Asian Business Review

43-49

Authors: Farhana Firoz, Muntasir Alam

The study has focused on practicality of self-efficacy theory, and how it helps to build confidence among the disables in building their career choice as entrepreneurs. For this we chose a case study approach on Disable’s home, which is a non- profit organization to provide support for disables. The study was conducted in two phases. First phase, from disable people’s perspective who were trainees in the Disable’s home. And second, from the Disable’s home’s perspective. Findings of the first phase suggest, in order to sustain self-efficacy with regard to career choice as entrepreneurs, not only institutional support is enough but other additional supports like social, financial, family supports are important. In the second phase, it was observed that institution needs to be resourceful in order to provide proper support to the disables and embed self-efficacy among them. Keywords: disable people, self-efficacy JEL Classification Code: M31

7-12

Authors: Mohammed Nafeez Al Amin

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) could the biggest trade deal in the history. The EU and the USA are in the process of, or contemplating, to sign Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) under TTIP and TPP. As, the European Union (EU) and the USA are the biggest trading partner of all the South Asian countries, such preferential tariff arrangements could lead to significant erosion of preferences enjoyed currently by the South Asian Developing Countries such as, Bangladesh and Nepal. In this backdrop, the main objective of the present study is to investigate the potential economic impacts of tariff eliminations under TPP and TTIP on various macro and trade variables of Bangladesh and Nepal. In this context, a standard computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis has been adopted by using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model and database to explore the aggregate impact as well as sectoral implications. The analysis evinces that complete integration in terms of tariff elimination under these two mega deals, Bangladesh and Nepal could face tremendous negative impact on their economy. The analysis also suggests that Bangladesh and Nepal may consider joining to the TPP to minimize the negative economic impact due to the mentioned deals.

20-27

Authors: Donatha E. Mwase

In the recent days Sub-Saharan African counties look at floriculture as a viable alternative to boost their foreign earnings through export of cut flowers. However, while the sector is second largest contributor to foreign earnings for Kenya, Tanzania is yet to fully exploit the potential for both production and export of cut flowers. This paper was set with an aim to make comparative assessment of performance of floriculture industries in Kenya and Tanzania. The study relied mainly on secondary data obtained from International Trade Centre (ITC) database, published previous survey reports and several national policies and strategies. The findings revealed that Kenya was performing better than Tanzania in terms of quantity of cut flowers exported to different destinations in the World and in-terms of value of earnings from export of those flowers. It was observed that while the floriculture sector for both countries had been growing in the past nine years, Kenya’s performance was far beyond Tanzania’s. Among the major hurdles to the growth of Tanzania’s floriculture industry included lack of efficient air transportation, absence of a National Horticulture Policy in place, unorganized farming systems without clusters and foreigners domination of the sector. The paper recommended for a number of measures to improve performance of floriculture industry in Tanzania including need to: (a) formulate national horticulture policy to guide expansion of the sector (b)engage in strategic negotiations with big cargo Airline Companies so that they can frequently land at Kilimanjaro International Airport for easy transportation of cut flowers to the different destinations in the world and (c) launch coordinated efforts by experts from the Tanzania’s ministries of agriculture, trade, transportation and finance to draw lessons from Kenya on how to grow floriculture in the country.

33-37

Authors: Fahim Shaker

This paper tries to address various dimensions of the firm relationship that are competing in the same industry. Competitive strategies play important role for a firm's survival and to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, firms can also decide to cooperate with each other through mobilization of resources to ensure mutual benefit and thus promote healthy competition. A strategic dilemma may occur for competing firms to cooperate with other who traditionally believe in competition, profit orientation, and self-interest. This paper tries to address firm level responses and interactions amongst each other in various consequences by relying on exploratory method of research. Firms competing in the same industry may opt for four different strategic options named as , competition, cooperation, coexistence and coopetition. Through the literature review, different forms of firm level relationships are explained under these four strategic options. This paper argues that cooperation is beneficial and may complement healthy competition amongst competing firms.

