Business Economic

This paper examines the public debt problem in Egypt, and provides new supportive and non-stereotyped ideas that could help to put public debt on a downturn and a sustainable pass. The analytical approach was used to identify the magnitude of the public debt problem through analyzing the debt structure, the increase in interest payments, and private investment crowding out. The study also evaluates the impact of the economic reform problem on the debt to GDP level; in addition to analyzing the implications of the government plan on debt structure and its associated risks. Some of these risks are: the unsustainability of GDP growth and its structure, debt roll over risk, and the risk of materializing contingent liabilities. Furthermore, this paper proposes new ideas; besides, the usual concentration on fiscal consolidation and stable economic growth to decrease the Egyptian public debt. Improving tax collection, developing government securities market, using the appropriate economic policy mix, applying zero interest rate on the government liabilities to the Central bank of Egypt, and swapping debt with equity, are some non-stereotyped ideas that could help in reducing the public debt of Egypt.

Cashman, Harrison and Scheiler (2014) stated that companies with less political risk will use more debts than other organisations in other countries with more exposure to political risk. In particular, when there are low political risks, there will be more leverage and when there is high political uncertainty, there will be low debts indicating a negative relationship between financial leverage and political risk (Cashman, 2015). To this effect, this study will investigate the link between capital structure and political risk in an emerging market such as Mauritius. The data sample includes 30 financial and non- financial companies listed on the Stock exchange of Mauritius over a time frame ranging from 2011 to 2015 with a total number of 135 observations. The political risk was based on two World Bank indicators, namely political change index and corruption perceptions index. Based on a panel regression model, the empirical results show an insignificant relationship between financi...

The Coronavirus outbreak caught the world by surprise, spreading like wildfire and causing fatal illness to many. The ongoing pandemic and its implications have led to severe global socioeconomic disruption, halting most regular activities. Coping with the pandemic and its horrible consequences required to pull together all resources and unite efforts by individuals, organizations and governments. Businesses have embarked on an effort to support coping with the pandemic in various ways, as aligned with the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The article reviews the various ongoing CSR efforts in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, serving better understanding on best CSR practices at times of crisis and in the afterwards ‘new normal’.

The study assessed the association of school allowance and students' determination in studies. The study used quantitative approach - the descriptive survey. The study was conducted in Jagobiao National High School - Senior High School Department. Mainly the Senior High School students are the respondents. The first part of the questionnaire talks about how students determines toward their studies. The weighted mean used to show how school allowance affects the determination of the students towards their studies. Using chi-square, it revealed that there was no significant association between school allowance and students' determination in studies. Students' determination in studies did not affect whether the school allowance of the students either high or low. In addition, students were determined in their studies sometimes. The students who were having a high socioeconomic status or low socioeconomic status did not affect their performance in school. In addition student...

The aim of this study is to investigate whether or not there are any over-reactions to the positive and negative events of the Borsa Istanbul 100 index (BIST-100) in relation to the Dow Jones Industrial index (DJIA).  The daily stock indexes between January 2010 and June 2016 are used in this research. The research finding showed that BIST-100 reacts in the same way as DJIA up to 3.31% and the reaction decreases and was lost between 30 and 60 days against the positive changes. In case of adverse events the BIST 100 shows abnormal decline in protecting the efficient market hypothesis is valid for 30 days after the event, however, the decline is reversed until the 60’th days when all losses are compensated. This terminates the validity of the efficient market hypothesis. This study shows that the BIST 100 index does not comply with the efficient market hypothesis and demonstrate the validity of the overreaction hypothesis. Study results include stock investments, whose findings will h...

Nonlinear regime-switching behavior and structural change are often perceived as competing alternatives to linearity. In this article we study the so-called time-varying smooth transition autoregressive (TV-STAR) model, which can be used both for describing simultaneous nonlinearity and structural change and for distinguishing between these features. Two modeling strategies for empirical speci cation of TV-STAR models are developed. Monte Carlo simulations show that neither of the two strategies dominates the other. A speci c-to-general-to-speci c procedure is best suited for obtaining a rst impression of the importance of nonlinearity and/or structural change for a particular time series. A speci c-togeneral procedure is most useful in careful speci cation of a model with nonlinear and/or time-varying properties. An empirical application to a large dataset of U.S. macroeconomic time series illustrates the relative merits of both modeling strategies.

