Journal of Business & Financial Affairs

The relationship between two variables has been mush studied using the concepts of Granger causality. In this study, Nigeria economic data from 1981 to 2015 is used to investigate the causal relationship between education sector growth and socio-economic services (education, health, road & construction and transport & communication), employing unit root test, Johansen co-integration and Granger causality approaches. The result of the study showed that there is long run Granger causality between the education growth and the recurrent expenditure on socio-economic services.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of working capital management on firm’s profitability. The study is based on a sample of 164 manufacturing firms listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia, covering a span of five years from 2007 to 2011. A discriminatory panel regression and Pearson correlation are used to test the hypotheses. The empirical evidence found that there is existence of significant positive relationship between exogenous variables, the average collection period, inventory conversion period and firm’s size and its endogenous variable, which is firm’s profitability. The findings also show a significant inverse relationship between debt ratio (leverage) and firm’s profitability, but the firm’s capability to translate working capital into cash promptly, as proxy in log cash conversion cycle has no impact on firm’s profitability.

Job satisfaction among employees in banking sector is an important issue. The purpose of the study is to measure the level of job satisfaction among bank employees from socio-demographic context at Chuadanga District, in Bangladesh. The cross-sectional study sample consisted of 56 (male 89.3% and female 10.7%) respondents and used semistructured questionnaire containing pre-coded and open-ended questions. The job satisfaction was estimated using dimension index. Thereafter, ANOVA-test and t-test were used to estimate the level of job satisfaction. In this study, several indicators, such as, salary, sympathetic view to officers, increment allocation method, welfare facilities, bonus facilities, reward, working with present colleagues, leadership style, leave rules, job security, performance appraisal and evaluation process, working schedule and teamwork were recorded higher level of job satisfaction among bank employees. Significance means variation of low level of job satisfaction were found among age (76.04%), designation (72.31%), salary (70.77%), marital status (83.36%), service period (68.27%) and working environment (79.38%) which can be recovered by ensuring equitable and competitive compensation system, periodical increments, allowances, promotion, redesigning of working hour and environment, opportunities to participation in decision making and effective training and development program. More studies are essential to spotlight the issue that helps stakeholders to formulate strategies.

Grameenphone (GP) is the leader of Bangladesh telecommunication industry. Grameenphone (GP) not only provides voice service but also offers a number of value added services, in each on both a prepaid and contract bases. Service network, 3G, customer care, physical facilities, billing cost, information service, mobile banking, GP offers and studyline are included in the value added services. Our study discloses the customer's reaction about GPs services. This study investigates why customers are satisfied the GPs existing services and why they are not satisfied and their reaction about GPs services. The study recommends the customers approach and how Grameenphone (GP) retains its customers as a result gradually converted to the loyal customer with competing others operators in the marketplace.

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) continue to occur in the world of business, albeit in waves similar to cycles. As such, M&A have remained a research interest for academics as well as practitioners. While there is convergence among researchers toward finding positive abnormal returns accrued to target firm shareholders, returns to shareholders of acquiring firms remain a question of debate and conflicting evidence. This study attempts to examine the wealth effects of acquisitions in the Kuwaiti economy for the shareholders of both, acquiring and target firms, during the period of 2004-2009. The event study methodology is used to examine whether there were positive or negative returns accruing to the shareholders of the participating firms around the announcement of the acquisition in the cases of 43 acquiring firms and 30 target firms.

The purpose of this article is to analyze whether a government premium subsidy is desirable by using a game theoretic approach. From our analysis, the following main results are derived. When policyholder’s effort for lowering accident probability is not considered, government conducts premium subsidy when the fraction of policyholders is small. In contrast, when policyholder’s effort is considered, whether government conducts premium subsidy is ambiguous even if the fraction of policyholders is small.

The paper establishes the reasons why employees from selected parastatals continue coming to work even though they have not been paid their salaries for months. A qualitative study was conducted using 2 different interview guides, one for employees and the other one for human resource managers who acted as key informants. Twenty employees, 10 from each pararstatal were interviewed and 4 key informants, 2 from each organization also took part in the study. Participants were selected using purposive sampling. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. It has emerged from the study that employees in parastatals continue reporting for duty for different reasons which included desire for professional growth, hope that the fortunes of their respective organisations may turn for the better, abuse of organisational resources and vending at the workplace. Some participants also highlighted a number of social reasons such as seeking company from fellow workmates, avoiding lengthy periods with spouses who were deemed to be demanding and difficultly to handle. As recommendations, it is argued that organisations value and prioritise the welfare of their employees and engage in sound corporate governance decisions.