7-13

Authors: Lysias Tapiwanashe Charumbira

The purpose of this study was to identify the determinants of strategic success or failure in Zimbabwean Profit and Non-Profit Organizations. The convergent parallel mixed methods research design was adopted as the guiding model for the data collection, analysis and interpretation process in this study. This explains why data was collected through a concurrent parallel methodological triangulation of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Quantitative data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 while the analysis of qualitative data was performed using the NVivo 10 data analysis software. The study established that there is a high rate of strategy implementation failure in Zimbabwean Profit and Non-profit Organizations. The failure to build the distinctive competences and resource capabilities needed for successful strategy implementation was identified as the main cause of strategic failure in these Organizations.

22-26

Authors: Fahim Shaker

Self-monitoring as a personality attribute is given particular attention by researchers in order to understand employee performance and productivity in the organizational context. Numerous studies focused on the impact of self-monitoring from individual employee perspective with limited focus on the impact of the organization’s performance. However, to what extent employees with high versus low self- monitors contribute to the organization’s performance needs to be theoretically augmented. Therefore, relying on exploratory method of research, the paper tries to address the impact of high and low self-monitors on organization’s performance. In this perspective, how self-monitoring helps employees to structure a social network within organizational setting and eventually contribute to it’s success is discussed in this paper. The paper addresses the literature review of self-monitoring principles with special interest in its contribution towards organizational performance through previous research compilation within the field of sociology and organization psychology.

31-34

Authors: Mohammad Hassan Shakil, Mashiyat Tasnia, Ziaul Haque Munim, Md. Humayun Kabir Mehedi

Mushroom is the most popular delicious, nutritious and medicinal vegetable in the world. Now it is considered as the most promising concept for crop diversification. It has been regarded as an effective means for poverty alleviation in less developed countries due to its potential for a quick, high return of profit on a small investment. Bangladesh is one of the most suitable countries in the world for Mushroom cultivation due to its favorable climate, cheap raw materials and labor cost and high market price. It is such an income generating concept that can alleviate poverty and eradicate malnutrition. It can also create employment opportunities for landless beggar, educated and uneducated youth, person with disabilities and adolescent men and women respectively. The primary objective of the study is to alleviate poverty, unemployment and malnutrition through cultivating and selling mushroom. The study is analytical and theoretical in nature and based on the secondary data. However, personal interview has been conducted to the mushroom farmers to depict the cost and profitability of Mushroom cultivation. The study finds that Mushroom cultivation can open a new opportunity for landless and unemployed people as it does not require any cultivable land and can be grown in a room by racking vertically. One can earn nearly TK 4-5 thousands a month by investing only TK 10-15 thousands. So, it is possible to make a handsome profit by investing a small amount of capital and labor in Mushroom cultivation.

41-49

Authors: Md. Qamruzzaman, Jannatul Ferdaous

The concept of “knowledge economy” is based on the view knowledge and information are at the center of economic growth and development. In today´s ever changing world knowledge has become a key element for sustainable economic development. This study aims to identify key challenges for developing knowledge based economy in Bangladesh. Study results revealed that key challenges faced by Bangladesh are reluctant of economic sectors to become accustomed IT based operation rather than traditional practice and lack of skilled manpower. To overcome those challenges concerted efforts are imperative by implementing a comprehensive strategy based on research and sound economic principles, help use of ICT in businesses and Government sector and Investment in human capital.

7-10

Authors: Ya Wen, Zhifei Liu, Cheng Huang

This paper divides working capital into working capital of operating activities and working capital of financing activities. Working capital of operating activities can be further divided into working capital of procurement channels, working capital of productive channels and working capital of marketing channels by channel. Then we analyze the data in the balance sheet and income statement from Shenzhen biological, pharmaceutical listed companies in 2012 by the statistical description. Finally, we study the status of its working capital management.

