This article applies frontier production function analysis to small farms in Nicaragua during 1998-2005 (Battese and Coelli, 1988). The objective of this study is to estimate an average function that will provide a picture of the shape of the organic fertilizer technology of an average firm (in our case, agricultural production units). Furthermore I present a best-practice of organic fertilizer against which the efficiency of the firms within the primary sector can be measured (Coelli, T: 1995). The results show an average of technical efficiency acceptable which the makers of public policy in Nicaragua must considerer for the future. It is imperative if we consider an economy activity indexes that have increased during this period.
A partnership is the relationship existing between two or more persons or entities that join to carry on a trade or business. Each one contributes money, property, labor or skill, and expects to share in the profits and losses of the business. This paper aims to describe some types of partnerships between governments, communities, new social movements and firms.
The paper is about application of evolutionary concept, particularly the application of natural selection process, to the study of movie industry. The importance of the application is that it allows for the heterogeneity and interdependency of market agents in analyzing the economic choice decision. This complexity always presents an obstacle to the study of market behavior, especially when one has to take into account the constant reinforcing effects among the variables, which often renders the problem elusive. The paper intends to explain the economic process, particularly the evolution of exhibition contract, taking into account this complexity through the use of evolutionary concept.
Since leadership is a critical factor for improving organizational performance, failure or success of an organization highly depends on the efficiency of leadership at all levels. Scholars elaborated that leadership is the ability of influencing one's attitudes, aptitudes and beliefs, in the way that it will lead to meet organizational objectives. The main purpose of this study is to consider two domains of efficient leadership and women’s leadership style, in order to determine and elaborate the dimensions of the new concept of “Women’s Efficient Leadership”. We intend to describe the characteristics of women’s efficient leadership in state organizations in Iran by means of offering a logical pattern, in order to be able to propose a favorable pattern, leading to increased efficiency in governmental organizations of the country. Innovation of this study can be divided into two parts: one is theoretical contribution and developing the knowledge of efficient leadership as well as women’s leadership style, and the second one is scientific contribution and proposing a pattern for women’s efficient leadership in state organizations, using compound approach. The outcomes of this study show that women’s efficient leadership in state organizations consists of 7 subjects, 17 dimensions, and 85 components, which represent various characteristics in different periods of time. The thesis that women’s efficient leadership has an evolving nature was approved and that it consists of a combination of factors such as capability of team making, having vision, cognitive and psychological capabilities, able to bring continuous improvement of organizational performance, mentoring and making effective relations. In this study, the influence of mentioned factors on women’s efficient leadership has been investigated by means of questionnaires and has been approved.
The purpose of the paper is to determine the extent to which Nigeria's National Transport Policy (NTP) enhances economic sustainability in Nigeria and offer guidance to policy makers on effective ways to make progress towards sustainable transportation in Nigeria. This paper offers an analytical evaluation of the Policy, using both primary and secondary data. To do this quantitative survey method was adopted for the study and questionnaires were used for data collection instrument. A random of 127 (68.28%) transport companies were selected for the study, out of a population of 186 registered luxury bus and shipping companies in Nigeria in 2009. For a proper analysis, a sample of 400 non transport workers was included in the study. In total, 1670 questionnaires were administered to the respondents, out of which 1452 questionnaire were completed, which represents a response rate of 86.95%. The data analysis revealed that overall means score was 2.54, which was lower than expected value of 3.00 on 5-point Likert Scale. The test of hypothesis revealed that calculated Z was -27 .9590, with significant probability of 1.0000, which was greater than 0.05. The test was insignificant at 5% level of significance. Therefore, it was concluded that the extent to which the policy enhances economic sustainability in Nigeria, was not significantly above average. This implies that the policy had little influence in reducing negative economic impact emanating from Nigeria’s transport system. In this light, it is recommended that the policy should be modified so as to make it functional and goal oriented.
