Volumen 11 (2016): Heft 1 (April 2016)

The overall objective of this paper is to investigate the fundamental cost elements of the traditional EOQ model and develop the model by expiring some of its unrealistic assumptions. Over the last few decades, there have been numerous studies developing the EOQ model, but the basic cost elements of the EOQ model have not been investigated efficiently. On the other hand, the capital cost of buying inventories seems to be important to be investigated separately as well as holding cost and ordering cost in the model. In this paper, the capital cost of the inventory and possible stepwise increases in holding and setup cost are taken into account to make a revised formula to compute the economic order quantity. The proposed model involves explicitly the capital cost of buying the inventories in the EOQ model to ensure the decision makers that their financial concerns are considered in the revised model and the new order quantity results the minimum total cost.

This study intends to add to the debate whether differences in risk behaviours exist between genders. These results are used to inform the conversation about the role of gender in management and leadership. The design is an investment game in which participants could gain or lose money from investing in a hypothetical risky asset. Participants were first paid $10 to complete a survey. They could then invest any or all of this $10 in a risky asset with a known probability of gaining and losing. After winnings from the first round of investments were dispersed, a second chance to invest in the same asset was offered. The findings suggest that there is no difference between genders in their willingness to invest into the risky asset. This held true for the pooled data and for the U.S. and Brazil data separately. It is often assumed that the inherent risk behaviours differs between genders and, often times, this information is used when making promotion or hiring decisions. The methodology offers a unique approach to measuring financial risk taking at an individual level. The investment game included salient rewards and subjects were in a setting where other factors could be controlled.

Mankind has always relied on transportation to move from one place to the other; be it by horse carriage or modernized vehicles. With rising environmental issues such as global warming, the transport industry had to evolve so as to provide greener means of transportation and satisfy demands for eco-friendly technologies. This study has shed light on consumer behaviours towards eco-cars, known as hybrid vehicles. This research was in the context of Mauritius and respondents who already drive a vehicle were targeted so as to prevent lack of information about key questions such as habits on fuel expenses and vehicle features. The survey method used, had 100% response rate and permitted the researcher to get fruitful insights about: the extent of introduction and penetration of hybrid vehicles, the factors influencing the purchase of eco-cars, the perceived benefits of owning a hybrid vehicle and the relationship between age and hybrid vehicles’ characteristics. One revelation of this study is that hybrid vehicles do not have the expected impacts on Mauritian consumers like they have on the international markets; though the younger generation- the leaders of tomorrow- are interested with eco-friendly automobiles.

Behaviorist economic approach has recorded a quantum leap in a relatively short period of time, as studying the relationship between consumer behavior and companies’ strategic decisions based on market competitiveness are no longer an unknown area. However, this issue remains actual in view of the fact that during the decision process of purchase, consumers do not always behave rationally, as they are the only ones who can appreciate if the offer of the company, in terms of range, quality, price and auxiliary services meet their needs or not. In this context, this paper aims to deepen the existing interconnection between the market decisions of the enterprise and consumer behavior, as measure standard for the competitiveness of a firm on a certain market.

Based on bidder-target asymmetry, our study investigates the source of synergy gains derived from corporate takeovers and their specific contribution to bidder value creation. Prior researches have focused on the relevance of only one source of potential synergy. We find that French takeovers tend to create long-term operating and financial synergies. These two synergy components are positive and significant with a large contribution of the former. Furthermore, cutbacks in investment expenditures represent the most significant source of operating synergies, while post-acquisition market power is non-significant. Moreover, both total and operating synergies are higher in focused takeovers initiated by “value” as opposed to “glamour” bidders. Lastly, financial synergies are likely to arise from bidder leverage level and target relative size.

ISO 26000 represents a guidance on corporate social responsibility and it is, at the present time, one of the most important document on CSR in the world. Without being mandatory or regulated, ISO 26000 is focus on seven core subjects that have to be approached synergistic – governance, human right, labor, environment, business practices, consumer, and community – in order to achieve its goal. The present paper intends to present and analyze the seven core subjects of ISO 26000 from tow perspectives: by emphasizing the benefits of implementing the standard into the business strategy and by revealing the correlation between corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.

Regarding the link between economic growth and it’s public outcomes, this paper studies the effect of economic growth on life expectancy in Iran during 1966-2013. To achieve the research objectives, annually data collected from World Bank Database and I used the life expectancy at birth and annually GDP growth rate to measure the research variables. Then I applied Vector Error Correction Model to estimate the proposed model. The results on this study show that economic growth has a positively significant effect on life expectancy in Iran during the observation period.

Value represents one of the key concepts in strategic management, because the evolution of both the theory and practice of strategic management has been greatly shaped by the generic searching for value. But the approaches of value have been quite various and sometimes controversial, making value one of the most complex and dynamic determinants and metrics of the strategic competitiveness of the firm. Therefore, the paper aims to identify, based on literature review, the multiple valences value has for the strategic management process (in all of its phases: analysis, formulation and implementation), in order to capture as much as possible of its multiple facets (as concerns value drivers, value creation and value distribution) into a comprehensive framework – able to successfully manage and measure the contribution of value to the strategic competitiveness of the firm, while enhancing it.