Entrepreneurship and innovation tend to serve as vehicles to provide solutions to economic woes during recession without relying upon public resources. The article discusses the definition of social entrepreneurship and shows how social entrepreneurship has developed at the relation of private, public, and nonprofit sectors. It outlines main trends in social entrepreneurship, and highlights successful entrepreneurial initiatives in solving social problems. The paper also examines how social entrepreneurship can help government to benefit society and improve lives. Government and social entrepreneurs have a common goal to solve social problems in effective and efficient way. However, little has been researched on this relationship. The presented article emphasizes that government can support social entrepreneurial initiatives in various ways to encourage social entrepreneurs to innovate, as well as create enabling environments for their efforts to solve problems in society.

Justifying mixed method approach through a philosophical paradigm is always a tough call, even for experienced researchers. In this regard, this research aims to justify the use of 'Pragmatism' supporting mixed method approach with the help of Laughlin (1995) matrix or methodological framework. For investigation, this research has used articulation approach; grounding essential theoretical information around pragmatism within Laughlin methodological framework to justify its use as a valid academic approach to mixed method research.

Despite the efforts of auditing professional bodies to help stimulating the application of contemporary audit technologies among audit firms to cope with the rapid growth in information technology usage among business organization, the extent to which Jordanian external auditors and alongside the world's trend have accepted Computer Assisted Auditing Techniques (CAATs) remains fairly low. This study use the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to explore this lack of CAATs' usage in Jordan and try to find answer to what factors may affect their adoption and acceptance. The study has drawn upon qualified questionnaire sent to 200 statutory external auditors to obtain the data. With a response rate over 80%, the results of the statistical analysis revealed that Jordanian external auditor's intention to adopt CAATs may be driven by both auditor's performance expectancy and firm's facilitating conditions issues. However, effort expectancy and social influence at the other spectrum may not play such a major role. These results have several practical implications. Jordanian audit firms can create a positive attitude amongst its auditors towards CAATs' usage by promoting CAATs benefits and usefulness, by decreasing efforts expectancy needed to use CAATs, and by further investing in management and technical infrastructure supporting CAATs.

Selecting a strand is a crucial act to every student in such way that they have to considered their financial status, parents and peer suggestion, and also their self-choice in acting on it. This study investigates whether financial status with self-choice; parents influence with self-choice; and peer influence with self-choice are having an association with each other in selecting a strand. 214 of students by complete enumeration answered the questionnaire on financial status and likert-scale for parental influence, peer influence, and self-choice and the data gathered been analyzed via weighted mean, frequency, chi-square and lambda in determining their association. The result shows that the financial status of students in school alone is inclined to self-choice in the selection of a strand but not with parental and peers influence in selecting a strand. In other words, parents and peers show no significant association with self-choice of students, though the influences of parents...

The use of tax policies to address macro-economic challenges has often led to serious other macro-economic challenges for developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate macro-economic policy dilemmas that affect developing countries when they implement tax policies to address macroeconomic challenges. The objective of the study was to examine how the 2% Intermediary Money Transfer Tax (MTT) introduced to raise financial resources to grow the economy affected performance of companies in the engineering sector. The study was guided by the pragmatism research philosophy, used explanatory research design and a mixed research approach. Data was collected from companies in the metal fabrication and machine/equipment sub-sectors of the engineering sector. A total of 68 companies were used. The paper shows that a tax policy adopted by Zimbabwe to raise revenues for supporting economic growth and addressing several economic challenges such as poverty, unemployment and negat...

Across this study, we propose to study the role of the ownership structure in the discipline of executives and test if the managerial shareholdings, the concentration of property and the property of the institutional investors improve the performance of companies. Based on a sample of 17 Tunisian firms listed on the TSE between 2001 and 2005, we performed the variables regressions of ownership structure on the various measures of accounting and stock market performance.

