Business and Economics Journal

The purpose of the study is to assess the perception, attitudes and behavior of the key target consumer groups – doctors and patients, regarding social media marketing by pharmaceutical industry. It is a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study done in 2 groups – 50 general practitioners and 250 patients, in Navi Mumbai (India) area, selected by random sampling. The results highlighted that the awareness and acceptance of the concept of social media marketing was high amongst both the doctors and the patients. Amongst doctors, it is positively and significantly associated with young age and having a postgraduate degree after MBBS. Amongst the patients, a high proportion take self medication based on reference to the internet, most common ailments for use of self medication being aches, respiratory illnesses and gastrointestinal illnesses. The increasing positive response of the key consumer groups, especially in the young age group, makes social media a powerful marketing tool, which can be explored by the pharmaceutical industry.

The objective of the present study is to investigate the impact of Merger & Acquisition (M&A) deals on the performance of acquirer Turkish companies. A total of 62 companies involved in M&A deals between 2003 and 2007 were included in the sample. Analysis of both stock market and accounting data weakly support the hypothesis that acquirer companies are negatively affected by M&A activities.

Many firms/industries, whether manufacturing or purchasing, face great challenges in managing inventories. Poor inventory management may result in under-stocking, overstocking as well as high inventory total cost. This paper examines inventory situation at Urafiki Textile Mills Co Ltd in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The objective of this paper is to develop the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model that will be used to determine number of units of an item to order at a time and the re-order point (r), that is the level to which stocks of items are allowed to fall before ordering other items, for raw materials. The resulting EOQ for each raw material is compared to the actual ordered quantities so as to see whether there is any relationship between them in operational cost reduction. The study used cross section secondary data from Urafiki. The comparison of operational cost reduction was done by using normal distribution test. Excel was used to find EOQ and the re-order point. The results show that the relationship between the EOQs and the ordered quantities at Urafiki in terms of operational cost reduction was significant. Therefore, it was concluded that the ordered quantities at Urafiki Textile Mills were not optimal. Therefore, it is recommended that in order to manage inventory effectively, Urafiki needs to employ inventory control methods such as the EOQ model to obtain reasonable ordered quantities for its raw materials. The inventory level to be maintained is given in the text.

This study seeks to explain perceptions of government handling of corruption issues in Nigeria. Discussions about corruption management often include the genuineness of government intention in combating the menacing effects of corrupt acts of government officials, especially those of politicians. In particular, questions are often raised on how well current government is handling corruption issues. Against this background, a survey was conducted by Afrobarometer Organization in 1999 to assess public opinion on perceptions of government handling (fighting) of corruption. Descriptive statistics provided background information on the sample, while probit logistics regression using STATA “oprobit” routine were used to measure perception of government handling of (how well current government is handling) corruption in Nigeria. The findings suggested that in Nigeria, those that are highly satisfied with their economic condition say that the government is handling fight against corruption well. In addition, the findings also indicated that gender, residency, trust in president, social trust, interest in politics, and contact with government officials affects perceptions of how well government is handling fight against corruption. The study also finds that statistically significant variables have the probability to strongly influence perceptions of government handling of corruption. Although this study does not claim to provide all the answers on management of corruption, it is an attempt to bridge gap in the literature on the topic and forms a basis upon which further analytical work on perception among Nigerians of current government’s handling of corruption can be carried out.

The seminal work of Andersen and Jordan [1] on the relative importance of fiscal and monetary policy for output stabilization (the St. Louis equation) caused many debates among economists for a long period. They run a single equation model testing the relative importance of monetary versus fiscal policy on nominal GNP and concluded that monetary policy is effective and fiscal policy is ineffective on output stabilization. This finding attracted a wide range of criticisms and debates mainly due to possible endogeneity between policies and economic activity, and misspecification of the model. This study takes the St. Louis equation seriously. Our main concern is that, the economic activity is represented by nominal output and to our surprise; the impact of monetary or fiscal policies on prices has not been given any attention. All such models with nominal output as the dependent variable could not address the question of how policy induced changes are split between a change in real output and a change in prices. This paper investigates the relative impact of monetary and fiscal policies on the U.S. real economic activity, using quarterly data between 1959:I and 2010:II. We employ Granger causality tests and Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models. The VAR methodology also helps in resolving the issue of endogeneity between policies and output. The results from both models indicate that monetary policy is relatively better than fiscal policy in affecting the real output. No other study attempted to investigate the relative impact of monetary and fiscal policy actions on real output in the St. Louis framework as well as the econometric approach used in this paper to address the issue.

This paper studies whether and how U.S. monetary shocks are transmitted to emerging economies utilizing as samples Mexico and Brazil. A Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregressive (FAVAR) methodology is employed to take advantage of the wide array of variables that can be included in this model to provide a more accurate picture of the transmission process. The results suggest that differences exist in the transmission of foreign monetary shocks. This implies that no generalizations can be made even for countries of equal economic size and in the same geographic region. When international transmission does exist, as it is in the case of Mexico, it induces large responses in several macroeconomic variables. Interest rate is the main channel of transmission, with some impact on the trade channel. Although little transmission exists in the case of Brazil, it appears that this country slightly benefits from U.S. contractional monetary shocks. In the Brazilian case, the channel of transmission appears to be interest rates.

