Journal of Quantitative Methods

Drivers of Green Supply Chain Management Practices and their Impact on Firm Performance: A Developing Country Perspective

2019-04-24T14:36:56+02:00

The purpose of this paper is to identify the drivers of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices among the manufacturing firms of a developing country, and to examine the impact of GSCM practices on firms’ economic and environmental performance. A structural equation model is developed to study the hypothesized relationships between three drivers and GSCM practices. Furthermore, the relationship between GSCM practices and firm’s economic and environmental performance is also investigated. A sample of manufacturing firms is taken from the companies listed in the local stock exchange. Cross-sectional data of 80 responses from these manufacturing firms is collected. The developed model is tested through Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. Results show that customer’s pressure and firm’s internal drive (enviropreneurship) positively impacts the adoption of GSCM practices whereas the relationship between governmental legislation GSCM practices adoption is not significant. GSCM practices positively impact the supply chain buying firm’s economic and environmental performance.

An Empirical Investigation on the Relationship between Onshore and Offshore Indian Rupee Market

2019-03-13T11:06:21+01:00

Exchange rate movements have important ramifications for the economy’s business cycle, trade and capital flows. For India, the exchange rates fluctuations have consequences for being competitive in terms of international trade and capital flows, tourist destination and for maintaining a healthy international reserve. This paper attempts to explore the relationship between rupee-dollar exchange rate in spot market, domestic forward market and off-shore forward i.e. non-delivery forward market (Singapore) to understand the information flow in between these markets. Suitable econometric techniques including causality analysis was used for the study for the period 2002 to 2014 after considering structural breaks and sub period analysis was also done. It was found that the relationship between all three markets is quite dynamic with evidences of causality in one sub period and reverse direction or no causality in other sub periods, conditional upon intervention done by RBI to curb the volatility and on various macroeconomic shocks such global financial crisis.

Structural Equation Modelling of Relationship between Teachers’ Capacity Building and Students’ Academic Performance in Secondary Schools in Kwara State, Nigeria

2019-03-13T10:28:31+01:00

Unarguably, students’ academic success rests on the learning experiences derived from their teachers via teaching and learning processes in the classroom. Teachers are an important tool for implementing the school programs to achieve school success. The human capital development is regarded as a way of building the capacity of teachers in the school system, thereby strengthening their knowledge and skills. In the light of this, this study examined the impact of teachers’ capacity building on academic performance. Methodologically, this study adopts a correlation survey method to establish the links between constructs of the study. Stratified and quota sampling techniques were used to select 183 respondents for the study. Questionnaire method is used for the study. Students’ results in five subjects (Mathematics, English, Biology, and Economics) were collected to measure students’ academic performance. The data collected were analyzed using Smart PLS software to model the nexus among the constructs. Findings revealed that capacity building are provided moderately as perceived by the teachers. Also, results established that teachers who went through capacity building programs are equipped with modern techniques of teaching, thereby positively influence students’ academic achievement. In conclusion, this study concluded that training and re-training of teachers is an essential factor for determining students’ success. It was recommended that capacity building should be constantly provided for teachers with a view to boost their morale and makes them efficient and effective. Improved budgetary allocations should be made by government for teachers to attend various capacity building programs. Private and individuals should be involved in providing capacity building for teachers. Lastly, no teacher should be left out in capacity building programs as teachers remain the bedrock to students’ success.

Energy Consumption and Economic Growth: Evidence from Developed and Emerging Markets

2019-04-24T14:38:53+02:00

This research analyzed the effect of energy consumption on economic growth using neo-classical one-sector aggregate production function with panel data from Emerging Markets and Developed countries over the period 2000–2013. This study has applied dynamic panel method in the form of two-step panel Generalized Method of Moments (both difference and system) GMM. The findings of this research exposed that both gross fixed capital formation and energy consumption have significant and positive effect on economic growth in both Developed and Emerging Market countries. In addition, labour force has been found to influence positively on economic growth in the group of Developed Market countries. However, labour force established the significant as well as negative effect on economic growth in the Frontier Market countries. Since the findings revealed that all the sampled countries are energy dependent, therefore, their policy makers should continue to promote the development of energy infrastructure with the aim to gain higher economic growth by making effective energy policies. This can be achieved through the allocation of more resources to the development of new sources of energy and ensure sustainability of energy use.

Cost Leadership, Market Orientation and Business Performance:An Empirical Investigation

2019-04-24T14:31:31+02:00

The study aimed at examining the relationship between cost leadership strategy, market orientation and business performance of manufacturing, Small and Medium Enterprise performance (SMEs). A quantitative survey method was employed, using a cross-sectional research design. The data were collected through self-administered questionnaires from a sample of 287 respondents. The study indicated that SMEs are essential to the economic growth of Nigeria; because they serve as an indispensable source of employment generation. SMEs contribute immensely towards the formation of industries, enhanced capital accumulation, served as an intermediary for goods, and assist in the uplifting the living standard through the provision of variety of products and services. The research model used in this survey was designed in line with the theoretical evidence which in turn lead to the correlation between the research variables. The study employed the Multiple regression method; the findings indicated that cost leadership strategy and market orientation has a significant positive relationship with the performance of SMEs. The discussion provided some limitations and offer suggestions for future research directions.