Transforming business transactions from the old "bricks and mortar" physical transaction to "click and order" via digital devices gave birth to financial technology or Fintech. Fintech has arguably democratized financial services, allowing non-traditional firms to enter the space. Fintech refers to digital technologies that integrate various forms of technology, including Blockchain, Robo-advisors, Crowdfunding, Big Data, Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and intelligent investment consulting in the financial sector. Nonetheless, the Fintech research topic in developing countries like Malaysia is still at the nascent stage. The previous literature has recognized the Fintech evolvement, features, and effect but has not yet provided a comprehensive conceptualization and manifestation. The governing issues of Fintech are also still worth further investigation. Based on the fintech literature review, this paper explores the Fintech conceptualization and its governing issues...

This research focuses on identifying the role of ethical work context (EWC) along with internal social capital (SC) in creation of innovative work behavior (IWB) among teachers in Higher education institutions across Pakistan. Data from 724 faculty members from various public/private universities were analyzed in relation to ethical work context, internal social capital and innovative work behavior. It was identified that ethical work context had a direct impact on innovative work behavior. Furthermore, social capital played significant role in creation of innovative work behavior and also work as mediator between ethical work context and innovative work behavior.

This study explored the effects of motivational factors on women entrepreneurship venturing in Malaysia. The research was conducted on 80 entrepreneurs through random sampling technique. All hypotheses were tested using regression analysis and Pearson correlations, controlling for demographic variables of gender, age, and education, years of experience, and start-up funding. While the results of this study found significant effect of pull motivational factors, there is a marginal effect of push motivational factors on women entrepreneurship venturing in Malaysia. Implications and a number of recommendations are discussed.

The global pandemic of 2020-21 has enabled an examination of the conditions under which working from home is preferred. We examine whether work-life conflict (both work interfering with family and family interfering with work) and need fulfillment (autonomy, relatedness, competence) can be used to predict employees’ preference for working from home in the future, post-pandemic. With a sample of 944 employees working from home for the first time, this study found that work-life conflict was negatively related and need fulfillment was positively related to employees’ preference for working from home post-pandemic. The experience of having children at home or a partner who was also working from home did not affect employees’ long-term preference for working from home; however, being female did. Women were less likely to want to work from home post-pandemic. The implications for ways to maximize the experience of working from home in the future are discussed.

The use of tax policies to address macro-economic challenges has often led to serious other macro-economic challenges for developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate macro-economic policy dilemmas that affect developing countries when they implement tax policies to address macroeconomic challenges. The objective of the study was to examine how the 2% Intermediary Money Transfer Tax (MTT) introduced to raise financial resources to grow the economy affected performance of companies in the engineering sector. The study was guided by the pragmatism research philosophy, used explanatory research design and a mixed research approach. Data was collected from companies in the metal fabrication and machine/equipment sub-sectors of the engineering sector. A total of 68 companies were used. The paper shows that a tax policy adopted by Zimbabwe to raise revenues for supporting economic growth and addressing several economic challenges such as poverty, unemployment and negat...

Local government in Westerns Balkans has gone through various public administration reforms resulting from the era of New Public Management (NPM) developments that took place in developed countries. However, such reforms have not yet reached their goal of creating more autonomous (especially financially) local government units that would be efficient and effective enough to provide better services to citizens. Macedonia is perceived a country where fiscal decentralisation has not reached its expected outcome reflected mainly in low shares of finances compared to central government finances. This paper aims to elaborate on the reforms that have shaped the management of local government in Macedonia, as well as its financial position. This is an exploratory study of previous writings about decentralization and local government (mainly) in Macedonia. The paper starts with some theoretical background of NPM and decentralisation that have shaped the local government. Then it follows with a review of the public administration reforms, decentralisation process, and local government finances. The paper is expected to contribute modestly in understanding the nature of local government and its finances along the reforms channelled mainly through the decentralization process.

Despite the exponential growth in cell phone usage in South Africa, from 13 million subscribers in 2002 to at least 49 million subscribers today, uptake of cell phone banking in the same period lags. Utilising Rogers' innovation adoption framework, this research examines banking consumers' perceptions of cell phone banking attributes, and how these may affect adoption. A survey of 124 cell phone users from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo Provinces participated in the study. Results indicate an improvement in cell phone banking uptake compared to past years. Perceptions of risk and security concerns appear to slow the adoption rate. While banking institutions have done a lot in launching cell phone banking, focussing attention on in-house promotion and customer demonstrations of cell phone banking may further improve adoption rate.

