1 Ethics and professionalism in banking services, Adewale A. Alawiye-Adams
Ethics and Professionalism are two key words relevant in consideration to effective practice and delivery of banking services, all over the world. This paper considers this critically important subject matter from both the point of relevance of both the institution as an entity on the one hand and its operators (both owner/Directors and employees) on the other hand, as it relates to internationally accepted rules and regulations of standard practice, recognition of right and wrong operational procedures. Existing and continually developing academic/professional training opportunities, including other sources of Human capital development, all gearing towards banking practice efficiency, effectiveness and development both locally and internationally, have lost relevance both in content and in sufficient technicality to adequately equip the bank employees today (most of which are not properly grounded in the pre-requisites of what is required to be effective in banking services delivery. Society places significant trust and confidence on banks in their expectations on the expected leadership role of banks worldwide, as providers of the most crucial resource for production in commerce and industry for economic growth and development. However the failure of banking operatives in upholding the codes of Ethics and professionalism, the weak base of banking knowledge, both in theory and practice have resulted in disregard for the codes of Corporate Governance, wreckless initiation of diverse insider abuses, by both board members and staff of banks, banks shunning the directives of regulators, with disdain. Systemic bank failures, institutional and industry disorders and collapses have been the consequences of the anomalies. Keywords: Codes of Ethics and Professionalism, Banking practice, misconduct of Boards, management and staff of banks, Codes of Corporate Governance, Lack of Competence and Effectiveness resulting from non adherence to codes.
2 Growth of mobile phone subscribers in India, Debabrata Das
The aim of this paper is to forecast the growth of mobile phone subscribers in India. Based on the data of mobile phone subscribers from the year 1996-97 to 2007-08, a short term forecast is made up to the year 2015-16. Under assumed saturation level, the logistic and Gompertz distribution function are used for forecasting the growth of mobile phone subscribers in India. It is observed that, the coefficient of determination is high and mean square error is low in case of logistic distribution. This distribution forecasts the growth of mobile phone subscriber to 98 per 100 people in India by the year 2015-16. This study will be useful for planners, policy makers and researchers in the area of the telecommunications sector for realistic view of the subject and for planning appropriate strategy accordingly. Keywords: Mobile phone subscribers, Logistic model, Gompertz model, Saturation level, Forecasting.
3 The economic necessity of establishing Islamic microfinance institutes in Iran: A theoretical analysis, Ali Hasanzadeh, Hossein Meisami
Making use of the available literature in the field of micro finance in conventional economics, this study tries to show that although Islamic banks and Gharz-al-hassan funds are available in Iran, as an Islamic country, it is economically necessary to establish Islamic micro finance institutes and this will strengthen the Islamic banking level in Iran. In addition, the paper tries to look at the characteristics and potencies of Islamic micro finance and also, shed some light on the probable challenges they might face and tries to find some solutions for these challenges. The findings of this study which are based upon theoretical analyses show that the there is room for establishment of micro finance institutions in Iran and this will improve the access of the poor and middle income people to the financial services. Keywords: Iran, micro finance, Islamic microfinance, Islamic economics, economic necessity.
4 The future of retail banking; Relationship banking Budu?nost bankarskih poslova sa stanovništvom i odnosa sa klijentima, Aleksandar Memet, LJiljana B. Savic, Milutin M. Milosavljevic
exerted enormous pressure on retail banks to develop profitable growth engines. Instead of relying on mergers, expansion and underwriting, banks must now derive greater value from existing customers. There are three primary ways this will happen: by driving product sales and fee income through upselling and cross-selling; increasing retention of high-value customers; and mitigating losses with specific risk strategies based on theentire customer relationship. In short, banks must successfully take on the relationship banking challenge. Keywords: Relationship banking, changes in banks, future of banking
5 Entrepreneurial and vocational learning in entrepreneurship education: Indonesian Non formal education perspective, Sony Heru Priyanto
leadership and together with the management capacity are able to become the crucial element to determine the success of a business. Moreover, Schumpeter (1934) stated that entrepreneurship is driving force behind economic growth, formulating new economic combination. This study aimed to find out the implementation of an education and the effects of the students. Furthermore, this study used an approach from a case study by involving three Sanggar Kegiatan Belajar (SKB); SKB Salatiga, Kabupaten Semarang and Makasar in order to reach the purpose. The technique analysis used was naration and ilustration. The finding showed that the model of Enterpreneurship Education which took place in informal institutions was really pririotazing a technic to run a business and increase skills, which was appeared in a curriculum and syllabus of the enterpreneurships education which had more production technic and bussiness managment. A personal development as the essence of enterpreneurship education was not given too much; there was no otherworldly education to struggle. The means and infrastructre basic of enterpreneurship were just contained a production technology development and a business like workshops, instrumentations and laboratory fields. As the Entrepreneurship Education, this means and infrastructure must be able to support the change of the students’ mindset and make them able to have entrepreneurial and business competencies. The teaching material were also still pririotizing the increasing of technology skills and less bussiness skills. The teachers’ qualification had not supported the purpose of the Entrepreneurship Education. The effect of this entrepreneurship education had not been able to make someone becoming an entrepeneur. The participants’ knowledge was increase, however their mental ability, aptitude and attitude had not change yet. Keyword: entrepreneursip education, curricullum, syllabus, entrepreneurial learning
