International Journal of Economics & Management Sciences

This study assessed the effect of external capital mobilization and equipment investment of bakery enterprises in South Eastern Nigeria. The contribution of bakeries in ensuring food for all attainment of Millennial Goal cannot be over emphasized. Considering the expanded product set of bakery enterprises, there is the need to imbue advanced technologies into its capital mobilization and investment activities. This will optimize its category management processes to help meet business goals and deliver full value to its customers. All the necessary data for this analysis were harnessed from the enterprise records, of 2005 ? 2008. The methods of data of analyses involved descriptive statistics (such as percentages and Tables) and Two Stage Least Square (2SLS). The study identified that bakery firms were financially squeezed considering that only 2.2% of the firms can boast of operating with mean capital worth of 15.4% million. Also, the investment cycles were distorted with cases of disinvestment consequent upon financial frictions. The simultaneous equation analysis via 2SLS revealed the significant variables interrelating in influencing external capital mobilization and equipment investment to include current and lagged levels return on asset, current and lagged amounts of external capital mobilization, and current lagged values of equipment investment. It is thus, recommended that bakery enterprises should improve in internal capital commitment to the business to enhance financial and investment stabilities. This recommendation is necessary since return on asset being internal capital source related positively with equipment investment and also internal capital injection reduced dependence in external capital portfolio.

Customer satisfaction is considered to be the most important factor whether it is meant for a product or a service. In case of failure to satisfy customers, company will be replaced by others and when industries offering various services, have to be more vigilant because there is a special attitude that plays an important role attracting and retaining the customers. Keeping this in view, the researchers intended to highlight the current issues of transport sector in Pakistan that how service quality effects customer satisfaction. For this purpose, a convenient sample of 120 respondents was selected (60 male and 60 Female) and data collection tool for all the variables (service quality and customer satisfaction) was used from the body of knowledge to check how do they feel about this service. Regression coefficient was used to analyze two independent sets of data. The empirical analysis proved that there was a positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in the public transport sector of Pakistan...

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has over the years used monetary policy to stabilize both inflation and output using two instruments; interest rates and reserve money simultaneously. However, literature suggests that the two instruments used simultaneously will not be effective in hitting the monetary policy targets. In fact, the CBK has over the years missed its inflation target, a fact that could in part be explained by the use of the two instruments simultaneously. The CBK therefore must make a choice between the two instruments. Literature suggests that the choice depends on the economic environment of the country in question. Furthermore, some literature argues that a combination policy which is a mix of these two instruments may work better than either of the two used independently. Using data for the period 1994 to 2010 and an error correction model (ECM), this study establishes that the interest rates result in minimum losses in output compared to the reserve money instrument. Furthermore, a combination instrument minimizes losses from equilibrium output better than the other two instruments taken independently. There is therefore need for the CBK to adopt a pure interest rate instrument policy strategy if it desires to use one isolated instrument. Better still; there is need for the CBK to construct a monetary policy conditions index which would help in the implementation of a combination instrument policy.

This paper examines the fund characteristics that affect fund performance by studying 69 Malaysian equity mutual funds representing 44 conventional funds and 25 Islamic funds over the period of five years. The characteristics examined include Risk, Fund Size, Management Expense Ratio, Turnover Ratio and Fund Age. The hypotheses were tested using several regression analyses to see whether Risk, Fund Size, Management Expense Ratio, Turnover Ratio and Fund Age have significant relationships with Fund Performance. The results show that higher risk fund provides higher return. Those funds which spent more on research expenses give superior return compared to those that spent less. The findings also show that young funds performed better than old ones. However, Fund Size and Turnover Ratios were found to have no significant relationship with Fund Performance. Overall, the results indicate that investors should focus on young funds and select fund based on his/her preferred risk level. Fund managers should understand the characteristics that will affect fund performance and develop strategies on how to increase their funds performance.

Financial performance measurement of companies in decision-making process is one of the most important subjects in financial and economic scope regarding development and importance of market role. Economic value added (EVA) and refined economic value added (REVA) are among the most important criteria of financial performance measurement. Several researches have been conducted internationally consistent with the view that REVA has most correlation with market value than other traditional financial performance measurement. The most important purpose of the present research is to make clear the theoretical indices of financial performance measurement, test these indices and offer necessary evidences in order to help the Iranian capital market participants to make rational decision in investment process. This study is applied and correlation type research and the relationship between REVA and other new and traditional criteria of financial performance with market value added (MVA) is studied using simple and multivariable regression. Findings show that REVA has more correlation with MVA than EVA and other indices of traditional financial performance measurement during 1384-1389. These results suggest that all creditors, shareholders and activities of the capital market that use these criteria for measuring financial performance of companies and their managers use these criteria along other criteria in evaluating companies. The results are consistent with the results of Bacidore et al. (1997).

This study has been attempted to shed light on the issues such as forecasting growth rates of GDP of India. Data on GDP have been collected over a period of 60 years from various publications of Reserve Bank of India. A very simple tentative ARIMA (1, 2, 2) model has been fitted on data to estimate the parameters of autoregressive and moving average components of this model. Results suggest that only one period of autoregressive and moving average terms are statistically significant. Further, absolute values of forecasted GDP indicate an increasing trend and its respective growth rates reveal an opposite trend in future. Findings will assist the policy makers and managers to formulate economic and business strategies in turn more precisely.

The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment with the perceptions of employees and managers on performance evaluation system. Moreover, the correlations between job status and differential levels and also between job satisfaction and organizational commitment are also examined in terms of perceptions of job status (employee-manager) at various dimensions on performance evaluation system. The survey conducted is applied to the employees and managers at three textile factories in Turkey. There are 26 hypothesis developed within the model of this study and the data obtained via the surveys are tested basing on these hypotheses. As a result, it is seen that there is no differentiation in any perceptions of performance evaluation system in terms of job status; no significant correlation between job satisfaction and job status; a higher rate in the organizational commitment of managers than employees and a significant correlation between organizational commitments and job status in terms of several perceptions of performance evaluation. This study is important in terms of revealing the effects of perceptions on performance evaluation systems to the job satisfaction and organizational commitment and the differentiations in terms of job status.

Protection and enforcement of trade secrets outside the USA have been minimal and undeveloped and of particular concern when using the Internet. Substantive and procedural laws vary from country to country. In recent years there has been a move toward harmonization under the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. However, the provisions of TRIPS allow for varying periods for member countries to come into compliance. In the meantime international protection of trade secrets is uncertain, thus necessitating the development and implementation of strategies for preserving trade secrets in the international business environment. This paper discusses those strategies, beginning with defining and identifying a company?s trade secrets and the formulation of various policy measures to be taken to protect trade secrets, with emphasis on the risks inherent in the loss of trade secrets when using the Internet and how to eliminate or reduce that risk.

Organizational Citizenship behaviors (OCB) are those behaviors for which employees are neither rewarded by the organization in monetary terms nor employees are forced to show such behaviors but it contributes a lot in organizational effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of OCB with job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intensions. This study was conducted in public sector of educaion, and for this purpose 150 teachers from 5 faculties of University of the Punjab were taken as sample. Multistage sampling technique was used for sampling; questionnaire was used as data collection instrument, and SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that OCB was positively correlated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment but OCB found to be insignificantly correlated with turnover intentions. This study provides guidelines and great insight that will help educationist and authorities of educational institutions to increase OCBs among teachers so their job satisfaction and organizational commitment may increase and their turnover intentions may decrease.