The paper has an empirical study on the degree of China trust market competition based on Panzar-Rosse model, using the panel data of 43 trust companies during the year of 2008-2012.The empirical result shows that China trust has market structure of monopolistic competition. Furthermore, the paper reveals the factors leading to China turst market structure of monopolistic competition, which includes the declining trend in the degree of China turst market concentration, prominent homogenization of trust products, and obvious features of the administrative region segmentation.

Housing situation in Latvia in general is being characterized by two main features: poor technical condition of multi-apartment houses because the major part of housing stock has been built during Soviet times and for their improvement in long-term large investments are necessary, and the support provided so far in housing provision issues for different social risk groups, for example, young families, large families, students, etc. is insufficient. The purpose of the research is to evaluate suitability of long-term financial instruments for housing implemented in Latvia from 2000 - 2015, to offer new long-term financial instruments for housing for implementation in Latvia and assess suitability potential for their implementation in Latvian conditions. Research methodology: Analytical research method, comparative research method and expert interview method have been applied to carry out the research. Scope of experiment is long term housing financial instruments. Conclusions: The results of the research show that that it would be required to introduce various new long-term financial instruments for housing with which the more private investment could be attracted, while improving availability of housing for different social risk groups.

Business success is highly dependent on competent managerial and strategic leadership. Strategic processes of managing and leading are people oriented and require strategic skills to ensure that there is proper motivation in the work environment so as to achieve increased stakeholders value. In the present global environment the need to cope with competition and other critical environmental challenges of business and management underscores the essence of strategic management and business success. The exploratory research design was employed for the study to assess the effect of strategic management on business success in Nigeria. Data generated were analyzed through the regression statistical technique, and it was found that with 1 percent increase in strategic management business success increases by 7.31 percent.

The study investigated the concepts value analysis and value engineering, and their relationship with cost savings among selected manufacturing companies that specialize in the manufacture of plastic, steel, metal products, and soft drink manufacturers in Kano state, North west Nigeria. The study employed the use of primary data where one hundred and ten questionnaires were distributed randomly to employees of nine (9) selected companies at Tokarawa, Sharada, Bompai and Zaria Road all within the metropolis in Kano state. Purposive sampling technique was used to select employees in the production, design, maintenance and engineering, marketing, supply and warehouse departments who have worked for their companies for a period of three years. Secondary data from books and journals were employed to review literature. The study found that at 95% level of significance, sig value (0.173) = 8=0.05 this reveals an insignificant relationship between value analysis, value engineering and cost savings among the selected companies in Kano state North west Nigeria, leading to the acceptance of the null hypothesis of no significant relationship between the independent and the dependent variable. The study also found very low levels of awareness about the two concepts among manufacturers in Kano state, North West, Nigeria. The paper concluded that the concepts if properly applied would enhance cost savings in manufacturing companies and recommends the adoption of the two concepts by local manufacturers in their efforts to reduce cost(s) and remain competitive in the volatile business environment especially with the challenges of the global economic meltdown.

Italian Regions are the accountable entities for healthcare policies: their activity is not limited to policymaking but includes also management and financing of the Healthcare Public Utilities and services. A first step will be the creation of a dataset of revenues and expenditures of the Healthcare sector. Second, the co-financing policy will be analyzed using comparative grids of in/out-flows of each Region. Third, it will be taken into account the regional fiscal coverage of the balance deficit. The sample is composed by the Italian Regions. Last the analysis between our theoretical approach based on law and the real economic balance. Furthermore it will be analyzed the National and Regional Healthcare System financing (in)-stability, highlighting current cash flows, sources and investments using the “separation” of the Healthcare accounting items in the Balance Sheet. Through chi-square test analysis and method of OLS the group of study look a possible relation be-tween balance and respect of lea without finding a relationship. Latter, it will be represented an analysis of the National Health Fund allocation to the Regions. It will be also conducted a critical analysis of the current allocation formula and it will be proposed a simplified criterion of allocation.

This study is primarily designed to shed light on the conflicting views between the human resource management (HRM) and industrial relations (IR) and how these two concepts can be reconciled through providing evidences and literatures. Further, it also discusses the critical points and arguments that support the claim that these two terms are separate and independently applied in business context but at the same time can be combined to attain higher rate of success. To achieve the research objective, this study made use of secondary data to gather information from books and articles and to lay out the arguments supported with appropriate theories and literatures. The findings revealed that indeed there is difference in the concept between HRM and IR as well as its applicability although these two terms are both used in businesses. However; it is suggested that extensive studies can be conducted to gather more evidences to link these two concepts and considering that arguments were mainly interpreted by the author, different perspectives are welcomed to evaluate further its relevance especially in Sultanate of Oman where IR is perceived to be in infancy stage.

Brexit is an abbreviation for “British exit,” meaning the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) decision on June 23, 2016, to leave the European Union (EU). The national vote’s result surprised global markets and caused immediate turmoil. As the UK has a large and traditional financial market and is a gateway to the EU for international investment and trade, people have much fear, which has caused serious recession all over the world. Japan, which has taken advantage of the relationship between Japan and UK and between the UK and EU, is not an exception. This paper examines the impact of Brexit on Japanese activity in the UK and EU. The gravity model of international trade was employed for empirical analysis. This model states that bilateral trade flows based on the economic sizes and distances between two units can be used to examine reasons for international trade. Empirical analysis in this paper indicates that Brexit has impacted Japanese international trade considering the relationship between the UK and EU.

Causal explanation of social action has been critical to modern and classic sociology because the most influential causal law of regularity has failed to be fruitful in explaining causal properties and the processes which form social action. Nevertheless, since the development of social action theory by Max Weber in 1926, there has been meager development concerning its use for causal investigation in qualitative research. Few researchers who attempt to use it do not satisfactorily capture the issue of context and process which connect the events. This article uses comparative case study research to analyze the actions of local politicians and administrators involved in the planning and decision making concerning the delivery of agricultural extension services in Tanzania. To be more precise, the analysis focus on the way institutional context determine the planning process on allocation of resources and the actions of officials involved in the planning of the services.

The thrust of this study was to determine the impact of micro credit on the MSMEs sector in CRS, Nigeria. Three hypotheses were formulated from the research questions and tested by using chi-square statistic to validate the truth or otherwise of the hypotheses. Ex-post factor research design was adopted and a sample size of 158 respondents was selected and used for the study. A structured questionnaire was used in obtaining the data. In testing the hypotheses, all the calculated chi-square values were greater than the critical chi-square value at the given level of significance and degree of freedom. This resulted in rejecting the null hypotheses while the alternate hypotheses were retained. The results indicated that micro credit programmes have significant effect on MSMEs in CRS. Equally, credit administration has a significant effect on the performance of microcredit programmes and that collateral requirements on MSMEs have significant effect on obtaining credit from microfinance institutions in CRS. Arising from the findings, the study recommends that government should make more microcredit programmes available for the development of MSMEs in CRS. There should be efficiency in credit administration on the part of both government and the private sector so as to enhance the performance of microcredit programmes in CRS and also collateral requirements should be minimized, while low interest rate should be charged on micro, small and medium enterprises so as to enhance obtaining of credit facilities from microfinance institutions in the State.

The existence of migrants abroad can increase family income and create capital, which can be used in productive economic activities, through their remittances. This presumption needs to be examined from an economic perspective to determine whether differences exist in their consumption patterns, which result in the productive behavior of migrants upon their return from abroad. To test this hypothesis, a survey was conducted among migrant families in Cirebon Regency, Indonesia. In-depth interviews and observations were conducted to determine the changes in household expenses. Results suggest that migrants and their families consume more, lack concern about human investment, and exert minimal effort toward capital accumulation.