Detecting Stationarity of GDP:A Test of Unit Root Tests

2019-04-24T14:27:06+02:00

Despite extensive research of research on unit roots, consensus on several important issues and implications has not emerged to date (Libanio, 2005). There are many series which were being investigated for existence of unit root and for these series, there is conflict between the researcher regarding the existence of unit root. For a given data series it is generally not possible to decide which of unit root tests would be the best suited. The Monte Carlo experiments prove that the performance of unit root tests depends on the type of data generating process (DGP), but for the real data we do not know the true DGP. Hence, we cannot decide which of the tests would perform best for a series. The bootstrap approach of Rudebusch (1993) offers an alternative to measure the performance of unit root test for any real time series with unknown DGP. Rudebusch (1993)’s approach is extended to measure and compare the performance of unit root tests for annual real GDP series of various countries. Our results show that unit root tests have very low ability to discriminate between best fitting trend stationary and difference stationary models for GDP series of most of the countries and that Phillips Perron test is superior to its rivals including Dickey-Fuller, DF-GLS and Ng-Perron tests. The results also support existence of unit root in real GDP series.

Determinants of Net Interest Margins in Emerging Markets:A Generalized Method of Moments Approach

2019-04-24T14:26:38+02:00

The study focuses on checking the effect of Leverage Risk, Credit Risk, Implicit Interest Payment, Non-Interest Bearing Reserve and Management Efficiency on Net Interest Margin of the banks of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. This study applies Generalized Method of Moment GMM and panel regression model to explore the impact of risk factors on net interest margin which banks face in providing immediacy. A descriptive analysis of data was performed to get sample characteristics. A set of 33, 37 and 18 banks from Pakistan India and Bangladesh respectively was selected as sample. The data were collected from annual reports of selected banks. The results show that net interest margin has negative and significant effect on the credit risk. Implicit interest payment has positive and significant impact on net interest margin. Leverage risk has significant and negative effect on the net interest margin. Management efficiency has positive and significant effect on the net interest margin. Non-interest bearing reserve also positively and significantly affects the net interest margin. These results recommend the financing policy that banks should consider specific ratios which may increase the net interest margin and also reduce the credit risk.

Corruption, Political Instability and Sustainable Development:The Interlinkages

2019-04-24T14:25:24+02:00

The study empirically probed the interdependence among corruption, political instability and sustainable development for a panel of 28 developing economies and disaggregated sample of lower-middle and upper-middle income economies for the time period 2000-2014. The three stage least square (3SLS) estimation revealed that corruption negatively affects sustainable development and political instability. The political instability impedes sustainable development and corruption. The sustainable development reduces political instability and corruption. It explains that corruption enhances political stability and political stability increases corruption. The disaggregated estimates of developing economies are almost same as aggregate estimates of developing economies, however political instability has statistically insignificant effect on sustainable development in upper-middle-income economies. To go forward for sustainable development, the elimination of corruption is imperative.

Quality of Life and Globalization:Econometric Evidence from Asian Economies

2019-04-24T14:24:22+02:00

The impact of global integration on economic growth is largely discussed in the literature. However, little attention has been paid to analyze the association of globalization with quality of life. In particular, the role of globalization in influencing the quality of life in Asian economies has not been yet analyzed. This study investigates the effect of globalization on quality of life of Asian economies using a comprehensive measure of globalization including its disaggregated dimensions that are economic, social and political forms of globalization. The results show that globalization helps to enhance quality of life of Asian economies. All dimensions of globalization, however, are not causing significant effect on quality of life. Political globalization does not increase quality of life while other forms of globalization increase quality of life.

Creating Optimal Portfolio and the Efficient Frontier Using Microsoft Excel®

2019-04-24T14:28:34+02:00

Portfolio managers and investors strive to achieve the best possible trade-off between risk and return, and one of the tools they use is constructing mean-variance efficient portfolios. Finance students learn about optimal portfolios and efficient frontiers, though it is difficult to replicate them unless they have access to sophisticated software. This paper develops a teaching module that uses Microsoft Excel® to create mean-variance portfolios and traces out the efficient frontier using real-world data. In the process, the students learn to determine optimal investment allocations in a portfolio, select the optimum investment portfolio given investor’s objectives and preferences and learn about factors that influence different asset allocations. For multiple assets (N>3), the paper uses Matrix algebra in Excel®. The paper enables students and investors to learn how to construct real-world mean-variance efficient portfolios using Excel®.