6 Government expenditure and economic growth in Nepal a minute analysis, Basudev Sharma
Government expenditure is one of the important determinants of economic growth. However the growth of economy depends on the size, spending capacity, and effective use of capital expenditure in the development process. In Nepal due to political instability internal inability and weak governance situation capital expenditure is unable to influence on economic growth and development. The study suggests increasing the spending capacity of government and regular monitoring in expenditure tracking and effective use of capital expenditure. The government should focus on law and order and fair and transparent use of government investment avoiding corruption and misuse of public investment. Keyword: Capital expenditure, Correlation, Economic growth, Nepal
7 The need for strengthening linkage between supply of funds and priority economic sectors in Ethiopia, Ebisa Deribie
in supply side economics. Relevant data for the study were collected from different suppliers of funds and apex authorities controlling the availability of finance. It was discovered that some suppliers of funds performed poor in respect of the credit risk ratios. This could be evidenced from the fact that the Credit Risk Ratios are far from the requirement of 10% set by National Bank of Ethiopia. Generally, fund suppliers should improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness in all areas of their services, develop a continuously growing number of loyal customers, bring finance services near to the customers, and invest in the human resource development and innovative technologies. Kewords: Economic sectors, deposits, financial ratios, loans, commercial banks
8 Ebisa DImplementation and transformation of entrepreneurial learning model in Indonesian university: SEM analysiseribie, Maria and Sony Heru Priyanto
Every year the number of unemployment is increasing, 20% each year. Research is expected to be found and the determinant factor based entrepreneurship education, which will be used to design and construct a model of entrepreneurship education based Entrepreneurial Learning Model (ELM). The method used in this research study descriptive and explanative research. The research was conducted at the universities of entrepreneurship education or business education (University of Dian Nuswantoro Semarang, University Jenderal Sudirman Purwokerto, and Satya Wacana Christian University Salatiga). The unit of analysis of this study is students, educators, and entrepreneurial lecture system. The data will be analyzed by means of analysis Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). From this research, educators and curriculum or syllabus establish entrepreneurship education. Application of Entrepreneurial Learning Model has been going well. Entrepreneurship education will shape the performance of entrepreneurial participants. Keywords: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial learning model, the performance of entrepreneurial
9 Are youths and teenagers satisfied with colloquial style of talking, Narjes-ul Saddat Salehi, Abbas Heidari, Naim Ebrahimian, Seyed Mohammad Hamed Salehi
Language is one of the best and most complete tools for human communication. Language is a way for direct and face-to-face communication between two or several people. However, nowadays because of the existence of mass communication, in some instance direct communication has changed into indirect communication; and media can send their messages for thousands of people at the same time. One of these mass communication media is radio. Radio is an auditory medium, in which language plays an important role. Radio stations try by various means to attract and retain their listeners. In order to maintain their attractive edge, each radio station devises various programs and since each program has its own features, it requires its own special way of talking to its listeners. One of the methods to attract listeners by radio stations geared toward the youth is by using colloquial style of talking. Thus, there is a need to pay serious attention to the issue of language and its application in radio. Due to the wide variety of listeners, if diligent attention is not paid to the correct application of language, the structural and cultural effectiveness of programs could be compromised. In this study, 396 youths and teenagers from the metropolitan city of Tehran were surveyed to determine their level of satisfaction of colloquial style of talking. In drawing the questionnaire, the demographic characteristics (gender, age, marital status, activities and education) were taken into consideration. The results showed that generally more than half of teenagers and youths were dissatisfied with the colloquial style of talking. Keywords: youth, teenagers, style of speech, colloquial, satisfaction
10 Management accounting: An analysis of its use in small and medium-size building materials companies in Southern Brazil, Anderson Catapan,Edilson Antonio Catapan, June Alisson Westarb Cruz, Renato da Costa dos Santos, Claudimar Pereira da Veiga
This article presents a research with buildings material in Curitiba and Metropolitan Area (State of Parana, Southern Brazil), that sought to identify how the management tools were used in those commercial establishments. The sample used in the study was 14 companies in the referred sector. It was found that the majority of the companies are in the commercial branch and that predominated between them the quantity of less than 10 employees. Among the results it was verified that the accounting from the companies researched was carried out externally, counting 64,28% of total, and in relation to the management tools it was identified that the budget was adopted by 35,72% of the companies and the cash flow registered 64,28% of the researched sample. The survey was limited since the number of studied enterprises is incipient to affirm that this is a reality for every business in this area, but it is still a suggestion another studies to investigate possible results that would be able to support this study. Keywords: Management Accounting; Management Accounting Tools; Accounting Information.