This paper examines service quality from the perspective of consumers' expectations of the quality of service delivery contrasted with actual service delivery (or service performance) in pension fund administration (PFA) marketing. Three hundred and eighty four respondents from various ministries, departments and agencies in Enugu participated in the survey. A modified version of SERVQUAL questionnaire instrument was used to elicit response on the service quality attribute and satisfaction. Two hypotheses were developed and tested using the student t-test statistics and Regression Analysis. The results showed that significant difference exist between customer perception and expectations of pension services. The assurance attribute was found to have the greatest influence on satisfaction and tangible cues with the least influence. It

This paper examines the tax approach of yachting in Greece and in other European countries such as the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, which have a long tradition in this field, as well as Croatia and Slovenia which are neighbouring and competitive countries towards Greece. According to recent surveys there have been indications that there has been a decline in yachting development in recent years, which is in sharp contrast to the comparative benefits that Greece has in this field.With this in mind there has been a survey carried out to show whether the prevailing situation is the result not only of the financial crisis but also of the taxes imposed by the state. The results of the survey have come about by studying and comparing the tax approach of the countries mentioned above, along with an example of the main tax costs in each country as compared with the Greek taxation taking into consideration Professional yachting.A general result is that Professional yachting has not be...

This study examined three cases from the service sector to examine the BPR initiative in the public sector of Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare reengineering efforts in the public sector and to find an answer to the question, 'How are these initiatives taking place in developing countries. In-depth interviews were conducted with top management of all three organizations, and the planning documents were reviewed for understanding the planning, implementation, purpose, and performance of the BPR initiative. The background of the BPR process with a set of questions was extracted from literature on reengineering, and then the three cases (firms) were discussed with figures of the current and previous systems. Afterwards, information extracted from semi-structured interviews is presented using a qualitative data technique for comparative analysis and discussion. The study reveals that there are successes and failures in BPR projects of the same public sector (reasons of failure and success are discussed); however, it is a positive sign that government and concerned stakeholders are taking initiatives for public sector reform in Pakistan.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore the main theories as to the corporate governance subject, and focus first on Shareholders and Stakeholders Value theories in order to identify their shortcomings. Next, the advantages and disadvantages of Enlightened Shareholder Value; including future perspectives on Enlightened Shareholder Value in light of the UK company Act 2006. Methodology /approach: This article describes and compares the main theories with regard to the corporate governance subject. The following materials were referenced as part of this article: books, journal articles, cases, reports, legislations. Findings: Based on the outcomes of the article there are advantages and disadvantages to Shareholders and Stakeholders Value theories. The former is considered a very narrow vision because its main aim is to gain profits for shareholders, it ignores stakeholders, there is a possible risk since managers and directors may abuse their delegations, and it costs more to monitor directors. Similarly, this article has been found that there are shortcomings to the

Recently, advances in time-varying quantile modeling have proven effective in financial Value-at-Risk forecasting. Some well-known dynamic conditional autoregressive quantile models are generalized to a fully nonlinear family. The Bayesian solution to the general ...

This study is carried out to examine the service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions aspects across the retail outlets in India. This study is being carried out from three states of India which are Delhi, Haryana (Gurgaon & Faridabad) and Uttar Pradesh (Noida & Ghaziabad) are being selected to carry out this study. In this study a total of 600 customers are being chosen and 200 customers are selected from each state of India. Probability sampling method is chosen for collecting the data. Finally 540 filled in questionnaires are collected from the market. The data analysis is done by descriptive statistics, mean and one-way ANOVA. Finally there is found significant difference among the many aspects of service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in retail outlets. For service quality in retail outlets, the scale developed by Dhabolkar, Thorpe and Rentz being used in the study. Various dimensions of customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions are found by reviewing of related literatures. This study makes the implications for the managers in these states to improve upon the service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in retail outlets. In this study a response rate of 90% is achieved from the data collected. Finally customers are also allowed to provide their suggestions for further improvements in the aspects of service quality, customer satisfaction as well as behavioral intentions like purchasing decisions, complaining decisions, recommendation behavior etc. This research is important to understand the difference in the various dimensions of service quality as well as customer satisfaction and recommending and purchasing differences across the different localities in a country.