A change in a social system such as semi-autonomous work team can be conducted in both ways - change management and project management - according to literature. This work developed a simplified project management methodology to implement self-management cells that are a type of organization in which employee groups are in charge of a complete sequence of work in the production process of goods for internal or external clients. The objective is to adapt a methodology used in project management as a way of organizing change to allow the empowerment of the workers in the manufacturing cells, through identifying the requirements for implementation and assessment of the self-directed concept. This work is a result of nine years of research-action methodology applied to a self-management cell in an auto parts manufacturing company and accomplished the implementation of semi-autonomous work teams. Improvements were achieved in logistics and inventory reduction, both for parts and for machining tools. The financial consequences of these improvements showed a break-even of the invested amount within 8 months

The research paper examined the impact of exchange rate depreciation on inflation in Nigeria for the period 1986–2008, using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Cointegration Procedure. The research found that exchange rate depreciation, money supply and real gross domestic product are the main determinants of inflation in Nigeria, and that Naira depreciation is positive, and has significant long-run effect on inflation in Nigeria. This implies that exchange rate depreciation can bring about an increase in inflation rate in Nigeria. The paper also found that inflationary rate in Nigeria has a lagged cumulative effect. The research paper therefore concludes that although Naira depreciation is relevant in ensuring an improvement in the production of exportable commodities, it must not be relied upon as a potent measure for controlling inflation in Nigeria. The paper therefore recommends the need for policy-makers to employ exchange rate depreciation as a measure to compliment other macro-economic policies to stabilize the volatile inflationary rate in Nigeria.

Proponents of the semi-strong form of the Efficient Market Hypothesis argue that stock prices fully reflect all publicly available information. Furthermore, economic models assume that investors rationally evaluate future market performance and that there is no systematic bias in investor expectations. This paper empirically evaluates these hypotheses in the context of stock market response following the FOMC’s announcements on the target fed funds rate. In particular, the paper shows that investors systematically underestimate stock market response to the fed funds rate changes, which creates profitable arbitrage opportunities.

This paper examines the relationship of CEO pay and company performance for 280 firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange for a period from 2006 through 2009. The time frame of the study is a period after the adoption of the Sarbanes Oxley Act and after the SEC approval of the corporate governance rules affecting executive pay for New York Stock Exchange companies. I find there to be a positive and significant relationship between total CEO compensation and company performance measured by return on equity. The size of the firm appears to be the most significant factor in determining the level of total CEO compensation, according to the results, and the tenure of the chief executive officer is another significant variable.

This paper examines the relations of transformational leadership and empowerment with student perceived academic performance. Indian students enrolled in business management program at colleges and universities in Punjab and Delhi areas of India were surveyed to find out their perceptions as to whether transformational leadership used by faculty members and empowerment improve student perceived academic performance. Positive relationships between i) student perceived transformational leadership used by instructors/professors and student perceived academic performance, and ii) student perceived empowerment and student perceived academic performance were found. This paper offers useful insights for instructors/professors based on empirical evidence.

This study examines the daily closing price performance of ZSE listed securities post enactment and subsequent adoption of the Indigenous Economic Empowerment Act by the Government of Zimbabwe. A desk analysis of the closing daily trading prices of the largest counters, by market capitalization, traded on the stock exchange for the period January to April 2010 is made. Interview and questionnaire responses from day traders show a high negative correlation between the promulgation of the Act and the daily trading prices of all counters traded on the ZSE. First difference tests on the counters’ price movements yielded strong correlation coefficients which seem to suggest Granger causality between the share price movements and the passing of the Act. Further findings reveal that closing prices of all the largest counters traded on the ZSE were adversely affected by the Act. As a rule, empowerment laws should not significantly and adversely affect trading prices. However, historical backgrounds seem to suggest evidence of rampant systemic inefficiencies resulting from previous empowerment policies implemented in Zimbabwe. This background seems to have induced investment phobia and apprehension among investors. This fear appears to have scared away investors, initially from trading in counters whose ownership structures are likely to be affected by empowerment policies, and ultimately all the other counters. This behaviour affects the daily closing prices of listed securities. However, empowerment laws were found to have the potential to facilitate a prompt escalation of previously underprivileged economic agents onto lucrative industries and markets. One conclusion drawn is that, if properly instituted, empowerment policies could lead to the introduction of new and vibrant entities onto bourses. The introduced entities could have the potential to achieve sustainable profit levels hence sustainable economic development for a country.

This paper investigates the relationship between pre- and post-initial public offering (IPO) investor interest and under-pricing. The IPO investor interest influences the offering price of IPOs and divergence of opinions influence the trading volume of new IPOs. The study is based on secondary data collected from Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) website and prospectus of companies which were going to be public during the study. Data were collected for the 59 companies which have been listed on KSE during January 2000–July 2010. Regression analysis and test of significance were conducted to examine the level of under-pricing and investor interest relationship. The average under-pricing of the Pakistan’s IPOs is found to be 39%. Initial return is found to be positively related to the investor interest in Pre-IPO demand to offer ratio. The over-subscribed IPOs earn significant and high initial abnormal returns to investors. The under-priced IPOs have constantly high-trading volume than over-priced IPOs in the first 30 days of IPO listing. The additional control variables which influence the level of under-pricing in Pakistan include offer size, ex ante uncertainty, firm size and float, whereas float was found to be the single most important variable in determining the under-pricing.

Relationship selling is a new marketing fad that can be of immense advantage to organizations operating amidst stern competitive pressures, changing consumers’ tastes and preferences of, technical dynamics and other dramatic upturns in the contemporary business setting. This notwithstanding, the adoption of relationship selling practice by Nigerian companies is still largely rudimentary. Following from this, the researcher theorized a model of the factors that have suppressed the entrenchment of relationship selling practice in most Nigeria organizations. To test the proposed model, the researcher used a sample of 120 respondents randomly generated from National Youth Service Corps members serving in Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. Empirical results were consistent with the proposed model. It was therefore concluded that until the imbalances highlighted in the model are checked, the relational orientation of selling as we have it in advanced industrial economies will be difficult to materialize in Nigeria.