In the first wave of human life that all people had to continue living through the agriculture and husbandry jobs, the tangible assets like lands and number of family members were considered as important criteria for success. After the first wave, the second wave was commenced by working in factories and focusing on products and selling them in the market. In other words, the product-oriented and market-oriented stages were signs of industrial age; meanwhile, tangible assets were taken into account as important factors in the factories or organizations. The third wave in human life was started when the human found that by inventing computer and vast usage of computer and internet in changing traditional jobs, only knowledge and talent will be important in digital era. Thus, the human became familiar with the subjects such as knowledge-based organizations, learning organizations, knowledge management, talent management, and so on. After that, a belief gradually formed in the minds of most managers and even some employees at the different organizations that their success will be achieved by relying on knowledge and talent as intangible assets. Therefore, the human found out that tangible assets are not the only key for productivity and profitability and focusing on intangible assets will be helpful for future business. So, the paradigm shift and change in approaches was commenced more than before. Although there are many advances in technology and science in different areas of knowledge, there are many hazards for the employees of the electric distribution companies especially those who work on the electric overhead lines and/or underground cables, this study aims to reveal the role of knowledge management in identifying the hazards, and by documenting the experiences resulting in the accidents, better recommendations on working the medium and low voltage networks have been presented in the current research.

This study determines how students of University of Central Punjab, Lahore (UCP) perceive entrepreneurship as a career. The study considers four key factors that have the potential to influence the students’ perception regarding entrepreneurship and thus contribute in determining their entrepreneurial intentions. The population consist of UCP students, out of which 40 students are selected by random purposive sampling who comprised of both male and female students. For collecting primary data open ended questionnaires are used. This study reveals that although majority of students have a positive perception of entrepreneurship as a career option, still there are various perceived hindrances which include fear of failure, fear of financial loss and lack of financial support. This study not only addresses the missing gap in current literature about entrepreneurship, but also provides implications for the university educators.

In 2010, central banks, in conjunction with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, proposed new capital standards: Basel III, to supplement Basel I and II. Guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India required Indian banks to begin following Basel III standards in 2013. Full implementation is expected by 2019. This study examines Basel I, II and III’s impact on Indian banks. We find transitioning from Basel I to Basel II had the greatest impact on foreign banks because the new standards required additional capital reserves for market and operational risk.

Most private dentists are faced with the decision to purchase a dental practice at some point in their career, and are usually ill equipped to undertake the necessary capital budgeting decisions, including the valuing of the practice. Valuations of dental practices are usually done according to industry rules of thumb by the dentists themselves or according to accounting principles by accountants who often have little knowledge of the industry. These traditional techniques tend to value practices as a sum of their tangible and intangible assets, rather than in terms of what a prospective buyer is interested in: the potential to generate an income stream. Finance principles can be used to value a practice according to its cash flow potential and to help decide whether the investment in a particular practice should be undertaken. This paper proposes the use of net present value analysis to calculate the value of a dental practice using recent developed asset pricing models, and to evaluate its potential as a future investment, and also examines trends in the Australian market through a finance perspective.

This study explores how the peculiarity of economic structure and institutions affect the relationship between inward investment and productivity of domestic firms in Oman. It provides its analysis through an examination of the policy framework that shapes the business environment; affects the quality of institutions and proper implementation of policies targeting inward investment; and influences productivity channels and mechanisms that facilitate the transmission of spillover effects from foreign to domestic enterprises. While international business literature attributes low productivity to low absorptive capacity of local firms, this study stresses the correlation between the quality of institutions and levels of productivity. Empirical evidence collected from 96 survey questionnaires and 42 interviews with government officials and executives confirms the essential role of the state through the creation of specialized institutions and proper implementation of investment policies in facilitating the transmission of productivity spillover effects from foreign to domestic enterprises.

Government financial management has long focused on accountability and transparency as a means of demonstrating the efficient and responsible use of taxpayer funds. Within Australian Government agencies, financial management practices have become increasingly efficient and effective in communicating financial information through financial statements and reports. However, there is considerable anecdotal evidence to suggest that such practices are more appropriately defined as accounting, rather than as financial management. This paper discusses the practices that are currently used by Government agencies, the limitations of this approach, and provides a theoretical look at the potential benefits that financial management approaches provide to Government agencies.

This paper investigates the effects of domestic terrorist attacks on the stocks listed on French and Belgian stock exchanges. We use two asset pricing models (CAPM and Fama-French Five-Factor Model) to assess how abnormal returns have changed following the attacks. We also estimate short-term and long-term changes in systematic risk around the attacks. Our findings show that the French sectors experienced mixed reactions following the Charlie Hebdo attack and were moderately affected by other terrorist attacks (Paris and Nice). Furthermore, the results indicate that Belgian sectors were sensitive to Brussels terrorist attack in terms of both risk and return.