Higher education institutions now a days are operating in an increasingly complex and competitive environment. The application of innovation is a must for sustaining its competitive advantage. Institution leaders are using data management and analytics to question the status quo and develop effective solutions. Achieving these insights and information requires not a single report from a single system, but rather the ability to access, share, and explore institution-wide data that can be transformed into meaningful insights at every level of the institution. Consequently, institutions are facing problems in providing necessary information technology support for fulfilling excellence in performance. More specifically, the best practices of big data management and analytics need to be considered within higher education institutions. Therefore, the study aimed at investigating big data and analytics, in terms of: (1) definition; (2) its most important principles; (3) models; and (4) benefits of its use to fulfill performance excellence in higher education institutions. This involves shedding light on big data and analytics models and the possibility of its use in higher education institutions, and exploring the effect of using big data and analytics in achieving performance excellence. To reach these objectives, the researcher employed a qualitative research methodology for collecting and analyzing data. The study concluded the most important result, that there is a significant relationship between big data and analytics and excellence of performance as big data management and analytics mainly aims at achieving tasks quickly with the least effort and cost. These positive results support the use of big data and analytics in institutions and improving knowledge in this field and providing a practical guide adaptable to the institution structure. This paper also identifies the role of big data and analytics in institutions of higher education worldwide and outlines the implementation challenges and opportunities in the education industry.

Forecasting is the process of using the patterns contained in past data to predict future values. Forecasts are numerical estimates of the future levels of sales, demand, inventories costs, imports, exports and prices among others; for a firm, an industry, a sector of the economy, or the total economy. The objective of forecasting is to assist management to plan requirements for marketing efforts, materials, personnel, production, services, capital acquisition, construction and finances. The data for the petroleum products were obtained from National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and that of inflation rates as well as the exchange rates were obtained from Ghana Statistical Service (GSS). The data were analysed using statistical software such as Minitab, Excel or SPSS. The main approach to the analysis was exploratory data analysis. Various techniques in times series such as moving averages, exponential smoothing etc were used to model and forecast the demand for Petroleum Products from 1999 – 2007 and also how inflation, exchange rates, population etc may impact on the economy of Ghana. Two Econometric models were actually developed and comparison with regard to their R2, Adjusted R2, t-statistics were made using non-natural and natural logarithms for the models. Based on the analysis carried out it was found out that, the best model to be used in forecasting was the model without the natural logarithms. Another finding that came to light was that, some of the independent variables were not quite significant which might impact on the demand for the various petroleum products when analysing with respect to the their R2 and t-statistics values. The results of the R2, Adjusted R2, Predicted values clearly again showed that LPG was the petroleum product which was more demanded, followed by the Gasoil etc. The study also revealed that, Inflation, Exchange Rate, Expump Price and Urban Population could affect the demand for the various product and consequently on the Economy of Ghana. From the study, the irregular nature of the variation of the demand for the petroleum products may be attributed to the problem of under production therefore; there is the need to step up production in order to ensure constant supply of the products for economic activities to be pursued.

Shaanxi plays an important role as a new starting point for Silk Road Economic Belt. Based on the data of joint annual inspection of foreign capital enterprises in Shaanxi province in 2015, 88 Silk Road enterprises invested in Shaanxi Province were obtained. Starting from the basic situation of these enterprises, analyzes the source of foreign investment and industry distribution, and the characteristics of Shaanxi foreign-invested enterprise based on input-output theory, input includes the scale and mode of investment, the employment situation. Output includes revenue and profit, tax situation. And then calculating the score by factor analysis of the enterprise’s comprehensive performance. Through the analysis we found that enterprises invested by Silk Road Economic Belt in Shaanxi are mostly from European countries, little investment from Asian countries and no investment from the five Central Asian countries, comprehensive performance of EU countries is better than that of the Asian countries, the overall profitability of Shaanxi foreign-invested enterprises from Silk Road Economic Belt is not very ideal, mostly has a poor comprehensive management status.

Understanding the interconnectedness between leading and managing people and organizational change served as one of the highlights in this paper and the importance of leading and managing people to leaders, managers, employees and the entire organization as a whole. In the course of achieving well-informed economic decisions, organizational change should be incorporated not only to the organization’s strategic business plan but also included as an important consideration for managers and leaders in managing and leading people in their own workplaces. This study utilized secondary data to support the author’s claims and arguments to establish the linkage between leading and managing people and organizational change, individual and organizational benefits and other issues. Key findings suggest that organizational change and leading and managing people are both useful in organizations and regardless of management positions held by employees, change plays an essential role in coping up with the never ending changes organizationally, nationally and globally. For employees and staff, change allows them to hone their knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes to be productive in their own fields. Change also promotes organizational productivity and profitability. Hence, it is recommended that leading and managing people and organizational change should be taken serious consideration by organizations to stay competitive, relevant and enjoy the long-term benefits and should be mutually applied to achieve favorable outcomes.

The aim of this research is to study the recruitment and selection of employees in public sector of Municipality Naur- Jordan as case study. Recruitment and selection are the most essential parts of human resource activities and human resource being is the fundamental resource for every organization.The researcher used primary and secondary methods for the collection of data. Primary data by distributing the questionnaire among 60 employees in Naur municipality. I used secondary data in our project through searching from the articles, books related to the topic and internet. The questionnaire has distributed randomly among the respondents. The researcher used excel program to analyze the data.This study shows that most of employees they have knowledge about recruitment and selection, because most of them agree that recruitment and selection are two important functions of human resource management, as well the object of selection process is to determine whether the prospective candidate possesses the specific qualification. Most of respondents are agree that the objectives of staffing policies and procedures: attract staff members who possess the attributes, which will enable them to perform their work to a high standard of competence and efficiency. Most of employees are agree that the criteria followed by the municipalities of Municipality of Naur in the selection process (identify job requirements, the qualifications and experience) and consist of the skills and qualifications required to do the job, like education and work experience. While most of the respondents strongly agreed that, the aim of selection and recruitment is to choose right people and able to respect and protect human rights as well is a good policy based on principles such as Respect for diversity; ethical decision-making and equal treatment.

The statement of cash flow provides an important ingredient for rational decision-making as regards the financial stability and viability of an organization. The success and survival of every organization depends on its abilities to generate enough cash inflows to meet its objectives. The study examines the relevance of the statement of cash flows in the decision making of an organization with a particular emphasizes on the banking sector in Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted. The population of the study consists of commercial banks in Nigeria. The target population of the study consists of 750 employees of the 21 deposit money banks in Port Harcourt metropolis. A sample size of 261 was determined using Taro Yamen formula. Structured questionnaire was used as an instrument for primary data collection and was designed in Likert scale 5 points format ranging from strongly agreed = 5 to strongly disagreed = 1. It was evident from the empirical results that significant and positive relationship exists between cash flow and decision-making. On the strength of this findings, it was recommended that Regulatory Authorities such as the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, and the Securities and Exchange Commission should develop a strong policy framework that will encourage the banking sector and other organizations to establish a result oriented cash flow system; that will enable the investing public to evaluate the financial viability and liquidity of an organization and to avail themselves of any financial risk capable of eroding their investment.

This paper provides an empirical investigation into the factors influencing board monitoring function effectiveness in Anglo Countries in West Africa using Generalized Methods of Moment and other estimation techniques. Introducing new dimension and proxies for key board attributes ignored in prior studies, we find that board skills, independence and size play a dominant role in improving board monitoring effectiveness in these countries. However, no evidence was found for board gender diversity affecting board monitoring effectiveness. Consistent with prior studies board skills and independence by far have the strongest impact on board monitoring function effectiveness.

