International Journal of Commerce and Finance

1-14

Authors: Mengistu Tegegn, Leta Sera, Tesfaye Melaku Merra

Profitability is one of the most important objectives of financial management because one goal of financial management is to maximize the owner` s wealth. This paper examined the effects of firm specific factors (age of company, size of company, leverage ratio, premium growth rate liquidity ratio and tangibility of assets) on profitability proxied by ROA. Profitability is dependent variable while age of company, size of company, premium growth rate,leverage liquidity ratio and tangibility of assets) are independent variables. The sample in this study includes nine of the listed insurance companies for twelve years (2005-2016). Secondary data obtained from the financial statements (Balance sheet and Profit/Loss account) of insurance companies, financial publications of NBE are analyzed.Panel data analyzed using Random Effect Model (FEM) after testing the appropriateness of the model with Fixed Effect and Pooled regression model. From the regression results; size,premium growth rate and liquidity and age are identified as most important determinant factors of profitability hence premium growth rate and size, are positively related. In contrast liquidity and age negatively but significantly related with profitability. Lastly, leverage and tangibility of asset are not significantly related with profitability.

31-40

Authors: Tarila Boloupremo

The paper extends the investigation on the relationship between liquidity and stock returns by examining the influence of market liquidity on stock returns in the Nigerian Stock exchange. Vector auto-regression model was employed in examining the impact of liquidity measures such as the volume of trading and turnover on stock returns for the period 1985-2015. Empirical results suggest that the higher the market liquidity (volume of trading and turnover), the higher the stock index returns. Thus, establishing a positive relationship between liquidity and stock returns of firms listed on the Nigerian stock market during the period examined after controlling for market size. This result is not in line with the negative relationship between liquidity and market return as obtained by studies on developed markets.

50-60

Authors: Agnes Kabithe Chege, Kellen Kiambati, Levi Mbugua, Dominic Mwenja

Healthcare provision stipulated by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a relatively new concept in many developing countries Sub-Saharan Africa part of Asia. Therefore, this study examined the influence of human capital development on the service delivery of devolved County Health Facilities. The path coefficients were positive and significant at 0.05 level of significance. The path coefficient beta value was β = 0.50. These findings indicate that for every 1-unit increase in human capital development, service delivery is predicted to increase by 0.5 in public county health facilities in Kenya. The study concluded that measures contributed to the positive relationship between human capital development and service delivery in these facilities. As the hospitals lacked funding of further training for their staff and also failed to pay competitive salaries and allowances, the study recommends that for improved service delivery within these facilities, promotions should be on performance, as well remuneration. Most employees will work hard when they know that they get rewards for it. The hospitals should also promote staff and offer scholarships for training to the high performing staff.

70-80

Authors: Nurudeen Afolabi Sofoluwe, Bamidele Ilo

This study analysed financial structure of workers cooperatives using University based cooperatives as a case study. The paper employed secondary data from annual reports and accounts of the cooperatives between 2012 and 2018 accounting years and uses descriptive statistics to analysis the data. The financing structure of the cooperatives consists of share capital, reserves and savings. The assets structure of the cooperative consist of outstanding loans to member-patrons, cash and stock of trading items. Further analysis shows that the trend of share capital as a component of financing structure was increasing more consistently over the period.

102-112

Authors: Tadele Mengesha, Mekuanint Abera Timbula, Yonas Mekonnen, Matewose Kebede

Financial literacy become a topical issue in academics and policy circles, both in developed and developing countries, for the fact that low level of financial literacy prevailing across the world. The objective of the study calls for a quantitative research design and particularly a cross sectional survey research approach. The research focused on the urban area of Jimma Zone because of the fact that required financial literacy and financial behavior of rural and urban household operating at various level of financial decision making scenario is better to be studied separately since the main purpose is to provide input for designing a targeted financial literacy education. Generally, female encountered different problem in the society and did not aware about the financial services and products delivered by the financial institution. Therefore, female level of financial literacy is low compared to their male counter.The study indicated that literacy in general and household literacy in particular has a very close relationship to acquire financial literacy and financial knowledge. In general, as the academic level of household increase, their saving behavior showed improvement.Government has to take the major role in installing the saving culture through financial literacy and financial inclusion. In addition the government stabilization of inflation, implementing forced saving, modernization and accessible the saving institution, stabilization of the income level of household and reviewing the saving interest rate is vital to see adult financially literate and economically able in the near future.

