.

With the public corporations in Kenya embracing strategic management which was heralded to bring the much needed improvement in their performance, the much awaited change has not been as widely seen as was anticipated but is rather slow and at times even retrogressive. There is still concern about poor performance of these public corporations. This can only mean one thing. The strategies are not working or in academic terms, the strategies have not been successfully implemented. Studies have shown the various aspects that contribute to the success of strategy and these have been adopted by the public corporation. This leaves one field not explored- The effect of stakeholder involvement on the successful implementation of strategy. However with public corporations, caution has to be taken on which stakeholder to involve and to what extent. This thus called for the present study to analyze the effect of involving each stakeholder in strategic planning and implementation on successful strategy implementation. Due to the number of public corporations and their homogeneity, a study on one should reflect on what happens in the others. This is the rationale for using KEBS. The study used a desk research design and explored much on the effects of stakeholder involvement on successful strategy implementation in public corporations.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the corporate governance on firm performance. The variables, employed in this study to measure firm performance, return on assets. And Board Size, Board Composition, CEO/Chairman Duality as indicator of corporate governance. For this purpose sample data collected for listed banks in Pakistan from 2005 to 2010. The empirical results indicate that firm performance have a significant relation to board Size, board composition, On the other hand, firm performance has insignificant impact on CEO/Chairman Duality.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between growth in agricultural sector and poverty in Pakistan. It explores that how much the poor people have gained from growth in agricultural sector of Pakistan by considering growth magnitude and benefits obtained by the poor people resulting from growth for the period of 1985 to 2005 through applying OLS Regression Technique. The results indicate that the variable of growth in agricultural sector is significantly and negatively associated with the variable of poverty, i.e., the growth in agricultural sector of Pakistan will result in reducing the level of poverty in Pakistan.

This study examines the causal relationship of selected bank financial ratios on lending to small and medium Enterprise (SMEs) in Nigeria. The data used for this study were gathered from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical Bulletin for a period of 27 years (1983 – 2010). Granger causality and OLS were applied to a set of differenced bank financial ratios and it was found that a critical gap in bank intermediation still exists in the lending to SME sector in Nigeria. A positive relationship exists between ratio of Rural Loan to Deposit (RRLD) and aggregate liquidity ratio (LR) while the causal relationship flows from cash reserve ratio to liquidity ratio. The result suggests that the excess liquidity in the banking system between 1983 – 2010 did not improve the flow of credit to SMEs in Nigeria. Consequently, the banks have failed in their social role of financing the SMEs by restricting the spread of fiat money contrary to the expectations of the Keynes – Schumpeter model. There is also no evidence to show that the banks are dealing significantly with the problem of information asymmetries through improved relationship lending to the SMEs in Nigeria. Monetary Policy should therefore target critically bank variables (LR, CRR and LDR) while ensuring compliance with prudential standards and balancing aggregate portfolios between large and small businesses. Restoring the mandatory credit allocation regime could also help in improving SMEs lending.

The aim of this study is to show the relationship between foreign investment and economic growth. Framework is used to show impact over the period of 1986 to 2013 .The result of these tables show that there is positive relationship between foreign investment and economic growth. We also examines that there is lack of sources in Pakistan .We have used secondary data for this study .This study will reveal that foreign investment is playing important role to fulfils requirement of sources .On the other hand, foreign investment has important role for the development of Pakistan economy. Most importantly, the Pakistan has chosen investor friendly policy. Foreign investment has two types 1) mixture of green field investment and 2)privatization proceeds .We propose a mechanism that foreign investment determine the political risk. Foreign investment also play important role to maintain a BOP of host country .In this study also show that which policies is important for the development of country 1) reduce political risk 2) foreign investment .This study also shows that Sri Lanka has rate of foreign investment is low then other Asian countries .Market access and modern technology is a main components of foreign investment .However, productivity can be improve by foreign investment (1997) the ratio of foreign investment in Pakistan is 0.2%.The main reason of poor performance in Pakistan is that basically Pakistan is a agriculture country and we have poor industries skills .For the development of country there is need to investment 35% to 40% in a year .In this study also shows that terries has negative effect on foreign investment of Pakistan .State bank of Pakistan regulates foreign investment inside and outside the Pakistan. Economy of every country depends upon circle of a foreign investment .For a strong country there is need of a strong economy .In this study we also examine that foreign investment growth rate is increasing then international trade. For the development of economic growth there is needed to invest 35 to 40% in GDP. Foreign investment has different shapes like.1) foreign loans 2) foreign direct investment3) portfolio. In the last year the exports of Pakistan is 12.9billion and import was 18.7billion. Japan has a vast export market for Pakistan. Economic development can be increase with foreign trade e .g raw cotton clothes and wheat is the main products of Pakistan.

