Suchergebnisse

This study examined the long-run effect of financial leverage on firm value with evidence from a sample of 62 firms quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, over the five-year period between 2014-2018. The level of financial leverage as measured by the Debt-Equity ratio while firm value was represented by Tobin's Q Market-Book Value Ratio. The study contributes to the literature by appraising the dynamic dimensions of the causal relationship between firm value and financial leverage, an investigation that has remained elusive in indigenous studies. The study determined the degree of long-term causality by employing an auto-regressive model estimated by the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique. The regression results show that financial leverage has a significant positive effect on the firm value both in the short and long run, while the result of the correlation analysis carried out reveals that there is a significantly positive and strong linear relationship between the time series of firm value and its lagged version implying that firm value does not demonstrate traits of Mean reversion. The Management of these companies was advised to optimize firm value by undertaking quality projects and relying more on debts for funding.

Information openness of public advisory councils is an important but underexplored indicator of their role in public policy. It reflects their activities, as well as the feedback mechanisms between citizens and councils. Scholars point out low information quality on federal and regional levels, but the reasons behind that rarely studied, especially from a comparative perspective. This paper attempts to fill in this gap by revealing the conditions leading to greater information openness. The authors choose St. Petersburg as a case and gather a dataset on 46 public councils. The key research method is the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The framework is built on two expectations: the impact of councils' autonomy (in website management and general organization) and the role of councils ("intermediary" or "expert") on information openness.Due to several limitations, the results have not revealed any conditions which can be considered a guarantee for better openness. However, the preliminary conclusion is that the differences in autonomy and roles are important conditions. The autonomy of councils seems to be the most crucial factor. A valuable contribution of this paper is the framework of analysis that can be used for other cases and research strategies.

This research examines the effect of financial literacy training and micro insurance on the financial performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis of Ghana. This study aims (i)to determine the effect of financial literacy training on the financial performance of SMEs, (ii) to establish the effect of microinsurance on the financial performance of SMEs; (iii) and to determine the moderating effect of government regulations on the relationship between financial literacy training, micro-insurance and the financial performance of SMEs. The study was based on the financial intermediation theory and Schumpeter's theory of innovation. The study adopted an explanatory research design, using a sample size of 260 SMEs in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis, Ghana. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on financial literacy training, micro insurance, financial performance, and government regulations from SME owners and microfinance institutions. Analysis of the data collected revealed that both financial literacy training and micro-insurance had a positive and significant effect on the financial performance of SMEs. The study recommends that the management of microfinance institutions that provide financial literacy training and micro-insurance should undertake a survey on the needs of SMEs and the specific challenges they face in accessing microfinance services.

Employee retention has become a key focus of the human resource professional agenda. Organizations and schools have come to the conclusion that money could be saved by reducing employee turnover. However, studies have been inconclusive on motivating factors that lower employee retention. The main objective of this study was to determine the influence of motivation on the retention of employees in secondary schools in Kenya. Based on an exhaustive review of literature, three constructs of motivation were taken into consideration namely management. The major hypothesis of the study was that motivation significantly influences the retention of teachers in private secondary schools. To test the hypothesis, three sub-hypotheses were developed; compensation significantly influences employee retention; supervision significantly influences employee retention and psychological contract significantly influences employee retention. A mixed methodology approach was adopted and data was collected using a structured questionnaire and a structured interview guide. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, correlation analysis, and linear regression were applied to test the research hypotheses. The regression results indicate that motivation is causing a 7.0 percent variation in retention, implying a weak relationship. The weak relationship can be explained by poor salaries, authoritarian supervision, and breach of the psychological contract.