This paper presents an overview of the theoretical and related empirical literature on the association between financial system development and economic growth. It describes the role of financial system development in economic growth at the macro level, both theoretically and empirically. It also describes briefly the relationship of corporate finance and firm performance. It finally concludes the review and presents some policy implications in view of the reviewed literature.
Providing efficient query to XML data for ebXML applications in e-commerce is crucial, as XML has become the most important technique to exchange data over the Internet. ebXML is a set of specifications for companies to exchange their data in e-commerce. Following the ebXML specifications, companies have a standard method to exchange business messages, communicate data, and business rules in e-commerce. Due to its tree-structure paradigm, XML is superior for its capability of storing and querying complex data for ebXML applications. Therefore, discovering frequent XML query patterns has become an interesting topic for XML data management in ebXML applications. In this paper, we present an efficient mining algorithm, namely ebXMiner, to discover the frequent XML query patterns for ebXML applications. Unlike the existing algorithms, we propose a new idea by collecting the equivalent XML queries and then enumerating the candidates from infrequent XML queries in our ebXMiner. Furthermore, our simulation results show that ebXMiner outperforms other algorithms in its execution time.
Both success and failure of free market economy could be explained through its understanding of human nature. Its great success in production comes from its principles based on “self-interested” human nature driven by animal souls and egoistic desires. The system achieves higher productivity by providing many incentives to motivate people whose goals are to maximize their interests. On the other hand, the failure of the free market system comes from its lack of moral principles to balance irrational and irresponsible decisions/behaviors of animal souls and ego. For that matter, the paper argues that the 2008 crisis was essentially a moral crisis of capitalism with its root going back as far as the Enlightenment. It suggests that during the crisis, the “invisible hand” of free market turned to “stealing hand” through market games driven by the irrational and irresponsible behaviors of politicians, creditors, and consumers. The paper concludes with few lessons learned from the crisis. First, the crisis created a great opportunity to acknowledge the need for moral values for efficient market system. Second, we should revise our assumptions of human nature and behaviors in economics and finance to include predictably irrational decisions of individuals. Third, we should include moral education in education system at K-12 levels, not at the college. Finally, we should revise our economic models to capture the importance of moral and spiritual capital as endogenous variables.
The importance of quality management in SME Sector of Pakistan as being catalyst for economic development is undeniable. Nevertheless it is unfortunate that despite this implication, little research is undertaken to comprehend the complex nature of SME. The purpose of this research is to measure impact of ISO 9000 certification on organizational performance of SMEs in Pakistan. The effect of five dimensions of ISO 9000 Standard was individually examined on the organizational performance. These five dimensions include management responsibility, documentation requirements of quality management system, resource management, product realization and measurement analysis and improvement. The findings of the research show positive relationship of ISO 9000 certification with organizational performance of SMEs.
Because of efficiency and easiness that it provides, Information Technology (IT) usage has a vital meaning for all sectors. To derive benefits from IT completely, it has to be discovered in all aspects. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons behind accountants’ IT usage and in this context, compare two social psychology based theories; the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The data, obtained through a questionnaire that was responded to by 437 accountants, shows that if an accountant has a positive attitude and Subjective Norms (SN) towards IT usage, his/her intention towards IT usage is also positive, and the degree of intention is in proportion to the degree of perceived behavioral control. According to the stepwise regression analysis, TPB has higher predictive power than TRA.
Customer loyalty always remains a prime concern for business organization. The purpose of this is to identify key factors which influence customer loyalty around the globe in general and in Pakistan in particular. This study investigates the correlation between these factors and customer loyalty through hypotheses testing. The study was carried out by taking a sample of 150 respondents. Data were collected through questionnaire containing 14 items and analyzed in SPSS. Results of the study indicate a positive relationship among customer satisfaction, customer relationship, image of the product, trustworthiness and customer loyalty. This study concludes that long-term success and sustainable reputation of an organization depends on customer loyalty. The study recommends that the ‘customer is always right’ is a golden principle to attain customer loyalty.