11 Evaluation of customer satisfaction on bank services: Aempirical analysis, Belay Deribe and Ebisa Deribie
Customer confidence and trust on the services delivered determines profitability of a bank. A fullfledged service delivery to the customer secures survival of a bank. The major objective of this study is to analyze customer satisfaction on banking services in Jimma, Ethiopia. For the purpose of this study primary data sources were used. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The findings of the study suggest that there are a number of problems hindering the smooth delivery of the banking services. The network problem for instance is the major obstacle in the check clearing operations. Besides, in the loan operations the delays of the loan approval is the major problem. In the electronic banking services, customers responded that the benefits they obtained are limited. Therefore, the bank should handle its customers so well to achieve its organizational aims. Keywords: Customers, Bank, loans, electronic-banking, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia
12 The level of information technology governance in KULACOM-Jordan Company, Huda Al Skafy, Zeyad Abdel Halim Al- Theebeh
This study presents a newly developed tool, which is COBIT 5 that is an abbreviation for "Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology". It has been launched with the beginning of 2012 to measure the level of Information Technology Governance (ITG). It has been used by the researchers in the study to measure the level of governance in the KULACOM-Jordan Company. COBIT 5 has 5 dimensions "Evaluate, Direct and Monitor" "Align, Plan and Organize" "Build, Acquire and Implement", "Deliver, Service and Support " and "Monitor, Evaluate and Assure". These dimensions have been used for designing a questionnaire distributed to "KULACOM-Jordan" Company. One basic hypothesis has been developed for this study and five sub-hypotheses that shows that there is good governance over IT in the KULACOM-Jordan Company, which in turn led to the conclusion that there is a high degree of "Evaluate, Direct and Monitor", and "Build, Acquire and Implement ", and a moderate degree in the "Align, Plan and Organize", "Deliver, Service and Support " and "Monitor, Evaluate and Assure". Keywords: COBIT 5, ITG.
13 Women’s involvement as an effective management tool in decision-making in Oromia region’s public organizations, Chalchissa Amentie and Emnet Negash
Women are the fuel that runs the engine of the organization and it is believed that their low involvement in the decision-making process creates tensions between management and staff. Therefore, the purpose of this study was aimed to determine the impact of women low involvement as a management tool in decision-making and its implementation in Oromia region public organizations by determining the causes of low women involvement in decision-making and the consequences of such action on implementation of decisions. In the study, cross-sectional, descriptive and inferential designs were used. As findings of the study; eventhough, the involvement of women in decision-making are increasing, until know there is low acceptability of their decision-making process by all communities. As per the chi-square test made (p
14 Impact of pak-US relationship news on KSE-100 Index, Hasnain Manzoor
Stock markets play a vital role in determining the financial position of a country. Karachi stock Exchange deals in different stock securities and financial instruments. This study emphasizes on risks and returns associated with stocks in KSE-100 index. I have simply used an event based study for this research. The study focuses on 8 events as sample and their impact on the KSE 100 indexes. This study reveals that these events have significant effect on values of stock prices. Research limitationsas we are the students of bachelors program so due to constraints of time I unable to properly focus on this research work. There are still some areas further to be explained in the future research work. Secondly some events of significant importance such as US elections were not included in the study because the index was freeze due to global recession. Keywords: Karachi stock Exchange, Correlation, Regression.