20-24

Authors: Afjal Hossain, Jafirullah Khan, Mohammad Asaduzzaman Miah

This study reveals the way of understanding the usages of pesticides and the development of the distribution process of pesticides in vegetable production in southern part of Bangladesh. In this regard, a descriptive study has been, at first, conducted to understand the insights about the pesticide use. A sample of 152 farmers has been interviewed from different regions of Patuakhali and Barisal districts of Bangladesh. To test the data analysis, ANOVA, KMO statistic, and also factor analysis have been conducted and the result revealed that convenient location and collection process of the pesticides are the most important factors for the farmers to produce vegetable.

29-37

Authors: S.M. Rezaul Ahsan

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate culture and attitudes toward organizational change from the perspectives of a large pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire was developed on the basis of the competing values framework of culture typology of Cameron and Quinn (2006) and a study of Justina Simon (June 2012), which was distributed to the 55 staff members of the company. The result shows that there is a significant relationship between corporate culture and organizational change. The study reveals that the organization has adopted all four types of organizational culture and the dominant existing organizational culture is the hierarchy culture. The study also shows that the resistance to change is a function of organizational culture. The implications of the study are also discussed.

7-11

Authors: Mohammad Ruhul Amin; Md. Abdullahel Kafi; & Md. Mahabbat Hossain

This paper investigates whether percentage of ownership controlled by the directors of companies has any association with types of dividend declared by them. Based on the data for the years 2006 to 2009 from the Dhaka Stock Exchange, this paper found that most of the companies provided stock dividends rather than cash dividends. Using Yate’s Continuity Correction Chi-square Test, this study has found existence of a significant relationship between the percentage control of ownership and types of dividend declared. Furthermore, the study indicates that the companies having ≥50% share controlled by the directors are 3 times more likely to offer stock dividends than companies having <50% control of the shares by the directors. Whereas, the companies having ≥50% control of ownership by the directors are less likely to offer cash dividends compared with <50% control of the shares by the directors.

19-23

Authors: Dr. A. Sankaran & Dr. P.Rajkumar

Industrial development plays a momentous role in all walks of development. The empirical investigations of world famous works pursued by Simon Kuznets(1966) Chennery(1980), Hoffman(1958), Murray & Bryce(1960) and Kaldor(1978) found that there is a positive and significant association between industrial development and overall development of a nation. In this paper an attempt is made to assess the various dimensions of industrial development of Tamil Nadu, India. To examine the performance of the industrial economy of Tamil Nadu, statistics have been collected from Annual Survey of Industries, published by Central Statistical Organization, Government of India. The variables administered in this work to evaluate the performance of agro based and non agro based manufacturing industries of Tamil Nadu include number of factories, productive capital, employment, value of output and value added. This study covers the period of three decades form 1980-81 to 2010-11, so as to understand the effects of the new economic policy. Further, the entire study period has been classified into two folds as pre reform period (1980-81 to 1990-91) and post reform period as (1991-92 to 2010-11). Collected statistics are deflated using wholesale price index to overcome the price fluctuation. The result obtained using annual compound growth rate reveals that almost all the variables express the same level of growth in both agro and non-agro related industries. But, owing to extraordinary performance of chemical based industries the value added of non- agro related industries reveal a dramatic growth. Mention should be made that the growth of employment has shown a negative sign during the reform period. Hence, it is suggested that the policy makers should frame the effective and suitable policy considering the employment generation. Such kind of strategies will give a new life not only to India but also all the developing countries. Key words: Manufactures, Manufacturing, India JEL Classification Code: O47; L69

37-40

Authors: Evana Nusrat Dooty & Mohammed Syedul Islam

The article undertakes an empirical study on investment of Islamic Bank. The aim of the study is to examine and evaluate the performance of investment of Islamic Bank for the time period 2005-2009 in comparison with a conventional Bank. Several financial ratios are applied for this purpose. For the empirical investigation data has been collected from Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and Mutual Trust Bank Limited. The study found that Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) is relatively less profitable and less risky (more solvent) during 2005-2009 compared to a conventional bank (Mutual Trust Bank Limited), however, it is improving considerably over time indicating convergence with the performance of the conventional banks. Key Words: Islamic bank, conventional bank, profitability, deployment, liquidity, risk JEL Classification Code: G24; P45