Bankruptcy prediction has long been an important concern for various stakeholders in an increasingly intricated business environment. Using a sample of 3,806 company-year observations of listed non-financial companies of Pakistan during 2005-2015, the paper compares models and identifies an optimal approach in terms of forecasting accuracy for predicting financial distress and bankruptcy. The purpose is to develop a model with relatively high predictability and figure out determinants of bankruptcy. By employing financial ratios, equity market variables and macroeconomic indicators; the hybrid artificial neural network (ANN) validates superior performance as opposed to dynamic panel probit and Merton-KMV models individually. Among financial ratios; quick ratio, cash ratio, current to total asset, quick to total asset, cash flow to short-term debt, gross profit margin, asset turnover, interest to debt, net working capital to net sales, and cash to net sales are crucial in examining f...

Contributions from various tourism SMEs to improve socio-economic development in developed countries include employment creation, improved living standards and increased family income. Despite this, you have great deals on the direct link between job creation, but there is also some controversy over who creates jobs and how they do it. Various documents say that Tourism SMEs play an important role in training young people, covering the labour deficit and generating benefits to the efficiency of the economy, innovation and overall growth. Therefore, this study will help us build the evidence needed to create Tourism SME policies and understand the core operational values of SMEs that maximize results in terms of achieving basic objectives such as job creation, increasing employee productivity and what are the financial challenges facing tourism SMEs. Policy initiatives to encourage the financial sector to be more proactive in securing tourism financing SMEs can also be envisaged, inc...

We explore whether governments may have faced scenarios of self-fulfilling prophecy and multiple equilibria during Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. To this end, we estimate the effect of interest rates and other macroeconomic variables on sovereign debt ratings, and of ratings on interest rates. We detect a nonlinear effect of ratings on interest rates which is strong enough to permit multiple equilibria. The good equilibrium is stable, ratings are excellent and interest rates are low. A second unstable equilibrium marks a threshold beyond which the country slides towards an insolvency trap. Coefficient estimates suggest that countries should stay well within the A segment of the rating scale in order to remain safe from being driven towards default.

The present study compares the ability of neural networks, support vector machine, and model derived from combining particles swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and support vector machine (SVM) to forecast the initial public offering pricing. The purpose of this research is to design a model that helps investors recognize the validity of the initial public offering pricing and hunt profitable opportunities. The variables used in this study are selected among those variables which are in the disposal of investors who have limited access to information before the offering. On the other hand, these results can be useful for publishing companies, admissions consultant, underwriting and legislators of the stock exchange. We have considered the ninth day offering prices, since volatilities are gone and prices seem to be more realistic. The results show that the combination of particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and support vector machine (SVM) markedly increases the forecasting po...

The goal of this work is to derive models for forecasting the final price of ongoing online auctions. This forecasting task is important not only to the participants of an auction who compete against each other for the lowest price, but also to designers of bidder-side agents. Forecasting prices in online auctions is challenging from a statistical pointof-view because traditional forecasting models do not apply. The reasons for this are three typical features of online auction data: a) unequally spaced bids; b) the limited time horizon of an auction; c) the dynamics of bidding change drastically over time.

The current study aims to find out the determinants significantly affecting the firm's financial performance in textile sector of Pakistan for the period 2005-2010. The researcher used panel/longitudinal data set which are created with the help of State Bank of Pakistan's annual publication named as "Financial statement analysis of companies (non-financial) listed in KSE for the period 2005 to 2010 which is available at www.sbp.org.pk online. The researcher used one-way fixed effect model due the presence of cross-sectional fixed effect in the regression ISSN 2162-4860 2013 www.macrothink.org/ber 77 results. The dependent variable was profitability as a measure of firm's financial performance while the independent variables were leverage, growth, firm's size, risk, tax, tangibility, liquidity and non-debt tax shield. The firm's performance in textile sector is significantly affected by Short term leverage, Size, risk, tax and non-debt tax shield while taking long term leverage as first independent variable, the leverage becomes insignificant along with tax factor. The textile sector should consider the above said factors because these factors significantly increasing or decreasing firm's financial performance. The findings of the current research are limited and applicable to non-financial sector of Pakistan only. It is not applicable to financial sector due to their difference of capital structure. In addition, the researcher used ROI as measure of firm's financial performance while the future research can have ROA, ROE, EPS etc as firm's financial performance.