15 An investigation of higher education student’s entrepreneurial intention in Ethiopian Universities: Technology and business fields in focus, Emnet Negash and Chalchissa Amentie
Purpose: purpose of this study aims at seeking to understand whether entrepreneurial intentions exist among university students. Methodology: Survey research method was employed involving total of 210 students from four public Universities found in the Ethiopia. Sample of respondents from selected Universities were drawn by using systematic sampling techniques. The study used both primary and secondary data. Pertaining to data analysis both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques mainly descriptive analysis using percentages, tables and graphs were employed. While for inferential statistics like distribution based of determinant factors of entrepreneurial intention of undergraduate students multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify which variables are significant for the model. Regression analysis was used to explain the effect of independent variables on a dependent variable. Additionally mean scores and standard deviations were calculated to identify the most important factors that determines students Entrepreneurial intentions in the selected Universities. Findings: the study proposes five factors contributing to the development entrepreneurial intention in selected universities. Accordingly subjective norms, perceived self efficacy, university environment, perceived educational support and students attitude toward entrepreneurship were significant determinants for entrepreneurial intention in selected public universities. Practical implications: the finding specifically imply that the universities are advised to give attention to the impact of social influences, identify the way to enhance students confidence to perform entrepreneurial roles and tasks, allow university stakeholder participations such as Supervisor and Lecturer to guides students well and encouraged students to pursue their own ideas. Finally, Ethiopian ministry of education is expected look at university environment to creates environment which can boost entrepreneurial intention of the students Keywords: Entrepreneurial intentions, social influences, perceived educational support. Perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy
16 Quality (Control) circle: The Nigerian experience, Oko, A. E. Ndu, Udensi, C. E
Quality circle as a self managed informal organization is vital for the growth and survival of the industrial sector of developed and developing economies. It operates in guidelines and physical roles that justify contribution to corporate goal actualization. In Nigeria like other nations, the quality circle is not often recognized and accepted by management, though, Nigeria experience is worst. This work based on quantitative and qualitative research techniques that favoured cross sectional survey research, sourced, collected and analyzed data and un-veiled the reasons for the low acceptance of the activities of Quality circle in Nigeria. Results show that most industrial organizations are managed based on ownership/ management interference, discriminative staff motivation and recognition of staff based on ethnic/ cultural affinity as well as gross violation of corporate policies at the whims and caprice of management among others. These hinder informal relationships among industrial employees along the line of quality circle especially as some employees serve as source of management grapevine information at the disadvantage of other employees. To encourage the adoption of Quality Circle principles and practices in Nigeria, the following are recommended: personnel management must be based on policies and quality staff training especially based on the need for cross personal dependency; sponsorship of programme aimed at unified employees’ relationships and unified labour rewarding scheme. Keywords: Effectiveness; motivation, cohesiveness, Informal and formal work group, corporate task, gossips and grave vine.
17 An investigative analysis of factors influencing Ebusiness adoption and maintenance of commercial websites in Nigeria, Edwin M. Agwu
The number of commercial organizations applying electronic commerce systems is on the rise when viewed globally. In the near future, this trend will become not only a tool to simply increase income, but without doubt will be considered an essential means for competition. Although Nigeria has the largest and fastest growing ICT marketplace in Sub-Saharan Africa, e-commerce activities have not progressed at a similar speed. In general, Nigerian retailers have not responded actively to the global growth of online retailing. Using a case study approach, various managers in six organisations from different states of the country were interviewed with a view to unravelling the factors influencing the adoption and maintenance of commercial websites in Nigeria. Analysis shows that consumer readiness is an influential factor for both developed and developing economies. Findings further revealed that most company websites are not maintained due mainly to absence of internal know-how by employees, time, and lack of continuous connectivity. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the factors that influence website adoption and maintenance within developing economies. And it provides insight to businesses contemplating setting up a website in developing economies on the successes and failures in the process of developing a commercial website. Keywords: Website, maintenance, adoption, e-commerce, e-business, developing economies, Nigeria
18 Views and asymmetric information effects on asset pricing, Imtithel Sendi, Makram Bellalah, Chaker Aloui
In this paper we show the effect of views and asymmetric information on asset pricing. It is well shown that individuals invest in asset that they know about. In addition, people differ from each other and each individual has his own personality, characters, experiences etc. So he expresses different reactions, sentiments and views depending on moods, situations and circumstances. In this paper we present a new reading of Merton (1987)’s model by including investor’s views. We suppose that each investor has information and particular views about a subset of available assets. Keywords: asset pricing, views, investor’s psychology, asymmetric information, investors’ views.