Previous work in Kenyan public hospitals has revealed leadership gaps and poor communication between senior administration and lower cadres as an impediment to achieving better practice. Management training for senior health professionals has been recognized as a priority and is now being provided. The research study explored the influence of leadership skills on effective departmental leadership in Mogotio Sub County. The study used descriptive designs and targeted 32 hospitals consisting of 185 managerial staff in Mogotio Sub County. The stratified random sampling method was used to generate a sample of 126 respondents. Data was collected from this sample using questionnaires and analyzed descriptively and inferentially with the use of SPSS version 24. The correlation analysis determined there is a positive and statistically significant association between leadership skills and effective departmental leadership (r=756, p=.000). This verdict was reinforced by the linear regression results (?=.286, p=.001). The study concludes that leadership skill greatly helps improve effective departmental leadership in the public health sector. The study recommends that hospitals ought to emphasize mentoring leaders in the clinical setup in order to improve the effectiveness of leadership at the departmental level. There is a need to inculcate leadership training into the hospitals' culture.

Amid the increasingly competitive competition among banking institutions today, the Village Credit Institution 'Lembaga Perkreditan Desa' (LPD) belonging to the Pakraman village in Bali is getting stronger. This scientific work discusses LPD as the economic and socio-cultural capital of Balinese society. As a result of qualitative research, the data obtained through literature review, observation and in-depth interviews with nine informants, namely the administrators of the Empowering Institute of LPD of Bali Province and managers LPD Kesiman, Denpasar; LPD Seminyak, Kuta-Badung; and LPD Beraban Kediri. The data analysis was done by a descriptive interpretation by using management theory and Bourdeau social practice theory. The results of the research indicate that as economic capital, LPD proved able to build entrepreneurship and empower local villagers of pakraman. As a social capital, LPD has its own value structure, has a social network and gained the trust of its customers. Furthermore, as a cultural capital, LPD is able to strengthen the tradition of local pakraman villagers and become part of the cultural pillars of Balinese society. It is expected that LPD strengthening will continue to be done according to the needs and development of Balinese people

Local self-government in Russia has undergone a number of transformations - from spontaneous decentralization in the 1990s until the stage-by-stage integration into the state vertical system from 2003-2006. Despite the de facto loss of political and, partly, administrative autonomy, we see a huge diversity in the quality of governance and provision of public goods at the local level. Based on the Database of Municipalities' Characteristics (DMC) of Rosstat from 2008 to 2017 and data from the Central Election Commission (CEC of the Russian Federation), the article presents indices of the quality of the provision of public goods and analyzes the relationship with the Duma voting in 2016 and the budgetary autonomy of the municipality. Despite the continuing centralization of government, researchers still observe an impressive variation in both the formats of political competition and administrative practices in the regions, especially at the local level. The results of the analysis point to a number of patterns: 1. There is no strong link between budget independence and the quality of management; 2. Securing votes does not lead to the attraction of additional resources to the field and may even divert scarce funds and the human resources to technically support this loyalty.

Critical to the success of financial institutions' performance is there Capital Structure. The study aimed to, investigate the effect of two capital structure determinants, leverage, and firm size on financial performance as measured by Return on Assets of Deposit Taking Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies in Kenya. The study was grounded on Tradeoff, Pecking order, and Mogdiliani and Miller capital structure theories. A positivist approach was adopted utilizing a mixed-method research design. The population of the research study was 174 Deposit Taking Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies from whom primary and secondary data was collected. A stratified and purposive sampling technique was employed. Descriptive statistics and a regression model were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that firm size had a significant and positive effect on financial performance, whereas Leverage, had a significant but negative effect on financial performance. The study recommends having in place an Assets and Liabilities committee in each Deposit Taking Savings and Credit Cooperative Society that would help manage the assets and liabilities of the institution, ensuring sound liquidity and cash flow management. Critical factors that contribute to a firm size such as increased membership, deposits mobilization amongst others need to be addressed.