The study determined the extent of implementation of e-procurement program in selected State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Region III, Philippines namely four (4) state universities: Ramon Magsaysay Technological University, Bulacan State University Tarlac State University, Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology and four (4) state colleges: Pampanga Agricultural College, Tarlac College of Agriculture, Bulacan Agriculture State College and Aurora State College of Technology. Two groups of stakeholders, (1) the procuring entity and (2) end-users, were the respondents for a total of 166 respondents. Results showed that perceptions of procuring entity and end-users differ on the implementation of e-procurement program in terms of receipt and opening of bids, bid evaluation, post-qualification, procurement of goods and supplies and alternative methods of procurement. However, both of the respondents agree on the awards and contract signing, implementation of infrastructure project and termination of contracts. From these results, stakeholders should implement seminars and trainings to enhance awareness of the provisions of government Procurement reform Act and must conform to its provisions to ensure transparency and accountability in government transactions and enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the procurement of goods, services and civil works. All government procuring entities are mandated to use the PhilGEPS in its procurement activities and shall post all opportunities, notices, awards and contracts in it as the central portal of government procurement transactions in accordance with RA 9184 and its IRR.

The aim of this paper is to re-interprete the accelerationist Phillips curve, by studying the effect of the higher-order derivatives of acceleration. We show that a complex dynamic behavior emerges when dealing with a jerk and jounce displacement of price settings, whose simple unfolding leads to a three dimensional vector field which generates a double-scroll chaotic attractor.

This study addresses two methods commonly used to measure overconfidence and examines their reliability. It is shown that traditional methods of assessing subjective certainty concerning a given forecast can contribute to a systematic overestimation of overconfidence. It also becomes apparent that a common approach measuring relative overconfidence can cause a distortion of scientific results. This is particularly valid for study groups in which female and male participants are not equally represented.

Good governance is essential for economic development as it enhances the effectiveness of economic policies undertaken by the government. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between governance and economic growth in Africa. Using the World Bank governance indicators we construct a composite index to resume all the indicators in one variable that will be used to measure the impact of governance on growth. The main result of this study is that a change in the governance index of a unit is likely to produce an increase of 1.7% in real GDP. This result seems to be extremely important considering the shortage of financial resources in Africa. Improving governance seems to be the best and the less expensive way the boost economic growth. Thus, African countries need to strengthen their economic efficiency by promoting results-based fiscal management, improving their doing business environment and investing in education to improve the quality of human factor.

The uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) is a parity condition stating that the interest rate differential between two currencies should equal to the expected change in exchange rate between them. But, it has been well documented though that such condition does not stand resulting in an opportunity to benefit from its failure. Traders take advantage of UIP failure by conducting a well-known strategy called carry trade where they borrow low interest rate currencies and invest in high interest rate currencies taking advantage of the interest rate differential and hoping that the movement in exchange rate would not offset it. With interest rate differential being the main components in conducting such strategy for carry traders, Russian ruble offers a very attractive opportunity for such investors. This paper examines the profitability of exploring the failure of UIP using carry trade by borrowing low interest rate currencies which are the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen and investing in Russian ruble.

During the course of the second half of the twentieth century, the world economy has become increasingly interdependent as a result of the economic liberalization measures that have been taken by many countries, and the bilateral and multilateral trade promotion and cooperation agreements that have been reached by a majority of trading partners around the world. However, the benefits from the growth in international trade, and economic cooperation and interdependence, have not been shared equally by all nations. Some have benefited more than others, and some have lagged behind due to their inability to compete in a broader and increasingly dynamic global market. This paper examines the impact of economic interdependence from the perspectives of different national groupings, particularly the developed and the least developed countries. One of the questions to be addressed is: What factors contribute to the differences among those nations in taking advantage of open trade and capital mobility? It is expected that this study would be of value to economic planners and to students of international trade and globalization.

The study gauged the influence of exchange rate fluctuations on the Performance of the Nigerian Economy over the time from of 1986 to 2016, utilizing secondary data tracked from the statistical report of the Apex Nigerian bank, and utilizing techniques such as Unit root test, Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH), Impulse-Response Output and Variance-Decomposition Test to evaluate variables such as Interest rate, inflation rate, exchange rate against a sole indicator of Economic Performance I.e. Gross Domestic Product Growth rate (GDPGR), it was discovered that despite the short run influx of the spill over volatility of Interest rate and inflation rate, there exist no long run volatility influence of interest rate on Economic Performance in Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that the apex financial institution and relevant policy makers should ensure an interest rate system and status that could stimulate growth or production and the nation should endeavour to utilize her interest rate in controlling its output level as it motivates Economic Performance (GDPGR).

The objective of this paper is to test the efficiency in the foreign exchange market by using four exchange rates ($/€, $/£, C$/$, and ¥/$). Different theoretical models are applied, like the random walk hypothesis, the unbiased forward rate hypothesis, the composite efficiency hypothesis, the semi-strong market efficiency, and the exchange rate expectations based on anticipated and unanticipated events (“News”). If exchange rate efficiency does not hold, a risk premium must exist and can be measured. Also, the determination of this exchange risk premium is taking place by using a GARCH (p, q) model. The empirical results for these four major exchange rates (five currencies) show that relative efficiency exists, but there are significant risk premia for some exchange rates used, here.

The present economic development of Malaysia is inherited from the previous three levels, beginning with the rapid growth and rapid development of the natural resources industry from the mid-19th century until 1914, followed by a period of volatility or instability of the natural resources industry between the First and Second World War and finally The level of unification and rationalization of the natural resources industry along with economic diversification after 1945. Although Malaysia was a former British colony, South Korea’s economic interests had contributed to the change of foreign policy from the Pro-West Policy during colonial and post-colonial times to the East View Policy During the administration of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Hence the principal problem in this study is to unravel the existence of the Look-To-The-East in Malaysia which focuses on South Korea before it becomes the main policy formed by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. In terms of methodology used, the initial stage of the research is to identify and collect primary and secondary sources from libraries, archives and reports from various government organizations. Recognizing the importance of South Korea to the Malaysian economy, the Look-To-The-East Idea is still maintained during the Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn era. The continuity of the Look-To-The-East Idea which was continued by the three Prime Minister figures saw South Korea emerging as an inspiration in Malaysia’s trade relations when Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad took over the leadership of the country.

This paper analyzes the trends and evolution of public expenditures in the agriculture sector in Togo, as well as its impact on the growth of agriculture during the period 1985–2015. To this end, we constructed a model capturing both the effect of the volume and the composition of public expenditures in Togolese agriculture. The results highlight the fact that the public investments on agriculture had a positive impact on agriculture growth, whereas public expenditures on fertilizer subsidies had the opposite effect. The study recommends that to revitalize the agriculture sector, the public expenditures should be directed at improving the provision of public investments and services rather than at subsidizing private inputs.

The government of Ghana is not an exception with regards to putting in place measures that aim to improve the lives and livelihoods of its citizenry including the welfare of school children. In the context of the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD’s) Comprehensive African Development Programme (CADP), the Government of Ghana (GoG) set-up the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP). Its concept of home grown school feeding addresses one of the United Nation’s (UN’s) three pillars to fight hunger (United Nations, 2005). ‘The government of Ghana was of the view that the if the School Feeding Programme was properly funded and implemented, the hunger, education and the food security and poverty landscape in Ghana will change for good (Government of Ghana, 2006). The study investigates the factors determining GSFP caterer’s choice to buy local rice from farmers and farmers’ factors influencing rice farmers to supply to the caterers. Purposive sampling was mainly used to select 120 respondents from GSFP beneficiary communities. The respondents were made of up 80 farmers and 40 GSFP caterers from the four selected districts. The study revealed that 46% % of rice farmers have access to the market created by the Ghana school Feeding Programme and about 48% of this group are able to sell their rice produce to the caterers of GSFP. However majority of the rice farmers are aware of the existence of the programme without any proper rules of engagement except that less than half of the farmers have been linked up with programme with the support of World Food Programme and the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), operating in the Northern Region. The major problem associated with rice farmers accessibility to the GSFP is caterers’ unwillingness to buy from them even though majority of the farmers are aware of the programme and its basic of objective of providing free meals to pupils in basic schools. Farmers indicated they would be willing to sell to the caterers if the prices offered by caterers are good or if they are able to produce enough to meet the demand of caterers on termly basis or the caterer is more willing to pay them in cash when they purchase their rice or other farm produce or better still be willing to pay on time for a period not more than one month when they buy on credit. The probit model was used to analyse the factors influencing rice farmers to supply to the programme on one hand and the factors affecting caterer’s decision to purchase rice from the rice farmers on the other.

