Finance

This study seeks to assess the Impact of the Contributory Pension Scheme on employee retirement benefits of quoted firms in Nigeria. In line with this objective, the population of the study is the one hundred and eighty-two (234) firms quoted on the first- tier market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and ten (10) quoted firms selected as sample size based on the fact that they are some of the companies that had complied with SAS 8. The study utilized data from secondary source. Data were obtained from the annual accounts and reports of the (10) quoted firms that made up the sample of the study. The time frame for the study is ten years, covering the period of 1998 to 2007. The techniques of analysis used in the study were the Student’s T-test and the qualitative grading. We concluded that even though the Contributory Pension Scheme has positive impact on employee retirement benefits of quoted firms in Nigeria, variation in application still exists among them. The study recommended an effective monitoring/supervision and enforcement of the provisions of the Pension Reform Act, 2004, in addition to effective implementation of the penalties provided by the Act on non-compliers regardless of their status or origin. The study calls on the appropriate authorities such as the government, professional accountancy bodies on academics to commission research and activities geared towards developing not only accounting policies that would ensure swift compliance with Statement of Accounting Standards (SAS 8), but strategies that would ensure optimum investments that enhance net worth and profitability of firms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intellectual capital (IC) efficiency of Indian banking sector in utilizing intellectual capital and capital employed to run the organization by using the data envelopment analysis methodology. The authors use three individual components of value added intellectual coefficient as the input variables, and Tobin’s Q and return on equity as the output variables. Examining a sample of 35 banks in financial years 2009-2013, findings of this study show that banks listed on the Mumbai stock exchange invest most of their resources in Structural Capital as compared to Human Capital and Physical Capital, and The Jammu & Kashmir Bank Limited, Indian Overseas Bank, HDFC Bank Ltd., State Bank of India, Federal Bank Ltd. and Yes Bank Limited are the most efficient company of all the sample banks, since they have the highest coefficient of intellectual capital super efficiency based on Anderson and Peterson model. The benchmarking analysis of this study may shed light for the managers in banks to benchmark and improve their efficiency in intellectual capital management. The overall average values of Technical efficiency 0.756, Pure technical efficiency 0.984 and Scale efficiency 0.766 suggest that managers of banks are inefficient in scale efficiency intellectual capital due to the technical problem and not managing intellectual capital.

In the modern commercial era, companies and their managers are subjected to well publicized pressure to play an increasingly active role in society – so called “Corporate social responsibility”. It has been argued that an element in this development is simply enlightened self-interest in that social responsibility enhances corporate image and financial performance. To date the evidence to support this thesis derives from North America. Outside this continent evidence for any relationship is sparse. This study will initially attempt to define. The concept of corporate social responsibility and to examine its guiding principles. Subsequently, the available empirical research into the link between corporate social responsibility and economic performance will be evaluated this study examines different impacts of positive and negative CSR activities on financial performance of hotel, restaurant and airline companies, theoretically based on positivity and negativity effects. Findings suggest mixed results across different industries and will contribute to companies’ appropriate strategic decision-making for CSR activities by providing more precise information regarding the impacts of each directional CSR activity on financial performance.

This study aimed to identify the role of CAIS’ components in reducing banking services costs in the Iranian financial institutions) the Iranian banks, financial & credit institutions and Islamic non-profit granting funds). The sample consisted of 67 employees including the financial directors and accountants working in the Iranian financial institutions in Khuzestan province. The study adopted the theoretical and field approaches and the descriptive analytical methodology. CAIS’ components consist of human resources, hardware and equipment, software, databases, networks and produces. Findings showed that the components of human resources, hardware and equipment, software, databases, networks and procedures play a significant role in reducing banking services costs. Findings illustrated a positive correlation between each component of CAIS and the reduction of banking services costs. Generally, Findings showed that CAIS relatively has a significant role in reducing banking services costs.

This study investigates the factor capital which leads towards the dearth of entrepreneurship. Micro and macro enterprises play an important role in the economy of any country, but in Kotli Azad Jammu & Kashmir these enterprises are rare. This research was conducted through a self adminstered questionnaire. The sample size for this study was 100 and these organizations were facing the problems of entrepreneurial dearth. Data collected through questionnaire were statistically analyzed, correlation was used to test the research hypotheses. This study provides valuable insights that, one of the main reason of dearth of entrepreneurship is lack of capital. Many entrepreneurs faced lot of problem in accessing the finance through financial institutions. The significance of this research study lies in the fact that it fills an important gap in the literature, offering a deeper understanding of how the access to capital affects the entrepreneurship in Kotli AJ&K. Future researchers can conduct similar studies on other sectors in Kotli AJ&K and findings of this research study can be incorporated in entrepreneurship policies and guidelines.