The paper assesses the relationship between leader behaviours and subordinates' work performance in the context of tax administration. Data were collected in Malawi using two validated questionnaires administered online for subordinates and team leaders at a field office of a tax administration. Frequency distributions were used to identify dominant primary leader behaviours and the Spearman's rank-order correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between leader behaviours and subordinates' work performance. Participative path-goal leadership behaviour is the most common primary leadership behaviour that team leaders in tax administration employ. Secondly, supportive and achievement oriented leader behaviours have a significant relationship with subordinates' work performance in tax administration. The study concluded that achievement oriented path-goal leadership behaviour could be effective for public organisations involved in law enforcement. It is recommended that leaders should conduct a self-assessment of their leadership; adopt the relations-oriented leadership behaviours and incorporate coaching during performance evaluation exercise; and that organisations should equip leaders with leadership and management skills through training.The study is limited by the small sample-size, therefore, future studies could repeat the assessment with a larger sample and determine the mathematical equations for predicting the effect of each leadership behaviour on subordinates' work performance.

Nowadays, numerous new automobiles are being developed by various companies and theirsuppliers around the globe. On account of the reduction of the product's economic lifetime andeffects of the global market, n the automotive segments the time factor plays a key role in thesuccessful implementation of the project and consequently in the sale of the product. The currentstudy, focusing on human conditions, scrutinizes the behaviour of the members engaged in the project. It's primary focus is not to reveal the hindering factors due to time-losses arising fromthe shortage of resources or inadequate planning. These conspicuous reasons and the demonstration as well as treatment of risk, belong to the scope of the board of project portfolio management, which operates well among larger project organizations. Each project member is takingan individual approach towards meeting deadlines, and their motivation about the executionof the given tasks also vary. Beyond the results found both in the professional literature as wellas general research, I study whether the unique features of the actual automotive organizational projects can be identified or not. The ongoing research observes, based on the experienceacquired from the automobile development project, motivation and adherence to deadlines, thecomposition of the team impacting work efficiency.

The paper aims to identify the similarities and differences in the emphases and patterns that military and civilian managers attribute to strategy. Two different analysis methods were employed in order to achieve abovementioned research objective. In the first method, the aim was to reveal and compare strategy understanding of the sample groups. Towards that end, ten different strategy definitions and nine different necessity statements compiled from various definitions/statements in the existing strategic management literature were provided to the samples. Then, the samples were requested to consider how strategy and necessity of strategy is formed in their minds, and then to choose top three definitions out of 9/10, and finally rank them in preference order, from one to three. Lastly, we counted the ranks/perceived importance of the various strategy definitions and necessity statements that which statement is ranked to which place. Using mean rank assessment by nonparametric comparison method the study shows differences between military and civilian managers in following aspect: the comparison of the emphases that are attributed to approach to strategy identified significant differences among business and military managers. Concisely, the paper reveals the varying perceptions of business and military managers on strategy based on their personal perceptions.

Today, companies are planning their own activities depending on efficiency and effectiveness. In order to have plans for the future activities they need historical data coming from outside and inside of the companies. However, this data is in huge amounts to understand easily. Since, this huge amount of data creates complexity in business for many industries like hospitality industry, reliable, accurate and fast access to this data is to be one of the greatest problems. Besides, management of this data is another big problem. In order to analyze this huge amount of data, Data Mining (DM) tools, can be used effectively. In this study, after giving brief definition about fundamentals of data mining, Chi Squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) algorithm, one of the mostly used DM tool, will be introduced. By CHAID algorithm, the most used materials in room cleaning process and the relations of these materials based on in a five star hotel data are tried to be determined. At the end of the analysis, it is seen that while some variables have strong relation with the number of rooms cleaned in the hotel, the others have no or weak relation.