This research study contributes to the ever-expanding literature by examining multivariate cointegration and causality relationships between electricity consumption, economic growth and other growth determinants for quarterly South African data collected between 1994/Q1 – 2014/Q4. The motivation behind this current research case study becomes apparent when taking into consideration that no previous studies have gone further than bivariate and trivariate analysis in investigating the electricity-growth nexus in South Africa. In conducting our empirical investigation, our obtained empirical results are two-fold in nature. Firstly, we find significant multivariate long-run cointegration relationships between economic growth, electricity consumption and other growth determinants. Secondly, our empirical analysis offers support in favour of the neutrality hypothesis, that is, the notion of no causal effects existing between electricity consumption and economic growth in the long-run. However, we find that exports directly cause electricity consumption whereas economic growth, domestic investment and employment levels causally flow to exports.

Oil along with currencies and gold are the main indicators of the most important processes which take place in the world economy, quotations’ volatility being always followed by economic and social events. Quiet periods of oil prices, when quotations have a constant evolution or only suffer minor fluctuations, are very rare. Most of the time, very sharp price increases or decreases are happening over night or week. This is mostly due to the fact that the oil market is extremely speculative, being influenced by political, military, social, or meteorological events. Since the major oil price shocks of the 70s, the impact of oil price changes on the economic reality of a country or region has been widely studied by academic researchers. Moreover, the stock market plays an important role in the economic welfare and development of a country. Therefore, a vast number of studies have investigated the relationship between oil prices and stock market returns, being discovered significant effects of oil price shocks on the macroeconomic activity for both developed and emerging countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the volatility of oil prices on stock exchanges taking into consideration the recent events that have affected the oil markets around the globe. Furthermore, based on the findings of this research, some possible scenarios will be developed, taking into account various events that might take place and their potential outcome for oil prices’ future.

This paper examines the mean, volatility spillovers and response asymmetries between short-term and long-term interest rates, exchange rates and portfolios of money center, large and medium-sized banks in the U.S. I use the multivariate version of Nelson’s (1991) Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditionally Heteroscedastic (EGARCH) model. Results indicate mean and volatility spillovers from short-term interest rates and exchange rates and long-term interest rates and exchange rates to three bank portfolios. Results also show response asymmetries from short-term interest rates and exchange rates and long-term interest rates and exchange rates to all the three bank portfolios. These findings have important implications for bankers in terms of devising different hedging strategies against interest rates and exchange rate risks.

This study investigates the debt overhang hypothesis for Pakistan in the period 1960-2007. The study examines empirically the dynamic behaviour of GDP, debt services, the employed labour force and investment using the time series concepts of unit roots, cointegration, error correlation and causality. Our findings suggest that debt-servicing has a negative impact on the productivity of both labour and capital, and that in turn has adversely affected economic growth. By severely constraining the ability of the country to service debt, this lends support to the debt-overhang hypothesis in Pakistan. The long run relation between debt services and economic growth implies that future increases in output will drain away in form of high debt service payments to lender country as external debt acts like a tax on output. More specifically, foreign creditors will benefit more from the rise in productivity than will domestic producers and labour. This suggests that domestic labour and capital are the ultimate losers from this heavy debt burden.

This paper attempts to discern the macroeconomic policy options open to China after its stock market crash in August 2015. While several facts and figures on different facets of the Chinese economy keep pouring in – high levels household savings, rising indebtedness of private sector, slowing GDP growth rates, contracting current account surplus, and many more – it is difficult to get a holistic picture of the Chinese macroeconomy and the policy options that it has in wake of the significant changes taking place. The Sectoral Financial Balances (SFB) model, which has its basis in a simple accounting identity, provides a simple, consistent and logical framework that can help us work through the fog and put these facts and figures in perspective. At the same it allows us to trace the movement of the economy through time and draw insights into the possible trajectory of the economy given trends in various macroeconomic parameters. From our analysis, can we say that China is heading towards a major crisis? And what could be the possible policy response of the Chinese government in averting such a crisis? These are important questions that need urgent answers.

This study tests the empirical relation between the education qualifications and employment status, for the Indian workers. It also examines the role of education in securing employment in specific industries. There is evidence that the education level has a significant and positive association with the employment status of a worker. More significantly, the probability of being engaged in regular (casual) employment improves (declines) with each incremental educational qualification. The less educated workers are more likely to be involved in low-paying and labour intensive industries, such as agriculture and mining. However, the workers belonging to the marginalized social groups (SC, ST and OBC), the female workers, and the rural workers, are at a considerable disadvantage in the Indian labour market.

The ground aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between individual factors of corporate entrepreneurship and business performance. This investigation was expected to bring in un-revealed results as the past literature does not provide any sufficient evidence for the proposed model. The study used survey method to collect data from the big five banks in Pakistan. For this reason a total of 256 responses were collected from the bank branch managers on the topic, using stratified random sampling technique. Through using PLS structural Equation Modeling, the study employed the use of SmartPLS 3.0 for executing tests pertaining to reliability and validity, this was ensured by evaluating measurement model. Next, the study assessed structure model, under which the research has revealed that out of the 5 mentioned dimensions of corporate entrepreneurship only three have resulted in a significant relationship with business performance; this was followed by assessment of r-squared values and predictive relevance of the model keeping in view the recommendations from the popular literature. Implications for further research and management professionals are mentioned in detail.