The high levels of corruption, unemployment and abysmal development reflect a situation of poor macroeconomic management in Nigeria. Sound macroeconomic policies and management contribute in many ways to high quality growth that has positive correlation with poverty reduction. Increased and more efficient public spending in the areas of public education, healthcare, and employment remain the catalysts for poverty reduction and sustainable development. It is believed that efficient use of resources is central to economic growth and sustainable development. Descriptive research design was used for the study. Data generated were triangulated, analyzed and it was found that prudent macroeconomic management has positive association with poverty reduction and sustainable development.

The purpose of this study was to find out the impact of exchange rate volatility on hospitality industry in the Lusaka Province of Zambia. This research aimed to find out the impact of exchange rate volatility on profitability, capacity utilization and the impact of GDP and inflation on profitability of hospitality industry. The study used quarterly secondary data from 2005 to 2015 with respect to three big hotels which had international branding and received over fifty percent revenue in forex. The multiple regression model was used to measure the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable. The study revealed that volatility in exchange rate had significant effect on profitability. But inflation had negative effect on profitability. The GDP growth rate had positive effect on the capacity utilization. The study concluded that the Central Bank of Zambia should take necessary steps to increase the value of domestic currency, i.e., Kwacha, and stop fluctuations in it to safeguard the profitability in the hospitality industry. The study also concluded that through appropriate monetary policy, i.e., increasing the bank rate and reserve ratio and selling the bonds in the market, the inflation could be reduced by controlling money supply.

An important question amongst economists is: what is the impact of accession to the World Trade Organization on the economies of member countries? Using a comparative analysis, econometric approach, and data from Saudi Arabia, this study proves that trade patterns have changed in some areas and remained unchanged in others as a result of accession to the WTO. The study proves that accession to the WTO has resulted in a remarkable increase in trade share and that accession to the WTO has a positive and significant effect on economic activity.

The study examined the effect of fair value accounting on predictive power of earnings of listed Deposit Money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. Fair value accounting has been a subject of serious concern in corporate finance and accounting literature following the adoption of International Financial Reporting standards. Data were collected from all the fifteen DMBs listed on the Nigerian stock exchange between 1st January 2011 and 31st December 2015. In analyzing the collected data, the study adopted descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and a panel multiple regression analysis to identify the possible effects of fair value accounting on predictive power of earnings. The results revealed that fair value accounting significantly enhances earnings predictability. The results further established that where as fair value hierarchy level one does not significantly enhance earnings predictability of listed DMBs in Nigeria, level two and three was found to be negatively and significantly influencing earnings predictability. This implies that level two and three significantly reduces earnings predictability of listed DMBs in Nigeria. Therefore, it is recommended that Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria should develop valuation guidelines that must be followed enhance reliability of fair value measurement in Nigeria.

Risk management in banks is a crucial issue mainly in Islamic banks. This study seeks to examine the impact of the incomes of mudharaba and musharaka on the relationship between risk and performance, which is measured by ROAA. This study employs unbalanced panel data regression analysis of Ordinary Least Squares method, from 16 Islamic banks from different countries over the period 2012 to 2015, which was processed by the software stata13. The results show that the income of Sharing of Losses and Profits (PLS) products (mudharaba and musharaka) has a moderating effect particularly on the relationships between performance and liquidity risk, and operational risk. However, it has no moderating effect on the relationship between performance and market risk. This study helps to enrich the literature with new models that can help bankers and Islamic finance students to get ideas and make relevant decisions in terms of investment.

This paper evaluates the hedging effectiveness of the Malaysian crude palm oil futures market using daily settlement prices over the periods from January 4, 2010 to August 30, 2017. Hedge ratios and the hedging effectiveness are determined by employing four competing econometric models namely: the standard ordinary least square (OLS) regression model, vector error correction model (VECM) and two variations of the multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (MGARCH) models namely; diagonal-VECH and diagonal-BEKK GARCH models. The first two models estimate constant hedge ratios while the other two models estimate time varying hedge ratios. Hedging performance is evaluated and compared in terms of in-sample (Jan 2010 – Dec 2016) and out-of sample periods (Jan 2017 – Aug 2017) of the four hedge ratio models. The empirical results show that the MGARCH models particularly diagonal-BEKK GARCH model performs better than the other three models indicating that this model fits better in designing hedging strategy. The empirical finding suggests that the investors in crude palm oil markets in Malaysia can use CPO futures contract as an effective instrument to minimize the risk.

The long-run relationship between exports and imports has been the subject of intensive research in developed and developing economies. This relationship is of importance due to the fact that it reflects the stability of foreign trade situation of a country. The main objective of this paper is to study and investigate the long-run relationship between exports and imports in Ghana’s economy. A time series econometric techniques of unit root tests, Johansen cointegration and error-correction mechanism were applied. Annual data for real exports and real imports for the period 2002 – 2015 were used. The results of ADF unit root tests suggest that the two variables export and imports are integrated of order one. Johansen cointegration test revealed that, a long-run cointegrating relationship exist between exports and imports in Ghana. The error-correction model found a long-run unidirectional causality from imports to exports. This means that the short run fluctuations between exports and imports are sustainable since, in the long run, they will eventually converge towards an equilibrium state. The study confirms that Ghana is not in violation of its international budget constraints, and macroeconomic policies have been effective in bringing exports and imports into a long-run equilibrium.

This study sets to assess the effect of government intervention on economic development adopting Songhai Development Initiative Farm in Rivers State of Nigeria as a case study. It adopted the survey design with the instruments of personal observations, interviews and questionnaires to collect the required data. The data has internal consistency of 0.87, test-retest reliability of 0.85 (p < 0.001), split-half reliability of 0.82 (p < 0.001). The mean of 3 points was chosen as a cut off point for accepting or rejecting each of the items in the Likert’s scale. The Chi-square was also used to test the hypothesis. All items have mean (X ¯) that are higher than the cut-off mark and this is supported by low standard deviation for all the items which depicts a low variation of the observations from the mean. With the calculated Chi-square greater than the table value (i.e 30.34957 > 21.026) in absolute term, the study concludes that there is a significant relationship between Songhai Development Initiative Farm and the economic development. It, therefore, recommended that such and similar government direct involvements in the agricultural and other sectors should be encouraged for optimum benefits in output, job creation, income, social welfare and technological advancement.

Smooth functioning a bank depends on the stability of stream of returns that it gets from its financing decision. This study is an attempt to showcase the reason for idling or shortage of funds and the factors for the case of Islamic banking. This effort will determine the strategy which can boost the financing in the economy, for this, this study has used the panel data of full-fledged Islamic banks from countries Pakistan and Malaysia, spanning to several years and based on several banks. Based on the analysis of internal and external factors of Islamic banks, it can be seen that increase in the market rate leads to decrease in demand of financing while the increase in deposits and equity do not show a proportional increase in financing which hints that there is excess liquidity available in the Islamic banks. On the positive side, it is evident that increase in the economic activity boosts the demand for Islamic financing.