The job satisfaction has got tremendous attention in organizational research. The focus of this study is to determine the impact of various human resource management practices like job autonomy, team work environment and leadership behavior on job satisfaction. It also investigates the major determinants of job satisfaction in Pakistani banking sector. This study further evaluates the level of difference in job satisfaction among male and female employees. The sample of the study consisted of 450 employees working in different banks of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore through the questionnaire, of which 295 were returned and processed. SPSS was used to analyze the data, using Independent Sample T Test, Correlation and regression analysis. There is a positive and significant link between job satisfaction and human recourse management practices like team work environment, job autonomy and behavior of leadership. From the findings of the study, it is also inferred that male and female workers have significantly different level of job satisfaction.
This paper tried to analyze the performance of the investment companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange that had active portfolio management from 2006 to 2010 by Sharp, Treynor, and Sortino ratios. For more profound study of their performances, this research used some of the measures, including turnover, liquidity, size and diversification of portfolio. After gathering needed test data and relevant statistical tests as Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk, the results showed the distribution of data was not normal. Therefore, the hypothesis was tested by nonparametric tests. The results of the first hypothesis about the three mentioned above ratios and with Freidman and Wilcoxen tests showed the companies had better controls on systematic risk than other components. The result of the second hypothesis by using combined Anova and Multiple Anova showed portfolio turnover in the companies had positive and significant affect in the companies performances than other measures. It is possible for anyone to be able to find a company that has a high level of portfolio turnover and a high level of performance than other companies while it has a lower level of other measures.
Workplace bullying represents persistent behaviors that are both overt and covert. There is an increasing need for understanding this construct for the reason that it is directly linked to bringing the victim to a state of long lasting emotional distress. Alarmingly, such aggression usually is invisible and difficult to identify. This provides a rationale for elucidating the concept of bullying in the workplace at length through an extensive review of the existing literature. Various facets of workplace bullying have been highlighted in this paper in order to show its detrimental effects on the health of targets working in any occupational or organizational setting. Drawing on well-established theories and findings of various researchers, the concept of workplace bullying is systematically linked with how it can evolve into mental health problems. In addition, few hypotheses are also presented for future research purpose.
This paper evaluated the feasibility of optimum currency areas (OCAs) in East Asia by benchmarking the characteristics of 16 East Asian economies and India against those of the dollarized countries and the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), according to criteria that are most frequently studied in OCA literature, namely synchronization in real business cycle, volatility in real exchange rate, and synchronization in real interest rate cycle. Backed by literature, the U.S. dollar was set to be the reference currency. Data series were divided into different time periods to capture different economic circumstances. A ‘dynamic’ benchmarking technique was used to ensure robustness of results. Results suggested that the region as a whole does not constitute an OCA at the moment. Nonetheless, a subregional union of a high potential ‘Southeast Asian’ bloc was put forward. Results serve to be an important reference for both public and private policymakers on matters pertaining to regionalization and international business management.
Petrochemical industry as one of the largest and most important sectors is in need of the application of new managerial tools for strategic planning. There are different models and tools for strategic planning. The model of balanced scorecard (BSC) has been noticed by various organizations in recent years due to its special attention to intangible assets of organization like customer, internal processes, growth and learning in addition to financial indexes. Moreover, it is considered as one of the new methods of strategic planning. This research aims at developing a strategy for Mobin Petrochemical Company with a BSC attitude. The present research from the viewpoint of goal is an applied research and in respect of data collection, it uses a qualitative research method (focal group). For the purpose of learning about strategies of Mobin Petrochemical Company, while reviewing texts and literature related to strategic management, the views of senior petrochemical managers was used in the process of focus groups. During various focus meetings held in the presence of senior management body of the organization, the mission and vision of company were determined. Then identifying external opportunities and threats and determining internal weaknesses and strengths of organization and evaluating the IFE and EFE matrixes, the SWOT matrix was formed and strategies of Mobin Petrochemical Company were determined. The motifs of the company strategy were classified from the four main perspectives of BSC model. Afterwards, for determining the process of creation of value and cause and effect relation between strategic goals of organization, the strategy map of Mobin Petrochemical Company was drawn. Finally, the strategic pivots of Mobin Petrochemical Company were determined with regard to financial, customer, internal processes, growth and learning. In order to render strategies and determine objectives and performance measures in BSC system, various meeting were held in different units of the company. Reviewing the details of performance and method of implementation in each part, proper measures and their method of formation were determined. Having the confirmation of senior managerial body of Mobin Petrochemical Company, strategic plans and measures were adopted.