The study identifies the impact of inflation and foreign exchange rate on foreign direct investment in Pakistan. Inflation and exchange rates are used as independent variables and foreign direct investment is taken as dependent variable. Discreet time series data has been used from the period of 1999 to 2009. The results of regression analysis reveal that high inflation has negative impact on foreign direct investment and higher exchange rates has positive impact on foreign direct investment in Pakistan. The inflation and foreign exchange rates both are insignificant in the analysis.

Generally, all securities are associated with risks. The actual return an investor receives from the securities is related to risks. So it becomes necessary for him to analyze the securities from the view point of their prices, returns and risks. This analysis is useful in understanding the fluctuation of prices of securities and the behavioral pattern of market before one decides to invest in securities. In general short term investors tend to earn more profit in a short period. One of the effective and simple tools used to have an idea for buying and selling of shares to its maximum yielding in 10 days is “Oscillators”. The name itself expresses the oscillating character of price movement from low level to high level. The investor can get the merits of oscillators and be benefited in short term duration. The present study only micro level analysis. Key words: short term, investment, oscillators, securities, investors. Introduction: The word investment has many interpretations as it means different things to different persons. For a person who has lent money to another, it may be an investment for a return. Similarly, if a person purchases shares of a company for the purpose of price appreciation, it is also an investment for him. Investment is a commitment of funds for earning additional income. Security analysis calls for collection of vast information relating to company and market. The market for securities can be regarded as perfect when demand and supply forces determine the prices of securities. Besides the market price, the investors are interested in knowing the intrinsic value of shares. It is the value of net assets available per equity share of the company. It always revolves around the market price. When the intrinsic value is less than the market price, it is advisable to sell the shares. On the other hand, investors intend to buy securities when the intrinsic value of shares held is more than the market price. Thus, the market analysis and estimate of intrinsic value require collection of information from the appropriate sources.

Information Technology has achieved rapid changes with high influence in development of mankind. Information and communication technology (ICT) is the major advent in the field of technology which is used for access, process, storage and dissemination of information electronically. In this competitive fast globalized world, Indian banking industry has been consistently working towards the development of technological changes in usage of banking operation for improvement of their efficiency and customer’s satisfaction. The major services like ATMs, on-line banking, Telephone banking, Mobile banking etc are the recent forms ICT enabled services in banking sector. Therefore, taking an advantage of information technologies (IT) is an increasing challenge for developing countries like India, banking operation in India are now offering attractive technology based services & products such as e-banking and core banking. Hence, the present research paper has made an attempt to study the role of Information and communication Technology (ICT) in decision making process of Indian banking domain among customers in Pollachi region.

The Indian Financial System, in the last two decades, has seen a phenomenal expansion in the geographical coverage and financial spread. The spread of the banking system has been a major factor in promoting financial intermediation in the economy and in the growth of financial savings. With progressive liberalization of economic policies, there has been a rapid growth of capital market, money market and financial services industry including merchant banking, leasing and venture capital. Consistent with this evolution of the financial sector, the mutual fund industry has also come to occupy an important place. The Indian mutual fund industry has grown at an impressive rate in the last few years, the recent developments of the past few months triggered by the global financial crisis have impacted the fortunes of the Industry resulting in AUM decline, adversely impacting the revenue and profitability. Our research has attempted to identify and highlight some of the key issues and challenges being faced by the industry participants that are preventing the industry from harnessing its true growth potential.

The entrepreneurship is one of the factors accelerating economic growth. There is a strong relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. Many of the earlier studies had established this relationship and had constructed theoretical models based on the empirical findings (Casson, 1990 and Livesay 1995, Goel 1997, Glancey and McQuaid, 2000,). Access to finance is one of the factors determining entrepreneurship. The small and medium enterprises in developing countries face significant barriers to finance. The small and medium enterprises are constrained by gaps in the financial system such as high administrative costs, high collateral requirements and lack of experience within financial intermediaries. Increased access to finance for small and medium enterprises can improve economic conditions in developing countries by fostering innovation, macro-economic resilience, and GDP growth. Many studies had identified the access to finance as the major factor determining entrepreneurship. The World Bank and the International Finance Cooperation (IFC) rank economies according to their ease of doing business. In this framework, the ability for business to get credit is an important criterion. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Entrepreneurship Framework Condition also highlights the availability of financial resources for small, medium enterprises in the form of debt and equity, as one of the key factors for stimulating and supporting entrepreneurial activity. The World Bank Enterprise Surveys reveal that, in low-income countries, on an average 43% of businesses with 20 to 99 employees’ rate, access to finance or cost of finance as a major constraint to current operations. In high-income countries, only 11% of businesses of the same size rate, access to finance as a constraint. In this backdrop, an attempt was made to analyze the impact of financial inclusion on entrepreneurship in India.