Small Scale Enterprises have been recognized to be the main engine of economic growth and a major factor in promoting private sector development and partnership in the developing economies of the world. The enterprises in this category have not only brought about substantial local capital formation, it has really increased the level of productivity and capabilities of the dwellers of the rural commodities thereby redistributing the nations income and curbing rural-urban drift of citizens. However, despite the benefit accruable from the development of Small Scale Industries (SSI), little attention has been paid to its improvement by various tiers of government because of the distance between the government and the local dwellers. Also, lack of infrastructural facilities like power supply, provision of water, accessible roads to link the rural communities to the commercial centers, and non – availability of formal financial institutions have negatively affected the optimum performance of the various Small Scale Enterprises in Nigeria. Therefore the thrust of this paper is to assess how far the Small Scale Industries have been thriving in the face of various problems ranging from infrastructural to financial, confronting the entrepreneurs in the local communities and the effects of such constraints and problems on their business and how the problems can be ameliorated in order to improve the welfare and enhance the social economic development of the citizens at the grassroots. The population for the study comprises the small scale entrepreneur in Osun State of Nigeria. The sample consists of Iwo Local Government Area and Ola Oluwa Local Government Area. The two local councils are predominantly of villages and towns which can be regarded as real grass root communities and the major enterprises being practiced is the small scale type. Out of this population, 200 respondents randomly chosen were served questionnaires, in which 153 respondents returned their questionnaire filled. The researcher also made use of oral interview with the officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Iwo Zonal office serving the two local councils as well as using some relevant data from the internal Revenue Board of Osun State. For the analysis of the data, simple percentages were used to classify the responses of the respondents and Chi-square (x2) was used to test the various hypotheses proposed. The findings of the study indicate that Small Scale business entrepreneurs have no access to funds from the formal financial institutions (Banks) due to non-availability of banks in these rural areas and where there are few of the banks, the formality of processing loans and the interest on such loans have been very discouraging. Due to this, majority of the respondents make use of non-bank financial institution like thrift and cooperative societies, and also get financial assistance through Revolving Loan Scheme (ESUSU) and Daily Contributions Arrangement (AJO). However, in spite of all these challenges, it was found out by the researcher that investing in small scale business in these areas has great prospect and thus profitable to the owners. Small scale businesses have really served as a very charitable linkage between the source of raw materials and the usage of such materials by the large scale counterparts in the state. Also, of small scale business have thrived greatly by helping the rural dwellers to have access to the finished products of large corporations through buying and selling.

Environment is a very wide term which includes everything in all its manifest forms, on the earth, beneath the earth and above the earth. The natural resources of a nation affect the business activity of every enterprise. Similarly, the functioning of an enterprise has some favorable and some adverse effects on the environment. Hence, there is a need for maintaining accounts of the effects of the activities of a business entity on the environment and on natural resources. Environmental accounting is a faithful attempt to identify and bring to light the resources exhausted and cost rendered reciprocally to the environment by a business corporation. It is henceforth concerned with recording environmental elements. Environmental accounting is still at an early stage of evolution and it is being groomed under the voluntary leadership of a variety of enterprises around the world. During the period of 1981-1990, the emphasis in the accounting literature shifted from ‘social responsibility accounting’ to ‘environmental accounting’, reflecting the strong interest in the latter. From 1990-todate, the emphasis on environmental accounting continues unabated and engages the interest of both academic and practicing accountants, hence accounting and disclosure of environmental matters have been rapidly emerging as an important dimension of corporate reporting. This paper describes the evolution, nature, significance, areas and methodology of environmental accounting and also examines general issues concerned with it. This paper throws light on how corporate are responding to pressures to keep accounting records of the impact that their productive process have on the environment.

This paper examined the impact of non-performing loans on the profitability of the banking industry of Pakistan. We have taken the Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) as Total Assets (TA) as profitability measure for the time span of 1998-2010. We have taken the data of Non-Performing Loans from the central bank of Pakistan. By applying the regression analysis, we have concluded that Non-Performing Loans have significant negative impact on the profitability and growth of the Banking sector of Pakistan.

After more than a decade of derivatives trading in Indian bourses, our markets have experienced a sea change in activity, behavior and trade in different instruments and products available. Here in this paper, we have examined and compared which market among cash and futures reacts to the flow of information faster and hence leads the other. A cross correlation test followed by Granger casualty, VAR and GARCH models establish relationship between returns and volatilities being experienced by some of the blue chip sensex stocks in two different markets. Our results suggest that there exists a strong bi-directional and contemporaneous relationship among the returns in the spot and futures market. The results for few stocks indicate lagged futures return coefficient is significant which means futures play a leading role in explaining the movement in the spot market. Also for some other stocks, exact reverse situation is observed showing significant leading futures return coefficient which means spot market returns lead the other. As far as interdependence among stock return volatility is concerned, it has been found that for more number of stocks, volatility spillover from futures to spot market is significant. This implies that stock futures market play a leading role both in terms of return and volatility thereby contributing in price discovery process.