Business and Economics Journal

Regional disparities and their evolution displayed a vital economic as well as political issue for most regions or countries (Blizkovsky, 2012). Due to realizing this shocking fact, it has drawn a lot of attention from all over the world to tackle this issue in order to avoid its adverse implication towards holistic economic development. The beauty of Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) is that it aims to increase the trade and investment among the three regions as it pursues private sector-led economic growth. However, evidence shows that the progress of development in this sub-region is either stagnant or slow. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the convergence hypothesis of the participating states and determine the reason behind each of the convergence behaviour portrayed. Non-linear time varying factor model namely Phillip and Sul has been employed in this study. The result implies that Negeri Sembilan is the only diverging group while the rest is converging. This phenomenon indicates that most of the states and provinces in this sub-region have positive performance towards the economic growth. Effective development planning can be done by policy makers after determining the performance of each of the states and provinces.

The purpose is to introduce the demand for the quality movement practice in problems associated with public health. We show both the need and application of quality monitoring, especially the need for multivariate quality concepts to reduce the costs of operating public health programs to control the flow of problems in the dynamic behavior of these systems in public health systems such as water treatment to utilize concepts associated with multivariate methods and auto correlated time series. One of the most difficult problems involves the use of multivariate quality control in the scientific and health environment. Multiple diagnoses require use of advanced techniques to arrive at complex solutions to medical and health problems. We explore these problems.

The present study was conducted with objective to determine the causes of despair in unmarried girls. A sample size 159 respondents out of 264 was selected through random sampling procedure from three Mohallahs of Union Council Jahngrha. The conceptual framework of the study comprised of Dowry as independent variable and causes of despair in unmarried girls as dependent variable. Chi-square test was used to find out association among study variables. The study found that a significant relationship was found between despair and girl who brought dowry to her in laws will demand dowry from her daughter in laws (p=0.003), hopelessness of poor and middle class parents due to dowry is awfully on rise (p=0.003), dowry function as an insurance against divorce (p=0.000), women are considered as a capital transfer (p=0.000) and dowry as a pre-mortem inheritance (p=0.002). Awareness rising among masses through use of mass media, local political and religious leadership regarding religious and legal rights and status of women so that view of marriage and dowry as a capital transfer is publically negated, devising policies that can make it easy for poor and middle class females to access judiciary, minimize domestic violence through implementation of law, enhancing female learning and strengthening moral base of marriage and family to measure morality instead of economic benefits in mate selection were recommendations in light of study findings.

Choosing a right course in formative years is very important decision as his future depends on this one decision. Student by himself is not mature enough to take right decision in his early life. Selecting wrong courses means mismatch between student aptitude, capability and personal interest. Faculty or parents have neither the required knowledge nor experience. Since there is no other reliable source generally available that can guide the student towards the most suitable direction, recommender system has been evolved to provide him guidance in selecting a right course. Recommender system is a computer programme prepared with the help of experts where the details of background of the students and their aptitudes help finding a course for his future study. This paper proposes feasible predictions for student’s course selection based on their marks and choice of job interest. Clustering technique is used to find structures and relationship within the data. This paper also reveals the research process of preparation of such a recommender system.

The objective of this research is to identify the labor perceptions of the guides on their teamwork, job knowledge, leadership and Motivation as there is the assumption that some of these dimensions may explain why the visitors have a poor perception of their work. Through a descriptive study with an experimental cross-sectional study design, the questionnaire technique, developed to measure these dimensions is used. The results indicate that workers have full knowledge of the job but lack integration and Motivation. The type of intervention proposed is the program Guides on Development specifically designed to improve the effectiveness of the group.

Assuming that the future of the country is affected by the activities of nascent ventures today and considering that the establishment of such ventures is one of the aims of governments to improve and ensure a growing economy, it would seem a helpful resolution to encourage infiltration into foreign markets which would result in the prosperity of nascent ventures. Therefore, 32 structural factors affecting the growth of foreign trade were extracted from the related literature and classified according to the context, content and process dimensions. The mental patterns of 40 active exporters were analyzed using the Q-method and the important factors affecting foreign trade were extracted from their mental patterns. The research findings indicate that 9 major factors (international regulations, international policies, developing international infrastructures, developing the infrastructures of the country, service and support, exchange policies; domestic rules and regulations, trends and management) correspond to the three major dimensions. Achieved through reviewing the latest literature, the results can help government policy-makers with decision-making and prioritizing policies for each respective dimension.