127-142

Authors: Imroz Mahmud

The study aims to apply Sharpe’s single-index model of portfolio construction and evaluate the model’s performance on the securities traded on Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE). For this purpose, the last seven years' daily closing price data of 122 sample securities as well as the daily closing index value of the benchmark market index, CASPI, has been utilized. Sharpe’s model smoothens the intricate process of portfolio construction by suggesting a unique number, called the cutoff rate, to measure the desirability of each security’s inclusion in the final portfolio. In this study, 38 securities qualified to be a part of the final portfolio, hence, the optimal investment weight for each of them is calculated. An industry-wise analysis reveals that four industries account for about 68 percent of the final portfolio weight. The constructed portfolio yields a daily mean return of 0.1095 percent, which is equivalent to about 49 percent in effective annual terms. The overall portfolio risk, indicated by standard deviation, is found to be only 0.6425 percent. The portfolio beta of 0.3496 also indicates that there is significant nonexistence of systematic risk. An evaluation of the portfolio parameters explicitly reveals that it has outperformed every sample security as well as the market index, in offering the best risk-return combinations, by a large margin. Therefore, the study found Sharpe’s model of portfolio construction highly effective in optimizing risk and return in the context of CSE.

155-165

Authors: Soeharjoto Soekapdjo, Debbie Aryani Tribudhi, Dini Hariyanti, Lucky Nugroho

Economic growth is an indicator of the success of the development. Increasing economic growth in Central Java will be realized if the government can implement the right policies. Research on factors that influence economic growth can be used as a reference in making government policies in the economic field. The results of the study using multiple regression in 2008.Q1-2016.Q4 are Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Domestic Investment (DI), Consumer Price Index (CPI), Health Index (HI), Education Index (EI), and the Gross Regional Domestic Product previous year (GRDP (-1)) was able to explain economic growth in Central Java by 99.9 percent. FDI and GRDP (-1) have a positive and significant effect on economic growth. HI, negative and significant effect on economic growth. DI, CPI, and EI are not significant for economic growth.

181-193

Authors: Tuğba Karabulut, Hümeyra Nur Hatipoğlu

This paper aims to investigate effects of green product innovation and green process innovation on the performances of companies. It presents in-depth interviews with Alarko Carrier A.Ş. and Cenal Elektrik Üretim A.Ş. which are companies of Alarko Holding in Turkey. Alarko Carrier A.Ş. produces, sells, exports, imports, makes marketing activities and after sales services of cooling, heating and water pressurization systems. Cenal Elektrik Üretim A.Ş. is an electric plant which produces electricity from coal by conducting environmentally friendly innovation activities in their business processes. The in-depth interviews were conducted with middle level managers from these companies to find out their green product innovation and green process innovation practices and their effects on their company performances. It is found out that these companies have corporate cultures supporting their green product innovation and green process innovation practices which affect their financial performance and stakeholder performance. Additional in-depth interviews can be conducted with companies from other sectors for further studies.

204-226

Authors: Özgür Çengel, Ilgın Çakıroğlu

There are many shopping malls operating in recent years. In order to achieve success in a competitive environment, these shopping malls should attract consumers and show their mall personality to differentiate from competition. This can be possible by revealing the attractive features of the mall from the consumer perspective and understanding the consumer behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between mall attractiveness, mall personality and mall patronage intention, as well as revealing the mall attractiveness and mall personality factors. In this context, data was collected with face-to-face survey method, from 414 people that visited the Trabzon Forum Mall. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the survey responses from 414 shopping mall patrons. The findings indicate that shopping mall attractiveness has significant positive impact on mall patronage intention and mall personality has a full mediating effect between shopping mall attractiveness and mall patronage intention.