This review highlights the huge opportunity provided by leveraging knowledge management principles across the hotel industry. By way of context, the author has over 20 years of international experience in the hotel industry (at executive level, including managing privately-owned and single hotels, some as part of a medium-sized brand, with others as part of a very large [global] hotel brand). When he transitioned from a hotel company of medium size to one of the largest (about 10 years ago), he observed significant differences in business processes, structure, resources, and culture. Wondering about these differences, he examined them more closely and started to read broadly about strategy, competitive advantages, and capabilities. Gaining a deeper understanding, he realized that the observed differences were related to knowledge management. In his research, many organizations were found to have used knowledge management to extract, recycle, harness, share, and leverage knowledge for improved performance and competitive advantage. In some cases, millions of US dollars were saved. Furthermore, from knowledge management practices in consultancy, healthcare, and manufacturing, the expectation was that rich, in-depth research would be found on hotel-(specific) knowledge management. Logically, it was expected that top executives (and other stakeholders holding hotel portfolios, such as real estate/investment funds/investment bankers and hotel operators) would be extremely keen to learn about and use knowledge management to leverage their companies' performance. Surprisingly, the opposite seems to be the case. This thorough review demonstrates that little research has been conducted on hotel knowledge management, and that even in hotel-(specific) knowledge management,-secrecy‖ (operating in a vacuum) can be experienced. The premise is that top executives (C-level executives) constantly search for the latest insights (knowledge) and best practices to find implementable concepts so their

Several important economic time series are recorded on a particular day every week. Seasonal adjustment of such series is difficult because the number of weeks varies between 52 and 53 and the position of the recording day changes from year to year. In addition certain festivals, most notably Easter, take place at different times according to the year. This article presents a solution to problems of this kind by setting up a structural time series model that allows the seasonal pattern to evolve over time and enables trend extraction and seasonal adjustment to be carried out by means of state-space filtering and smoothing algorithms. The method is illustrated with a Bank of England series on the money supply.

This study is conducted to understand the level of service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions across the various formats like super market, Hypermarket and Departmental store in India. In this study seven stores from organized sector are chosen and they are further divided into various formats like super market, Hypermarket and Departmental store. In this study a sample size of 600 customers is chosen and from which 540 completely filled in questionnaires are received. This gives a response rate of 90%. The statistical analysis was done through descriptive statistics and one way ANOVA. From the findings there exists a statistical significant difference in many aspects of service quality and customer satisfaction, but there is No difference in the dimensions of behavioral intentions in these formats. Hence the researcher suggests the implications for the managers on the basis of conclusions and findings of the study.

The Covid-19 outbreak is having substantial economic effects and wreaking havoc on sub-Saharan Africa. The pandemic has unleashed a unique combination of shocks to global commodity markets, disrupting the global supply chain and impacting supply and demand simultaneously. SMEs in lower income countries and particularly in sub-Sahara Africa are bearing the brunt of the economic hardship brought about by Covid-19. To this effect, the purpose of this study is to determine the economic impact the Covid-19 outbreak has on small and medium size (SMEs) enterprises across selected sub-Sahara African economies using an empirical approach to analysis. The phenomenon under study is objectively determined and the source of acceptable knowledge is positivism epistemology. The research approach is a deductive one and the axiological underpinning is value-free. The research paradigm is quantitative method of analysis. A sample of 500 participants from four focus groups namely the Transport sector;...

This research focuses on identifying the role of ethical work context (EWC) along with internal social capital (SC) in creation of innovative work behavior (IWB) among teachers in Higher education institutions across Pakistan. Data from 724 faculty members from various public/private universities were analyzed in relation to ethical work context, internal social capital and innovative work behavior. It was identified that ethical work context had a direct impact on innovative work behavior. Furthermore, social capital played significant role in creation of innovative work behavior and also work as mediator between ethical work context and innovative work behavior.

