Finance

Based on Hodrick-Prescott filter for non-performing loan ratio of commercial banks and economic growth ratio, this paper set up VAR model, also analyze the impact from economic growth to the fluctuation of non-performing loan ratio of commercial banks. The result shows that the attack from economic growth to non-performing loan ratio achieves maximum after three quarters. From the conclusion, some measures for preventing and controlling banks’ systemic risk should be implemented, such as implementing counter-cyclical mechanism for the central bank, improving the export competitiveness for government, strengthening internal credit mechanism for commercial banks.

Considering the fact that approximately 80% of problems of organizational security have to do with negligence or lack of users’ awareness of knowledge management (KM) , the users’ knowledge about information security has been identified to be one of the most fundamental issues in information security management. Accordingly, in the present study we analyzed different factors of knowledge management for recording, storage, sharing and dissemination of information security. The current paper is a type of descriptive-correlative in terms of collecting data and pragmatic in goal. The findings come from a field study on knowledge management experts at Iranian universities. Also, a questionnaire was the means for collecting the data. Finally, the data were analyzed using the partial least square and path analysis methods. The findings suggest that the information system users remarkably apply security factors of knowledge management. Furthermore, the authors realized that it is possible to use security factors of knowledge management by increasing the users’ awareness in order to enhance informational security.

In the global economy of the 21st century, international trade will be a key source of economic growth and development. Recent surveys conducted in several countries by the National Foundation of Women Business Owners (NFWBO) indicate that women-owned firms involved in the global marketplace have greater revenues, are more optimistic about their business prospects and are more focused on business expansion than women-owned firms that are domestically oriented. Obviously, expanding into international trade can pay off for women-owned firms. However, it is not clear that smaller enterprises are benefiting from these potential as much as larger firms. In connection with the above here an attempt has made to study the role of women entrepreneurs in economic development.

In this modernization era, Banking activities have been automated. Technology has brought banks and services to the doorsteps of the customers. ATM is one of the boons for the customers to withdraw their money or deposit their money on any day at any time. In this context the ATM cardholders should be well versed with ATM and its related matters. In this present study, which has been conducted among 100 ATM card holders of various banks in Srimushnam Taluk, an attempt has been made to assess whether the ATM card holders are aware of certain important matters and behaviour of them.

Currently, there are about 1,750 urban co-operative banks in India, which form 14% of the banking sector. While the focus has always been on private and public sector banks who are riding the technology wave to emerge as front runners in the global banking arena, cooperative banks, have been laggards when it comes to technology adoption. The drivers of performance for UCBs, as for any organisation, includes indicators such as increased employee satisfaction, increased customer satisfaction, financial stability, lower average time to resolution, and innovations in information and communications technology (ICT). Co-operative banks can play a significant role in rural financial inclusion if they ably take advantage of the technology in place. Besides enabling faster services, their decision to bring technology into play will open up possibilities of providing new cost-effective banking products and services to the farming community in particular. It is envisaged that post implementation of CBS including Financial Inclusion, Cooperative banks will also implement internet banking, phone banking, ATM network etc. According to industry watchers, technology deployments like CBS are a big challenge in cooperative banks. Factors such as high costs of implementation and maintenance coupled with lack of regional language software support for CBS are deterrents.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between school environment factors such as peer influence, class size and media usage in school with English Language subject achievement among Form Five students of a school in PasirGudang, Johor by measuring their English language SPM Trial examination results of 2010. The differences of English Language achievement among the students were analysed based on their demographic factor and the influence of the school environment factors (independent variables) on the SPM Trial English Language achievement (dependent variable). Sampling 180 respondents of Form Five students one of the secondary schools in PasirGudang District was chosen to carry out the research. Three research hypotheses were developed for this study. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. Statistical tool such as Pearson Coefficient Correlations, frequency and Multiple Regressions were used to test these hypotheses. There are two types of variables used in this research which are Dependent Variables (DV) and Independent Variables (IV). Students’ achievement is classified as theDV while the factors of school environment (teachers’ commitment, class size and peer influence) are classified astheIV. A conceptual framework is drawn based on the variables. The results indicated that class size has a weak significant impact towards students’ achievement whereas peer influence and media usagedo not have significant impact towards students’ achievement.

The efficiency of capital market is one of the most controversial issues in the capital market over the past three decades in financial literature. Today, the capital market in developing countries is considered as a means to increase investment and economic growth and since efficiency is the main and most important characteristic of capital market in each country, it has become one of the most controversial areas of finance and economy research. In this study, performance of Tehran Stock Exchange is examined in the period (Persian date April 2001 to March 2010) on a daily basis, using VAR method. This study is distinct from similar domestic research because the present research examines the efficiency of Tehran Stock Exchange simultaneously with the efficiency of four indices (total, price and dividends, finance and industry) that the results showed that Tehran Stock Exchange does not have efficiency based on four elected indices.

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.

The study looks into the fund mobilization role of cooperative thrift and credit societies in Nigeria .The cooperative thrift and credit society of Ajayi Crowther University Oyo State of Nigeria was used as a case study. Primary data were coalated from the workers of the university serving as the respondents through the questionnaire instrument. The responses were analysed with the use of simple percentages. Two hypotheses were also tested to confirm the analysis. It was discovered that every member of staff consulted belong to one or two cooperative societies due majorly to the easier access of getting loan from the societies than from the banks. The loans given by the societies were also derivable from the savings contributions from members. It can therefore be concluded that cooperative thrift and credit societies in Nigeria are good in mobilizing funds from the surplus unit (the savers) to the deficit unit (the borrowers), the activity that has led to economic development of the co-operators and their societies at large. It is therefore good for government to give more recognition to the societies and should be extending grants and loans to them to boost their activities. This would help in filling the financial gap which has been existing within the whole range of financial intermediation process in the country.

Electronic banking (e-banking) system has become an important practice among commercial banks in Nigeria. The introduction of this banking system has improved banking efficiency in rendering services to customers and the public. However the gains of e-banking has been associated with some hinderances ranging from internet failure to arbitrary withdrawal of money by customers which negates the cashless policy being heralded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It was in line with this that the study aims at examining the challenges facing this banking system and the prospects accruable to its adoption. Among the various suggestions made in this study- to benefit maximally from e-banking- include provision of enabling environment that can guarantee safety of lives and cash deposits of customers, provision of an interrupted power supply and internet service in order to enjoy efficient services from the banks. Lastly, enforceable e-banking regulations should be put in place to back up the cashless policy already initiated by the CBN. This will go a long way to reduce money laundering and reckless withdrawal of cash and thereby boosting capital formation and investment in the economy.