This paper examined the causal relationship between real exchange rate returns and real stock price returns in Nigeria from January 1985- June 2017. For the investigation the VAR/pair-wise granger causality test and Sims-causality test were applied. From the evidences shown, there exist a unidirectional causal relationship between real exchange rate returns and real stock price returns. Causality running from Real exchange rate returns to real stock price returns. Thus, the past values of REXR can influence/predict the present value of RSPR. This confirms the findings of Olugbenga (2012) and the proposition of the flow oriented model. Also, evidences from the sims-Causality test show that there is uni-directional causality running from Real exchange rate returns to real stock price returns. Thus, the present value of REXR can influence/predict the future values of RSPR. Therefore, it is important for the monetary authority of Nigeria to put into due consideration the exchange rate policy in its conduct of monetary policy internally. Investors could also use these findings as an effective tool in stock trading. As movement in the foreign exchange market (real exchange rate returns) could have a great impact on the present and future movement of stock exchange market (real stock price returns) in Nigeria.

This study examined the effects of exchange rate fluctuation on the Industrial Output Growth in Nigeria using time series data sparring from the period 1986 to 2015. Johansen’s Co-Integration model was employed to explore the long-run relationship among the variables used, while the Vector Error Correction model (VECM) was used to evaluate the short and long-run dynamic among the variables and the Granger Causality used to measure contemporaneous relationship among the endogenous variables. The dynamic correlation of the variables was captured by the analyses of impulse response and variance decomposition. The results of the analysis indicate a unidirectional causality from Exchange rate to Industrial output. The response of industrial output to the shock from exchange rate was positive and significant; more specifically in the initial years, while response to shock from other variables was little in magnitude and not as significant as exchange rate. From the Forecast Error Variance Decomposition (FEVD), the study revealed that although the main source of variance in output are own shocks, innovation in the exchange rate accounted for a higher proportion in the variation of industrial output than that of other associated variables (Inflation, Interest rate and Net Export). The study concluded that exchange rate has potentials of causing significant changes in industrial output in Nigeria. Against this backdrop, the study recommended the need for more macroeconomic policy attention to the proper management of the exchange rate, and the need to strengthen the link between agriculture and the industrial sector to reduce the reliance of the sector on import of inputs to a reasonable level.

There are number of ways like Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis and The Efficient Market Hypothesis that helps to know the behaviour of investor which helps to predict future. In this study author used Fibonacci numbers/series analysis which consider for forecasting future stock prices trends. For the purpose of this study four listed companies are selected at random by convenience sampling from Cement Sector for the period of 1st quarter of 2017. Closing prices of open days of market are taken from Karachi Stocks and graphs are made. This study concluded that in four companies of cement sector, there were total 63 support levels out of which 17 (27%) and total 66 resistance level from which 24 (36%) were followed Fibonacci retracements. So the study findings accept the hypothesis that the trend reversals in Cement sector listed in PSX follow Fibonacci retracements to some extent. Analysis of this study showed that there is at least one strong support and one strong resistance in every company and some small resistant and support levels.

Corporate debt policy remained a significant, but a challenging decision for managers entrusted with the responsibility to improve the value of the firm. Thus, this study examines the factors influencing the capital structure decisions of firms in Nigeria. The study employs a panel data regression model to analyze data from firms in Nigeria for the period 2011 to 2015. The result of the empirical analysis reveals that firms in Nigeria have a preference to finance economic operations from retained earnings and the use of short-term debt on rollover basis. The finding of this study confirms that debt decreases with profitability and growth opportunities. The findings show that asset tangibility and firm size have a positive and significant relationship with debt policy of firms in Nigeria. The analysis also reveals that managerial ownership has a negative and significant relationship with debt ratio of firms in Nigeria. The study shows a non-significant positive relationship between non-debt tax shields and debt. The study demonstrates that the trade-off and pecking order theories both explains the factors influencing capital structure decisions of firms in Nigeria. Therefore, this study suggests the need for stakeholders to develop the financial markets and make it accessible for firms to obtain long-term financing for economic growth and development.

This study attempts to measure the financial performance of selected Bangladeshi commercial banks for the period 2010-2016 through using the DuPont model which is an important tool for measuring profitability and judging the financial performance of any financial entity. The modified DuPont model disaggregates ROE (which is an indication of the earning power of the firm) into five components: tax burden, interest burden, profit margin, total asset turnover, and equity multiplier ratios. Empirical results exhibit that Dhaka Bank has performed best in every aspect and secured the first position due to highest average ROE. On the other hand, AB Bank is the least performer among all the banks due to its lowest average ROE. Finally, this study suggests that a company can have high ROE if it has high operating margin, lower interest, lower income tax, efficient use of assets and high use of debt in its capital structure.

This study evaluates the role of capital accumulation on labour productivity growth in Nigeria. Endogenous growth and efficiency wage theories are employed in explaining the determinants of labour productivity. The ordinary least squares method of estimation employed to evaluate the effect of capital accumulation on labour productivity and employment generation in Nigeria over the time frame of 1970-2014. The findings of this study include: education expenditure and capital formation’s impact on labour productivity growth is time dependent; health expenditure positively impacts labour productivity growth; compensation to employee negatively impacts productivity growth in Nigeria.

This study aims at examining the impact of the ownership structure on the overall performance of listed companies in Pakistan to specify how different ownership structures and corporate governance culture differ from each other and thus explores the effects of different ownership structures and corporate governance on the performance of companies’ productivity. In order to compare Returns on Investment (ROI) and Returns on Equity (ROE) of the five (5) listed food companies in Pakistan were calculated using secondary data from the audited financial reports of such companies based on their annual reports between 2007 and 2016. During this research for the analysis of gathered data, regression model was used with the assistance of EViews in order to examine the relationship between the corporate governance mechanism including board is size, board composition, and audit committee and the performance variables including Net Profit Ratio (NPR) and Rate of Return (RoR). The findings of the our study are consistent with the reviewed literature, as the performance of firms (in terms of return on assent and net profit ratio) does not seem to be dependent on the board size, composition, and audit committee composition of firms.

The paper has an empirical study on the degree of China trust market competition based on Panzar-Rosse model, using the panel data of 43 trust companies during the year of 2008-2012.The empirical result shows that China trust has market structure of monopolistic competition. Furthermore, the paper reveals the factors leading to China turst market structure of monopolistic competition, which includes the declining trend in the degree of China turst market concentration, prominent homogenization of trust products, and obvious features of the administrative region segmentation.

Business success is highly dependent on competent managerial and strategic leadership. Strategic processes of managing and leading are people oriented and require strategic skills to ensure that there is proper motivation in the work environment so as to achieve increased stakeholders value. In the present global environment the need to cope with competition and other critical environmental challenges of business and management underscores the essence of strategic management and business success. The exploratory research design was employed for the study to assess the effect of strategic management on business success in Nigeria. Data generated were analyzed through the regression statistical technique, and it was found that with 1 percent increase in strategic management business success increases by 7.31 percent.

This study is primarily designed to shed light on the conflicting views between the human resource management (HRM) and industrial relations (IR) and how these two concepts can be reconciled through providing evidences and literatures. Further, it also discusses the critical points and arguments that support the claim that these two terms are separate and independently applied in business context but at the same time can be combined to attain higher rate of success. To achieve the research objective, this study made use of secondary data to gather information from books and articles and to lay out the arguments supported with appropriate theories and literatures. The findings revealed that indeed there is difference in the concept between HRM and IR as well as its applicability although these two terms are both used in businesses. However; it is suggested that extensive studies can be conducted to gather more evidences to link these two concepts and considering that arguments were mainly interpreted by the author, different perspectives are welcomed to evaluate further its relevance especially in Sultanate of Oman where IR is perceived to be in infancy stage.