One of the major factors influencing a company’s performance is undoubtedly the level of risk-taking. As owners of a great deal of company stock, institutional investors can play an important role in determining this level. Therefore, this study has investigated the influence of institutional ownership on the risk-taking behavior of companies that are listed in the Tehran stock exchange. The study has used the standard deviation of monthly return and systematic risk (β) as market risk criteria, and research and development expense and capital expenditure as company risk criteria. This research includes 58 companies from 2004 to 2008, in which ordinary least squares regression models (panel data) and a tobit model have been used. The results show that no meaningful relationship exists between the percentage and concentration of institutional ownership by stockholders and risk-taking behavior.
This study investigates intraday effects in the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) during the latest period of financial turmoil which began in August 2007 and extended to February 2010. We tested for the possible existence of intraday anomalies using both return and volatility equations, empirically applying GARCH (p,q) models. The unique data set we utilized was compiled from 15-min intraday values of the ISE-100 Index which are formed by averaging historical ten-second tick data. This study contributes to the current literature in three distinct ways. Firstly, the basic characteristics of the unique data used in this research were investigated in detail. Secondly, four range-based volatility measures, namely Garman Klass (GK), Yang-Zhang (YZ), Rogers-Satchell (RS) and Parkinson (PK), were employed to take more precise measurements of volatility for intraday data analysis in order to identify the changes in general market sentiment using opening, closing, high and low prices. Thirdly, we estimated the relative efficiency of GK, YZ, RS and PK by applying GARCH (p,q) models. The results are quite promising, indicating that strong opening price jumps are present for daily and morning calculations. They illustrate that the YZ estimator has relatively more power in generating tolerable volatility patterns.
This paper develops a general continuous-time evolutionary finance model with time-dependent strategies. It is shown that the continuous model, which is a limit of a general discrete model, is well-defined and if there exists one completely diversified strategy in the market, then there is no sudden bankruptcy. After that a deterministic evolutionary bond market is studied in detail. It is certified that a bond market is evolutionary stable, which is equal to arbitrage-free if and only if the total returns defined in this paper across all the assets are the same, or each bond is evaluated by an improper integral in which the integrand is a discounted value of the dividend payoff with the discount rate being market consumption parameter. Last an approach to compute the benchmark interest rate is provided.
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the concept of global branding, what it stands for being socially responsible, and what its link with leverage is. It also highlights the range of social responsibility issues with reference to Pakistani brands and explores the relevant issues and deep insights from strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature and global branding literature in the context of Pakistani organizations. It also suggests future implications for theorists, practitioners and academicians with reference to effective strategic CSR and global branding. This paper embarks on the intellectual journey with the concept of CSR and global branding in local context of Pakistan, while reviewing the relevant literature and addressing the issue of complexity in Pakistani context. This study gives insights about the issue of complexity at the time of strategically integrating CSR into global band and sorts out three strands of complexity namely, 1) issue complexity, 2) organizational complexity, and 3) communication complexity in the context of Pakistan. The limitation of this paper is due to the limited academic literature, giving insights about how global organizations in corporate CSR initiatives for the development of brands, and insights dealing with the issues needed to be taken into account at the time of integrating into branding strategies. This paper gives fresh enquiry to the issue complexity, organizational complexity and communication complexity with reference to global brands and CSR activities in the context of Pakistan which has been applied so far.