Despite the fact that, Tanzania is receiving large inflows of foreign aid since 1970s to support its economic activities. Yet, very few literatures investigated the impact of foreign aid to economic growth of Tanzania. After revealing that, despite the large inflows of foreign aid in Tanzania, the economic growth rate is apparently low, poverty level and budget deficits is still persisting over the economy. Thus our study intends to further investigate the impact of foreign aid to economic growth by using Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS). After using endogenous growth model and time series data from 1976-2014, we found that, foreign aid has negative impact to the economic growth. Furthermore, in short run we also found that, foreign aid does not Granger Cause economic growth. The results suggest that, the government has to reconsider the type of foreign aid that is received.

Prior studies that have examined the drivers of stock returns have mostly focussed on firm-specific factors. However, King demonstrated that firm-specific factors explain only 38% of the variation in stock prices, while the dominant driver was macroeconomic factors (52%) with industry-related factors accounting for the remaining 10% of stock price variation. Against this background, the present study, to our knowledge, is the first attempt to model Friedman's still-unproven money-supply led banking liquidity effect and the subsequent effect on stock prices, that will be represented as stock index returns in this study. We, thereafter, proceed to build a model to connect money supply and banking liquidity to overall stock index returns. For the purpose, we apply a system of equations, and use quarterly macroeconomic data series of G-4 countries (Canada, Japan, the UK, and the US) covering a 54-year period. We control for monetary regime changes such as a shift from monetary targeting to inflation targeting, structural breaks following the global financial crisis (GFC) and monetary policy changes. To test robustness of our findings, we provide causality tests linking money supply to liquidity as well as stock index returns and earnings before applying bootstrapping method to refine the parameter estimates.

Gender equality is not only the goal, but also a big challenge in the development of nations, especially the developing countries. Vietnam has gained some achievements in the gender equality, but the gender gaps in economic fields still exist and negatively impact on the socio-economic development. This study used the qualitative research methods and found the root causes of the gender gap in economic fields that is the wrong bias about the gender in society and due to the lack of effective policies. Basing on the analysis results of the situation, the study proposed some policy implications directly impacting on the situation of the gender inequity in economic fields, in order to narrow the gender gap in this field of Vietnam.

This paper develops a taxonomy of manufacturing and service firms formed by their emphasis on different key performance metrics to monitor and manage the outbound logistics portion of the supply chain. Furthermore, this study determines whether the use of specific key metrics by firms in these different classifications varies by industry, and what effect, if any, the varying emphases on different key performance metrics within classifications have on firm financial performance. The original data for this study were obtained from SAPs Benchmarking Program for Supply Chain Planning and utilizes performance metrics data from 247 manufacturing and service firms. Cluster analysis was used to develop a taxonomy based on the outbound logistics metrics. Four clusters were found to be distinct and well-formed and emphasize different sets of outbound logistics performance metrics. The clusters were named Inventory Investment Minimizers; Low Cost, Low Service Providers; Planners and Efficient Distribution Spenders; and Heavy Distribution Spenders. This study evaluated whether the emphasis on specific sets of outbound logistics performance metrics tends to be associated with firms in specific industries, and whether differences in firm financial performance, as measured by net operating margin, were found across clusters. This is the first effort to investigate whether a taxonomy of firms can be developed based on the firms’ use of different performance metrics to monitor and manage outbound logistics.

The purpose of the study attempts to analyze the obstacles and challenges that face small and medium enterprises in Palestine. This study seeks to look at the importance of small and medium enterprises, and to identify the most important constraints faced by small entrepreneurs in obtaining the required funding in Palestine, and what are the most important impediments toward financing of small projects. The investigation helped in identifying the major challenges of financing small and medium business and what to do in order to overcome these obstacles. It was also found that small enterprises are one of the most important key elements in achieving economic development in all countries of the world where it accounts for the highest percentage among all kinds of economic projects of all sizes. A qualitative closed-ended survey was carried out for collecting data from managers and owners of 35 businesses in Palestine. The responses of 28 statements were collected in five different categories. The findings showed that the Obstacles facing the growth of small enterprises in Palestine by respondents was “Weakness of representative organizations that defend the interests of small businesses, as well as Lack of legal frameworks and incentives for small businesses.

The aim of this study is to find the solutions of quality improvement for selected leading universities in the North of Vietnam. The authors collected data from parents, staffs, government officer, industrial experts, etc. This study used Likert scale of five. From the results of hypotheses, the author found the relationships among variables. Based on that point of view, the author proposed general recommendations for university and leaders and the suggestion for each stakeholder in education. In terms of important findings, finding dimensions and analyzing their relationships contribute to the evaluation of educational quality in North of Vietnam.