19 Effects of animal spirits on resource utilization and economic development: The Case of Tanzania, M. E. Mlambiti
According to the Pre-Keynesian classical economics, private markets (liberalised markets), of their own accord and with no government interference, would “as if by an invisible hand” assume full employment i.e. full resource utilization. But Keynes took a more moderate approach in that he appreciated and recognised that most economic activities result from rational economic motivations and also that much of the economic activities are governed by animal spirits i.e. people who have non-economic motives and who are not always rational in pursuit of their economic interests. This paper attempts to demonstrate the existence of the animal spirits traits (theory) as related to the economic development process in Tanzania and its effect on the country’s economic development pace by using the Tanzania economic development model. Keywords: Classical economics, animal spirits, politics, resource utilization and economic development.
20 The effect of competition on strategic orientation of cement manufacturing firms in Kenya, Peterson Nduati
The cement industry in Kenya has seen intense competition as many firms enter the industry to get a stake of the market. The market is widespread as the firms not only serve local demand but also that of neighbouring countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and most recently South Sudan. The industry has both local and international players. The study therefore seeks to examine the effect of competition on strategic orientation of cement manufacturing firms in Kenya. This study has been conducted through a desk review and interviews with managers of firms in the industry. The data collected is analysed in prose using content analysis as it was qualitative in nature. The results show that competition in the industry has led to firms seeking three strategic orientations – customer, competitor, and technology orientations. Keywords: Strategic orientation, market orientation, competition, cement industry, Kenya
21 The effect of compensation on employees motivation: In Jimma University academic staff, Rijalu Negash, Shimelis Zewude, Reta Megersa
This study investigates the role of compensation and its components such as payment, promotion, recognition, working condition and benefit towards academic staffs work motivation in Jimma University. The population of this study was 1337 academic staff of Jimma University. The researcher stratified the total population of the study based on their college. The samples were selected proportionally and conveniently from the strata. In this study, both primary and secondary sources of data were used. The primary data were gathered through questionnaires from 230 respondents of Jimma university academic staffs. An interview was also conducted with human resource personnel and each college deans of the university. Journals, books, internet, and other references were used as secondary sources of data. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency tables and inferential statistics such as correlations and regression analysis The findings of this study indicated that there is a relationship between compensation and its components and employee work motivation. Keywords: promotin, benefit, recogntion, working condtion, payment and work motivation
22 Impact of monetary policy on stock returns: Evidence from manufacturing sectors of Pakistan, Farman Ali, Babar Adeeb, Sufian Saeed
This study investigates the dynamic impact of monetary policy on stock return in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan over the period of 2001-2010. Monetary instruments that have been used in this study include cash reserve ratio and discount rate whereas company-specific variables have been represented by sales growth, leverage and size. Results reveal that monetary policy and company specific factors have a significant impact on stock returns, there by sustaining the notion of monetary policy transmission. Cash reserve ratio and the discount rate is found to be negatively impact on stock returns while inflation have positive impact and money supply has positive has negative impact on stock returns. Company-specific variables, size of the firms has a significant negative impact on stock returns while sales growth and leverage are insignificant. The results of this study suggest some important implications for investors. Whenever the SBP increases the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and discount rate, investors should be more vigilant in considering these factors while making an investment decision because an increase in the cash reserve ratio generates less return on their investment portfolio. Keywords: Monetary Policy, Company-specific variables, multiple regressions
23 Time series analysis for crisis times: Searching alternatives for standard risk models, Marcelo Zeuli, Antonio Carlos Figueiredo and Marcelo Cabus Klotze
Kim et al. (2011) stated that it appears to be a consensus that the recent instability in global financial markets may be attributable in part to the failure of financial modeling: standard risk models have failed to properly assess the risks associated with large adverse stock price behavior. Their empirical evidences indicate that time series modeled with a framework of stable and tempered stable innovations show better predictive power in measuring market risk compared to standard models based on the normal / t-student distribution assumption. This approach was tested for a Brazilian case. The MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimation) tests – applied do the daily returns of de closing prices of the IBOVESPA stock exchange index, from January, 1999 to April, 2012, covering some high volatility periods – show that GARCH models that adopt Alpha-Stable or Tempered Stable distributions are a better fit for financial time series that cover turbulent periods. The results suggest an alternative for the Basel III Stressed Var approach. Keywords: Equity Markets; Stable Distributions; GARCH Models; BASEL III; Value at Risk.