Outsourcing is “a practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally.” (Outsourcing, 2013) After the financial crisis of 2007-2008, many companies in the United States began to enhance their bottom-line profits by outsourcing and cutting costs instead of through the traditional route of top-line sales growth. In an attempt to effectively cut costs and generate profits for investors, more organizations engaged in outsourcing of jobs by means of offshoring. Offshoring is a form of outsourcing whereby jobs are relocated to a foreign country with a cheap labor force and low socioeconomic standards, and less regulations such as the EPA. From a Human Resources perspective, offshoring jobs is that there will be benefits to the organization such as cost and efficiency savings, focus on core activities, reduction of overheard costs, staffing flexibility, continuity, avoid organized labor, and risk management. In theory, the argument for offshoring is plausible and synergies can be created for companies; however, issues can result, creating huge disadvantages for organizations. Outsourcing can become detrimental to the financial health of an organization because of unforeseen costs. In addition, the organizational culture and employee morale begins to diminish when employees have no job security and they fear layoffs. Thus, there are pros and cons of offshoring jobs those Human Resources managers’ must evaluate before choosing whether to offshore jobs or keep them domestically. Therefore, outsourcing jobs through offshoring can result in disadvantages to an organization because of hidden costs, bad publicity and low employee morale, quality problems, loss of managerial control, threat to confidentiality and security, and reliance on the financial health of the outsourced organization. This paper has been divided into two sections due to the comprehensive approach taken by the authors to provide a focused view on the legal aspects giving the reader an opportunity to use the information as a guide if needed, or for further research.

Probabilistic selling is a marketing strategy that multi-item vendors provide to consumers, presenting discounted options through acceptance of uncertain risks with random selections from sets of multiple distinct items. However, past studies of this strategy assume a no return policy since returned items shift part of the mentioned uncertain risk to the retailer. Because returns are a common business practice and an important coordination tool in supply chains, this research identifies the impacts of a return policy on the efficacy of probabilistic selling models.

Housing situation in Latvia in general is being characterized by two main features: poor technical condition of multi-apartment houses because the major part of housing stock has been built during Soviet times and for their improvement in long-term large investments are necessary, and the support provided so far in housing provision issues for different social risk groups, for example, young families, large families, students, etc. is insufficient. The purpose of the research is to evaluate suitability of long-term financial instruments for housing implemented in Latvia from 2000 - 2015, to offer new long-term financial instruments for housing for implementation in Latvia and assess suitability potential for their implementation in Latvian conditions. Research methodology: Analytical research method, comparative research method and expert interview method have been applied to carry out the research. Scope of experiment is long term housing financial instruments. Conclusions: The results of the research show that that it would be required to introduce various new long-term financial instruments for housing with which the more private investment could be attracted, while improving availability of housing for different social risk groups.

Brexit is an abbreviation for “British exit,” meaning the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) decision on June 23, 2016, to leave the European Union (EU). The national vote’s result surprised global markets and caused immediate turmoil. As the UK has a large and traditional financial market and is a gateway to the EU for international investment and trade, people have much fear, which has caused serious recession all over the world. Japan, which has taken advantage of the relationship between Japan and UK and between the UK and EU, is not an exception. This paper examines the impact of Brexit on Japanese activity in the UK and EU. The gravity model of international trade was employed for empirical analysis. This model states that bilateral trade flows based on the economic sizes and distances between two units can be used to examine reasons for international trade. Empirical analysis in this paper indicates that Brexit has impacted Japanese international trade considering the relationship between the UK and EU.

The study investigated the concepts value analysis and value engineering, and their relationship with cost savings among selected manufacturing companies that specialize in the manufacture of plastic, steel, metal products, and soft drink manufacturers in Kano state, North west Nigeria. The study employed the use of primary data where one hundred and ten questionnaires were distributed randomly to employees of nine (9) selected companies at Tokarawa, Sharada, Bompai and Zaria Road all within the metropolis in Kano state. Purposive sampling technique was used to select employees in the production, design, maintenance and engineering, marketing, supply and warehouse departments who have worked for their companies for a period of three years. Secondary data from books and journals were employed to review literature. The study found that at 95% level of significance, sig value (0.173) = 8=0.05 this reveals an insignificant relationship between value analysis, value engineering and cost savings among the selected companies in Kano state North west Nigeria, leading to the acceptance of the null hypothesis of no significant relationship between the independent and the dependent variable. The study also found very low levels of awareness about the two concepts among manufacturers in Kano state, North West, Nigeria. The paper concluded that the concepts if properly applied would enhance cost savings in manufacturing companies and recommends the adoption of the two concepts by local manufacturers in their efforts to reduce cost(s) and remain competitive in the volatile business environment especially with the challenges of the global economic meltdown.

Italian Regions are the accountable entities for healthcare policies: their activity is not limited to policymaking but includes also management and financing of the Healthcare Public Utilities and services. A first step will be the creation of a dataset of revenues and expenditures of the Healthcare sector. Second, the co-financing policy will be analyzed using comparative grids of in/out-flows of each Region. Third, it will be taken into account the regional fiscal coverage of the balance deficit. The sample is composed by the Italian Regions. Last the analysis between our theoretical approach based on law and the real economic balance. Furthermore it will be analyzed the National and Regional Healthcare System financing (in)-stability, highlighting current cash flows, sources and investments using the “separation” of the Healthcare accounting items in the Balance Sheet. Through chi-square test analysis and method of OLS the group of study look a possible relation be-tween balance and respect of lea without finding a relationship. Latter, it will be represented an analysis of the National Health Fund allocation to the Regions. It will be also conducted a critical analysis of the current allocation formula and it will be proposed a simplified criterion of allocation.

Causal explanation of social action has been critical to modern and classic sociology because the most influential causal law of regularity has failed to be fruitful in explaining causal properties and the processes which form social action. Nevertheless, since the development of social action theory by Max Weber in 1926, there has been meager development concerning its use for causal investigation in qualitative research. Few researchers who attempt to use it do not satisfactorily capture the issue of context and process which connect the events. This article uses comparative case study research to analyze the actions of local politicians and administrators involved in the planning and decision making concerning the delivery of agricultural extension services in Tanzania. To be more precise, the analysis focus on the way institutional context determine the planning process on allocation of resources and the actions of officials involved in the planning of the services.

The thrust of this study was to determine the impact of micro credit on the MSMEs sector in CRS, Nigeria. Three hypotheses were formulated from the research questions and tested by using chi-square statistic to validate the truth or otherwise of the hypotheses. Ex-post factor research design was adopted and a sample size of 158 respondents was selected and used for the study. A structured questionnaire was used in obtaining the data. In testing the hypotheses, all the calculated chi-square values were greater than the critical chi-square value at the given level of significance and degree of freedom. This resulted in rejecting the null hypotheses while the alternate hypotheses were retained. The results indicated that micro credit programmes have significant effect on MSMEs in CRS. Equally, credit administration has a significant effect on the performance of microcredit programmes and that collateral requirements on MSMEs have significant effect on obtaining credit from microfinance institutions in CRS. Arising from the findings, the study recommends that government should make more microcredit programmes available for the development of MSMEs in CRS. There should be efficiency in credit administration on the part of both government and the private sector so as to enhance the performance of microcredit programmes in CRS and also collateral requirements should be minimized, while low interest rate should be charged on micro, small and medium enterprises so as to enhance obtaining of credit facilities from microfinance institutions in the State.