The purpose of this study is to find out the factors behind the flood of Afghan migrants the world witnessed during the past couple of years. After the withdrawal of some portion of US and NATO forces in 2014, people of Afghanistan suffered mainly from continued security concerns which ultimately stimulated migration of young minds at large but this is not the only factor we analyzed during the process. The push factors such as cost of weddings in some parts of Afghanistan is a profound problem and it was observed from the investigation of the sample population as a stimulus for youth to go abroad to work and save money for getting married. We investigated the unemployment factor on brain drain from Afghanistan on a large scale. This factor clearly proved to be the major driver of migration based on the results obtained in this empirical study. Furthermore, each year thousands of students leave Afghanistan to study in different parts of the world on scholarship. We investigated the role of educational scholarships on motivating youth to leave Afghanistan and their probability to return back to their homeland. It was demonstrated through the analysis of sample data that mostly those students who travel abroad for study purposes do not return back to Afghanistan, thereby creating a vacuum in terms of productive young minds. In addition, Social pressure is a common influence on people’s behavior within the different communities in Afghanistan. We analyzed the relationship between people adopting the path of migration with social pressures from society. The analysis of the data showed a positive relationship of the societal pressures on the youth leaving country. The nature of research for my study is based on quantitative methodology. This research targeted mainly the Afghan population living overseas because these are the people who are most affected one way or the other by some internal factors that’s why they migrated. We have also included citizen’s views that live within Afghanistan in order to understand prospects of migration from the participants. However, a convenience sampling method was used in this study as specific people were targeted that we believe would take part in the survey. Social Media such as Facebook and Vkontakte was used to deliver the questionnaires to the respondents. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical models such as Chi square test, binomial probability test, and a one sample test were used to test the hypotheses statements. A pairwise test was used to rank the factors in terms of major influence on migration.

Throughout early 2012, Oman allowed the Islamic banking for the first time as a response to a public demand during what was called "Arab spring". Consequently, this study presumed that, such new entry will create impact on the customers’ switching intention as customers may intent to switch to the new Islamic banks. The main objective of this study is to identify the factors that influencing customers' intention to switch banks in general and the impact created by the need to Islamic banking in Oman in particular. Nonetheless, the initial literature reviews has not cited the need for Islamic banking products among the common switching factors; however, face to face interviews with bank customers revealed that, the need for Islamic banking product was one of the influencing factors. Therefore, it has been added to this study as variable to test the expected influence and the impact on switching intention without going deeply into the concept of Islamic banking. The method used is qualitative approach in the form of interview with focus groups, in this respect, face-to-face interviews of selected customers from 6 different banks in Oman were conducted to show the impact on customers’ intention to switch conventional banks to Islamic banks. The interview outcome assisted to get a richness and depth of data and information on the impact created by the introduction of Islamic banking in Oman on customers’ intention to switch conventional banks to Islamic banks. The interview outcomes suggest that more than half of respondents are inclined to transfer to Islamic banking despite the fact that 64% are satisfied with their current banks. Hence, it can be concluded that faith has an influence on customer decisions and that is considered to be the impact created by the Islamic banking on Oman’s banking industry.

As organizations become more age diverse, some business leaders face challenges managing a multigenerational workforce. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that leaders at a university in Northwest Florida implemented to retain their age-diverse workforce. The targeted population was higher education business managers who had success with retaining an age-diverse staff. The conceptual framework of the study was Herzberg’s 2-factor theory of motivation. A significant tenet of this theory is employees explain satisfying and dissatisfying experiences based on intrinsic and extrinsic factors related to their job functions. The data collection process included face-toface interviews with 4 participants and a review of company documents, including the university’s strategic plan and diversity and inclusion initiatives. Through coding and thematic analysis, 7 themes emerged that could help leaders retain a multigenerational workforce: foster a diversity-friendly workplace culture, implement effective interpersonal communication strategies, employ a formal approach, encourage a healthy work-life balance, value employees and their differences, offer professional growth opportunities, and eliminate negative generational stereotyping. Developing and cultivating retention strategies may contribute to social change by helping managers and leaders enrich retention rates, thereby increasing employment stability, improving productivity, and enhancing organizational and community relations.

Software defined Networking has brought revolution to the world of Network technology which replaces most of the physical devices and control layer of the cloud computing reference model takes control of many Networking Devices. The purpose is to explain the role of vSwitch in building virtual network infrastructure. A Virtual Switch is software by the virtue of which communication between several virtual machines take place. In contrast to physical switch, it does not only forwards data packets but also checks the data for security before it is forwarded to other virtual machines. Interrelated components of software components work together to form a virtual network infrastructure. Out of the software components, the emphasis is targeted on Virtual switch functions and how it differs from the traditional switches.