The work desires to determine the optimum level of batch size in bottleneck facility and to analyze the effect of common processes on throughput and cycle time in a production system under uncertain situations created by machine breakdown and quality variation. Few simulation models are developed based on a live case from a company. The models are verified and validated with the historical data from the company and by face validity. Taguchi approach for orthogonal array is used in designing experiments. The experimental settings are executed in WITNESS, a simulation package. It is observed that the variation in level of common process in the system has significant impact on the production quantity and cycle time. The main contribution of this research is determination of the optimal level of batch size in a bottleneck resource under imperfect quality of product and resources breakdown uncertainties. This approach can be generalized to any multistage production system, regardless of the precedence relationships among the various production stages in the system.
This study examines the relationship among environmental uncertainty, effectiveness of budgetary control and propensity to create budgetary slack in public organizations. For this purpose, the data collected from 460 public organizations’ managers via questionnaire. Results of analyses show that negative and statistically significant relationship is found between environmental uncertainty and effectiveness of budgetary control and between effectiveness of budgetary control and propensity to create budgetary slack. However, environmental uncertainty has statistically significant and positive impact on propensity to create budgetary slack. It is also found that budgetary control has partial mediation effect on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and propensity to create budgetary slack.
Several empirical studies have reported that the level of short-term financing is higher in firms operating in developing countries. Short-term financing increases risk of default as it matures quickly and leaves little room for the borrowing firm to manage its cash flows. But if the firm has a cash buffer, it can avoid such a risk. If firms in developing countries have higher level of short-term debts, do they carry larger cash balances too? Do firms in Pakistani match the maturity of assets with the maturity of their debts? In this study, we investigate these questions using a sample of 380 listed firms over a period of 1996 to 2008. The descriptive statistics show that cash-to-total assets ratio of the sampled firms is almost the same as reported in other empirical studies for developed countries such as US and UK. This finding raises an important question of how firms in Pakistan with more short-term financing carry relatively smaller balances of cash. As an answer, this study puts forward several explanations, which have important implications for capital market and firm financing. Results of panel data models indicate that cash-to-total assets ratio increases with growth opportunities, size of a firm, dividends ratio, and decreases with debt-maturity and conversion cycle. To allow for the possibility that cash-to-total assets ratio is adjusted gradually over time by firms in an attempt to reach optimal ratio, the study also employs a partial adjustment model by using the generalized methods of movements (GMM).
The nonlinearity and accompanying concept, namely the chaos receive great attention from researchers. This study employs nonlinearity and chaos theories to examine the behavior of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) all share equity indices. The main purpose was to explore the existence or nonexistence of nonlinearity and chaotic behavior in the ISE market. Therefore, the efficient markets’ characteristics, which are the random behavior of asset prices and nonlinear chaotic dynamics, were contrasted and the probabilistic and deterministic behaviors of the asset prices were compared. Our results based on BDS, Hinich Bispectral, Lyapunov Exponent and NEGM tests reject the efficient market hypothesis that the index series examined in this study is not random, independent and identically distributed (i.i.d).
This paper is aimed to determine factors influencing international postgraduate students in choosing university in Malaysia. Factors such as programs offered, fees, promotion, facilities, prominence, environment, convenience, and scholarship were utilized. A total of 135 international postgraduate students were involved in this study through a direct survey. The percentage technique to extract the information of respondents’ demography was used. Then, the analytic hierarchy process was employed to evaluate the level of importance of each factor. The study found that “programs offered” is the number one factor which influences overall international students’ choice to opt for a postgraduate study in Malaysia universities. There were some differences between students from Asian and Western countries in ranking the importance of those factors. Overall categories of respondents selected “tuition prices”, “facilities”, and the “academic staff prominence” as the preceding factors to follow the “programs offered” factor in a sequential level of importance. In general, the result reflects the awareness of prospective students towards the expected standard of education required from the higher education industry.