This study attempts to explore the reasons behind students' dropouts from higher education business schools. For this purpose, data about 1200 students over a period of one year is collected and analyzed from a leading business school in Peshawar. Determinants of dropouts are extracted from the literature and are tested for their association with the dropout decision by the students. Findings of the study are partially aligned with the literature and prove a significant relationship between gender, the type of school attended, students' performance at the SSC and HSSC levels, and major subjects studied at the HSSC level with the incidence of students' dropout from the business school; whereas age, father income, and hometown has shown no relationship with the students' dropout from the business school.

Recently the performance of banking industry is one of the much talked issues in the history of Bangladesh. Predicting the factors of financial crises in banks is very much important as this sector is facing a crises moment now. This study examined the driving factors of financial crises in banking sector using panel data consisted of five year observations (2012-2016) for each of 28 PCBs listed in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and 6 State-Owned Commercial Banks (SCBs). Financial crisis is measured by Altman’s Z-score and Pooled Ordinary Least Square (Pooled OLS) has been applied to find out the factors necessary to condense financial crisis in banks.The study found that SCBs and listed PCBs in Bangladesh are facing financial crisis on the basis of Altman’s Z-score model. Results of the analysis postulated that CRAR, NIIR and NINTR significantly contribute to lessen financial crisis in listed PCBs and also in SCBs. Therefore, the study suggests the regulatory authorities, including sta...

Measuring dependence in a multivariate time series is tantamount to modelling its dynamic structure in space and time. In the context of a multivariate normally distributed time series, the evolution of the covariance (or correlation) matrix over time describes this dynamic. A wide variety of applications, though, requires a modelling framework different from the multivariate normal. In risk management the non-normal behaviour of most financial time series calls for non-gaussian dependency. The correct modelling of non-gaussian dependencies is therefore a key issue in the analysis of multivariate time series. In this paper we use copulae functions with adaptively estimated time varying parameters for modelling the distribution of returns, free from the usual normality assumptions. Further, we apply copulae to estimation of Valueat-Risk (VaR) of a portfolio and show its better performance over the RiskMetrics approach, a widely used methodology for VaR estimation.

The current study aims to find out the determinants significantly affecting the firm's financial performance in textile sector of Pakistan for the period 2005-2010. The researcher used panel/longitudinal data set which are created with the help of State Bank of Pakistan's annual publication named as "Financial statement analysis of companies (non-financial) listed in KSE for the period 2005 to 2010 which is available at www.sbp.org.pk online. The researcher used one-way fixed effect model due the presence of cross-sectional fixed effect in the regression

Informal learning in construction projects offers opportunities for learning in a manner that could be likened to conventional incubation. However, whether the two concepts are similar or closely related in terms of their intended/unintended outcome is not well investigated. A guided literature review based on 20 pre-specified incubation issues has revealed that conventional incubators and informal learning-by-doing practices in construction projects in developing countries are likely to be similar on three issues; “rationale for their existence”, “their employment prospect” and their respective characteristics of “graduates and graduation qualifications”. As learning mechanism the two, differ substantially in the remaining 17 issues specifically on those relating to support services that accompany learning. Conventional incubators provide services and functions that facilitate the growth of firms and entrepreneurs while actors involved explicitly understands the learning objectives...

This research focuses on identifying the role of ethical work context (EWC) along with internal social capital (SC) in creation of innovative work behavior (IWB) among teachers in Higher education institutions across Pakistan. Data from 724 faculty members from various public/private universities were analyzed in relation to ethical work context, internal social capital and innovative work behavior. It was identified that ethical work context had a direct impact on innovative work behavior. Furthermore, social capital played significant role in creation of innovative work behavior and also work as mediator between ethical work context and innovative work behavior.

The purpose of the present paper is that of researching the impact of corporate governance on financial performance, on a sample of 3 companies (Tamin Petroleum & Petrochemical Investment Co., Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company and Parsian Oil and Gas Development Group), mainly from the chemical industry area, listed at Tehran Stock Exchange index, during the period 2011-2016. In this study the return on assets (ROA) is the proxy of financial performance. As variables for the corporate governance there have been considered: the characteristics of the board of directors (independence, salary, size, tenure, age and Risk Committees); firm size; the shareholder structure (the shares of institutional investors); the characteristics of CEO (duality) . The estimation techniques used in the empirical analysis have been multivariate regression models based on the method of econometric data based on the relationship between independent and dependent variables using software Eviews8...