The existence of migrants abroad can increase family income and create capital, which can be used in productive economic activities, through their remittances. This presumption needs to be examined from an economic perspective to determine whether differences exist in their consumption patterns, which result in the productive behavior of migrants upon their return from abroad. To test this hypothesis, a survey was conducted among migrant families in Cirebon Regency, Indonesia. In-depth interviews and observations were conducted to determine the changes in household expenses. Results suggest that migrants and their families consume more, lack concern about human investment, and exert minimal effort toward capital accumulation.

Understanding the interconnectedness between leading and managing people and organizational change served as one of the highlights in this paper and the importance of leading and managing people to leaders, managers, employees and the entire organization as a whole. In the course of achieving well-informed economic decisions, organizational change should be incorporated not only to the organization’s strategic business plan but also included as an important consideration for managers and leaders in managing and leading people in their own workplaces. This study utilized secondary data to support the author’s claims and arguments to establish the linkage between leading and managing people and organizational change, individual and organizational benefits and other issues. Key findings suggest that organizational change and leading and managing people are both useful in organizations and regardless of management positions held by employees, change plays an essential role in coping up with the never ending changes organizationally, nationally and globally. For employees and staff, change allows them to hone their knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes to be productive in their own fields. Change also promotes organizational productivity and profitability. Hence, it is recommended that leading and managing people and organizational change should be taken serious consideration by organizations to stay competitive, relevant and enjoy the long-term benefits and should be mutually applied to achieve favorable outcomes.

Higher education institutions now a days are operating in an increasingly complex and competitive environment. The application of innovation is a must for sustaining its competitive advantage. Institution leaders are using data management and analytics to question the status quo and develop effective solutions. Achieving these insights and information requires not a single report from a single system, but rather the ability to access, share, and explore institution-wide data that can be transformed into meaningful insights at every level of the institution. Consequently, institutions are facing problems in providing necessary information technology support for fulfilling excellence in performance. More specifically, the best practices of big data management and analytics need to be considered within higher education institutions. Therefore, the study aimed at investigating big data and analytics, in terms of: (1) definition; (2) its most important principles; (3) models; and (4) benefits of its use to fulfill performance excellence in higher education institutions. This involves shedding light on big data and analytics models and the possibility of its use in higher education institutions, and exploring the effect of using big data and analytics in achieving performance excellence. To reach these objectives, the researcher employed a qualitative research methodology for collecting and analyzing data. The study concluded the most important result, that there is a significant relationship between big data and analytics and excellence of performance as big data management and analytics mainly aims at achieving tasks quickly with the least effort and cost. These positive results support the use of big data and analytics in institutions and improving knowledge in this field and providing a practical guide adaptable to the institution structure. This paper also identifies the role of big data and analytics in institutions of higher education worldwide and outlines the implementation challenges and opportunities in the education industry.

Forecasting is the process of using the patterns contained in past data to predict future values. Forecasts are numerical estimates of the future levels of sales, demand, inventories costs, imports, exports and prices among others; for a firm, an industry, a sector of the economy, or the total economy. The objective of forecasting is to assist management to plan requirements for marketing efforts, materials, personnel, production, services, capital acquisition, construction and finances. The data for the petroleum products were obtained from National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and that of inflation rates as well as the exchange rates were obtained from Ghana Statistical Service (GSS). The data were analysed using statistical software such as Minitab, Excel or SPSS. The main approach to the analysis was exploratory data analysis. Various techniques in times series such as moving averages, exponential smoothing etc were used to model and forecast the demand for Petroleum Products from 1999 – 2007 and also how inflation, exchange rates, population etc may impact on the economy of Ghana. Two Econometric models were actually developed and comparison with regard to their R2, Adjusted R2, t-statistics were made using non-natural and natural logarithms for the models. Based on the analysis carried out it was found out that, the best model to be used in forecasting was the model without the natural logarithms. Another finding that came to light was that, some of the independent variables were not quite significant which might impact on the demand for the various petroleum products when analysing with respect to the their R2 and t-statistics values. The results of the R2, Adjusted R2, Predicted values clearly again showed that LPG was the petroleum product which was more demanded, followed by the Gasoil etc. The study also revealed that, Inflation, Exchange Rate, Expump Price and Urban Population could affect the demand for the various product and consequently on the Economy of Ghana. From the study, the irregular nature of the variation of the demand for the petroleum products may be attributed to the problem of under production therefore; there is the need to step up production in order to ensure constant supply of the products for economic activities to be pursued.

Shaanxi plays an important role as a new starting point for Silk Road Economic Belt. Based on the data of joint annual inspection of foreign capital enterprises in Shaanxi province in 2015, 88 Silk Road enterprises invested in Shaanxi Province were obtained. Starting from the basic situation of these enterprises, analyzes the source of foreign investment and industry distribution, and the characteristics of Shaanxi foreign-invested enterprise based on input-output theory, input includes the scale and mode of investment, the employment situation. Output includes revenue and profit, tax situation. And then calculating the score by factor analysis of the enterprise’s comprehensive performance. Through the analysis we found that enterprises invested by Silk Road Economic Belt in Shaanxi are mostly from European countries, little investment from Asian countries and no investment from the five Central Asian countries, comprehensive performance of EU countries is better than that of the Asian countries, the overall profitability of Shaanxi foreign-invested enterprises from Silk Road Economic Belt is not very ideal, mostly has a poor comprehensive management status.

The statement of cash flow provides an important ingredient for rational decision-making as regards the financial stability and viability of an organization. The success and survival of every organization depends on its abilities to generate enough cash inflows to meet its objectives. The study examines the relevance of the statement of cash flows in the decision making of an organization with a particular emphasizes on the banking sector in Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted. The population of the study consists of commercial banks in Nigeria. The target population of the study consists of 750 employees of the 21 deposit money banks in Port Harcourt metropolis. A sample size of 261 was determined using Taro Yamen formula. Structured questionnaire was used as an instrument for primary data collection and was designed in Likert scale 5 points format ranging from strongly agreed = 5 to strongly disagreed = 1. It was evident from the empirical results that significant and positive relationship exists between cash flow and decision-making. On the strength of this findings, it was recommended that Regulatory Authorities such as the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, and the Securities and Exchange Commission should develop a strong policy framework that will encourage the banking sector and other organizations to establish a result oriented cash flow system; that will enable the investing public to evaluate the financial viability and liquidity of an organization and to avail themselves of any financial risk capable of eroding their investment.

The aim of this research is to study the recruitment and selection of employees in public sector of Municipality Naur- Jordan as case study. Recruitment and selection are the most essential parts of human resource activities and human resource being is the fundamental resource for every organization.The researcher used primary and secondary methods for the collection of data. Primary data by distributing the questionnaire among 60 employees in Naur municipality. I used secondary data in our project through searching from the articles, books related to the topic and internet. The questionnaire has distributed randomly among the respondents. The researcher used excel program to analyze the data.This study shows that most of employees they have knowledge about recruitment and selection, because most of them agree that recruitment and selection are two important functions of human resource management, as well the object of selection process is to determine whether the prospective candidate possesses the specific qualification. Most of respondents are agree that the objectives of staffing policies and procedures: attract staff members who possess the attributes, which will enable them to perform their work to a high standard of competence and efficiency. Most of employees are agree that the criteria followed by the municipalities of Municipality of Naur in the selection process (identify job requirements, the qualifications and experience) and consist of the skills and qualifications required to do the job, like education and work experience. While most of the respondents strongly agreed that, the aim of selection and recruitment is to choose right people and able to respect and protect human rights as well is a good policy based on principles such as Respect for diversity; ethical decision-making and equal treatment.