The aim of the research is to estimate the effect of workplace deviance behavior on organizational citizenship and job satisfaction and to put forward the mediator role of the organizational support perception in possible relations. The information based on hypothetical and literature are provided in the research principally and then the research part including the questionnaire applied to the employees of Kirsehir Municipality is presented. The validity and reliability tests have been performed successfully and the artificial neural network method has been used as the analysis method. In parallel with the averages and correlation values of the variables in the analysis the Artificial Neural Networks have been modelled by determining the inputs and outputs. In accordance with the findings obtained the workplace deviance behavior has a negative impact on the organizational citizenship and job satisfaction and the organizational support perception can take the mediator role as a relative for eliminating the abovementioned effect. When the artificial neural networks' being used as the analysis method and the difficulties in measuring the workplace deviance behavior are taken into consideration it can be stated that the findings obtained have at a certain level of originality in terms of management discipline.

The worldwide technological explosion has dramatically changed the basis of international competition. The accelerated rate of change in product engineering and process technology has led to decreasing product life cycles and made equipment obsolescence a primary concern to U.S. manufacturers. Researchers in academia, industry, and the government have unanimously agreed on the primary role that the investment in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT, eg., Flexible Manufacturing Systems) can play in meeting the challenges of the new global business environment. However, U.S. manufacturing technology is still lagging far behind U.S. innovation , and many U.S. firms are practically unable to justify the needed modernization. Many authors have written about the necessity to account for strategic, long-term benefits associated with acquiring new AMTs in order for U.S. manufacturers to justify more easily, and more realistically, their investment decisions. However, most of these authors have overlooked the fact that the decision to acquire a new AMT is most likely to displace existing resources, and that unless manufacturers are offered a tool to evaluate the impact of abandoning obsolete or less-than-profitable products and/or processes and justify such a decision, the needed modernization process will continue to be hindered. The objective of this research is bifold. First, the product/process abandonment problem is reformulated from a new perspective which is congruent with the requirements of the new global business environment. And second, a global decision model (GDM) incorporating the product abandonment option into the companys overall strategic planning and control system is developed which seeks to help U.S. manufacturers make world-class capital expenditure decisions. To this end, an extensive taxonomic analysis was first conducted to investigate the product abandonment analysis topic as treated in the literature of engineering economy, financial management, management accounting, marketing, strategic management, and corporate organizational and behavioral sciences. The product abandonment problem is then reformulated in view of both the strengths and shortcomings of traditional models and the requirements of the new business environment. Finally, the developed solution methodology is described, implemented as a computer program, and illustrated through an actual case-study. The GDM is governed by an abandonment algorithm and a multi-attribute decision module (MADM) which are interfaced in a highly interactive mode. The proposed abandonment algorithm uses a recursive dynamic programming search method to determine at each decision point in the project life cycle whether it is more profitable to abandon a product or to continue its operations for one more time period. The MADM translates various strategic objectives of the company, financial and non-financial, into quantifiable performance measures and ranks alternative improvement portfolios. Production simulation techniques and activity-based costing (ABC) are suggested to collect the needed input data for the model. Preference ordering theory is used to account for managements attitude toward risk and make trade-offs between project profitability and riskiness. Once a course of action is selected, its performance must be continuously monitored and controlled in view of pre-specified strategic performance targets. The results obtained from the analysis of the case study confirmed the economic validity of the philosophy underlying the developed solution methodology as well as the ease of application of such a methodology to a wide range of real-life problems. They also demonstrated the benefits that a company can forgo by ignoring the abandonment option throughout the product life cycle. In conclusion, the developed model is believed to be a sophisticated, yet practical, tool which can help engineering managers reach more informed, and therefore more competitive, decisions about their firms portfolio of products. Furthermore, pertinent recommendations were made to direct future research regarding this subject matter. ; Ph. D.

Thirty years of economic change have fundamentally altered the nature of organizations and work in China. This volume brings together current research by many of the top scholars studying these issues and provides a glimpse into the state of thinking on organizations and work at the start of the fourth decade of transition. The topics covered include the continued transition of State Owned Enterprises, the emergence of asset management companies, the adoption of innovative labor structures, connections between organizational processes and worker outcomes, the changing use of networks in job search, and role of work and work units in creating and maintaining inequality.