This paper provides an empirical investigation into the factors influencing board monitoring function effectiveness in Anglo Countries in West Africa using Generalized Methods of Moment and other estimation techniques. Introducing new dimension and proxies for key board attributes ignored in prior studies, we find that board skills, independence and size play a dominant role in improving board monitoring effectiveness in these countries. However, no evidence was found for board gender diversity affecting board monitoring effectiveness. Consistent with prior studies board skills and independence by far have the strongest impact on board monitoring function effectiveness.

This research was conducted among consumers of famous retail stores (e.g. Carrefour, Giant, Hypermart, Lotte, etc.) which offering private label brands in Jakarta. This study aimed to analyze the influence of attitude and brand awareness toward private label brands purchase intention. The assumed sample size was 150 respondents by using convenience sampling technique. The multiple regression model was used in this research data. The result shows there was relationship found among all the given variables, which means that all research hypotheses were found to be supported. These findings are expected to provide useful managerial implications for retailers in terms of effective solutions marketing for private label brands.

This study examines the relationship between corporate governance and risk falling stock prices according to the type of ownership of the company on the Stock Exchange of Tehran. For this study, a sample of 4 companies listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange were selected using random sampling method. In this study, the relationship between corporate governance and risk falling stock prices according to the type of company ownership in Tehran Stock Exchange for the period 1389 to 1393 was A total of 470 observed for the period was used Who has 70 years of institutional ownership companies And 400 data related to companies with ownership of the company. The statistical methods used in this research is multiple regression method. The results show that the risk of falling standards of corporate governance in companies owned firm’s stock price So that the effectiveness of the board, board structure and governance structure, risk of falling stock prices on corporate ownership in companies with significant effect in reverse. But institutional ownership in companies with corporate governance criteria in danger of falling stock prices have no effect.

The study determined the extent of implementation of e-procurement program in selected State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Region III, Philippines namely four (4) state universities: Ramon Magsaysay Technological University, Bulacan State University Tarlac State University, Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology and four (4) state colleges: Pampanga Agricultural College, Tarlac College of Agriculture, Bulacan Agriculture State College and Aurora State College of Technology. Two groups of stakeholders, (1) the procuring entity and (2) end-users, were the respondents for a total of 166 respondents. Results showed that perceptions of procuring entity and end-users differ on the implementation of e-procurement program in terms of receipt and opening of bids, bid evaluation, post-qualification, procurement of goods and supplies and alternative methods of procurement. However, both of the respondents agree on the awards and contract signing, implementation of infrastructure project and termination of contracts. From these results, stakeholders should implement seminars and trainings to enhance awareness of the provisions of government Procurement reform Act and must conform to its provisions to ensure transparency and accountability in government transactions and enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the procurement of goods, services and civil works. All government procuring entities are mandated to use the PhilGEPS in its procurement activities and shall post all opportunities, notices, awards and contracts in it as the central portal of government procurement transactions in accordance with RA 9184 and its IRR.

Foreign capital flows depends on the prevailing monetary forces as supported by capital flows theory and the mechanism linking these two variables is that contraction of net domestic assets through an open market sale of bonds will place upward pressure on domestic interest rates. Higher interest rates attract foreign funds, generating a capital inflow which relieves the pressure on domestic interest rates. Has this actually happened? It is against this backdrop that the present study investigated the impact of monetary policy on international capital inflows in Nigeria for a period of 22 years (1994-2015) using time series data. The autoregressive distributed lag technique revealed that the short-run and long-run significant determinants of foreign capital inflows are largely from broad money supply, nominal exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rates spread except inflation rate that is insignificant in the long-run. This outcome upholds theoretical prediction. Long-run equilibrium relationship was found between the dependent variable and the regressors. Further examination of the short run dynamics of the model showed that the speed of adjustment coefficients ECM (-1) to restore equilibrium have a negative sign and statistically significant at 1% level, ensuring that long-run equilibrium can be attained and about 89% of the short-run deviation from the equilibrium (long-run) position is corrected annually to maintain the equilibrium. Since the empirical evidence revealed that monetary aggregates such as broad money supply, nominal exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rates spread influence foreign capital inflows, it is therefore recommended that government should continue to pursue expansionary monetary policy and foreign exchange policies that would ensure competitiveness of the economy in order to attract the much needed foreign capital inflows that would engender economic growth.

The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) is the local version of the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSP) that has a mandate to give one hot meal a day to school children in public schools from kindergarten through to primary six. Launched in 2005 the programme has the goal of contributing to poverty reduction and increased food security in Ghana. One of the key objectives of the programme is to boost domestic food production by purchasing locally produce foodstuffs and providing a sustainable market for local food producers in the community. To analyse the effect of the programme on rice production in four districts in the Northern Region of Ghana, a formal cross section survey of 80 small holder rice farmers and 40 GSFP caterers, across the four districts was conducted. The translog production function was applied to analyse the programme’s effect on rice output while the probit model was used to analyse the factors influencing rice farmers to supply to the programme on one hand and the factors affecting caterer’s decision to purchase rice from the rice farmers on the other. The results from the analysis of the production function shows that the coefficients of farm labour, farm size, and fertilizer application were highly significant in increasing farmers’ output. While access to the GSFP had a positive influence on output it was statistically insignificant. The results also show that majority of GSFP caterers buy rice from local millers and the market. The factors which had significant influence on the caterers to buy from the rice farmer include availability of storage facility, farmer’s willingness to process the paddy rice and sell on credit, price of milled rice, and proximity of rice farmers. The major conclusion of the study is that the effect of the programme on rice farmers output was not significant. This was attributed to poor linkage between the farmers and the programme even though about 100 percent of rice consumed by the GSFP is produced locally.

Drawing on and integrating the resource-based view (RBV) and competitive dynamics literature, this study developed an interaction model to explore competitive contests by investigating how the interaction between technologically heterogeneous resources and competitive actions affects performance in the nascent market. The proposed model was examined using structured content analysis and data extracted from more than 3,200 news articles regarding the interfirm rivalry between Google and Apple in the table industry. The findings, first, indicate that in nascent markets, aggressive competitive action can exert a negative effect on firm performance. Second, this paper presents empirical evidence supporting the RBV through testing how the technological resource heterogeneity of these firms contributed to their performance (in terms of technological value and technological rarity). Finally, we found that technological resource heterogeneity mitigates the potentially negative effects of aggressive competitive action on the performance of high-technology firms during the nascent cycle.

Abstract The lean manufacturing system is stated the right tool to improve production systems in order to meet the performance and change demands of today’s rapidly evolved technology. The theory of the process is to eliminate wastes, empower workers, reduce inventories, and ensure to meet customers’ requirements. The purpose of this study is to construct a lean manufacturing process experimented at Factory 123, Huu Nghi Company. This process is expected to be applicable to nationwide garment enterprises in Viet Nam. The main issues are mentioned in this study: - Assessment of the status (in Content 2) - Arranging production facilities and warehouses for Factory 123 (in Content 3) - Implementing 5s for Factory 123 (in Content 4) - Purchasing policy (inventory) for Huu Nghi Company (in Content 5) - Deploying a pilot scale group for Factory 123 (in Content 6) - Lean the manufacturing process applied to Factory 123 (in Content 7) - Training to help a thinking change in a positive way, aiming to apply this process in an active and continuing (in Content 8).

This study examines whether shifts in exchange rate has symmetric or asymmetric impact on stock prices in Germany. Linear and nonlinear autoregressive distribution lag models are applied by using monthly data from the period January 1993 till April 2017. Findings suggest that only currency devaluation affects stock prices which implies asymmetric impact of changes in exchange rate on stock prices. The empirical results from this study would be useful for policymaking as well as for forecasting the impact of exchange rate changes on stock prices.