International Journal of Business and General Management

11-24

Authors: GURDEEP KAUR GHUMAAN & PAWAN KUMAR DHIMAN

The PDS (Public distribution System) network in India is executed by the accomplishment of certain steps which include procurement, storage, movement, distribution and sale of food grains. It works with the prime intent to procure food grains from the farmers at remunerative price, thereafter distributing them to the consumers at affordable price through a network of FPS (Fair Price Shops) or ration shops. The FPSs play an important role in the retail distribution of essential commodities under PDS and the success of distribution system to a greater extent depends on the working of FPSs. This paper deals with the perceptions and problems faced by Fair Price Shops dealers with the functioning of FPSs in three districts of Punjab. The present study was undertaken in Mohali, Sangrur and Mansa districts of Punjab. For collecting data, the dealers of 90 FPSs (26 rural areas dealers and 64 urban areas dealers) were selected from these three districts by using random sampling.

31-40

Authors: ASAM MOHAMED AL-JEBORY

Fiscal policy is very effective tool at the disposal of the economic planner and decision maker to be utilized to affect the level of economic activity. This tool becomes even more important in the developing countries. The large sizes of the government and its great influence in the economic activity make this tool very effective to control the public spending, and then the level of economic growth. The Economic literature on theoretical and empirical aspects assume that government recurrent expenditure affects the rate of economic growth adversely. While Capital government expenditure positively contributes to the economic growth. We applied then do genous theory of growth to analyze the effect of public spending variables on economic development. We test our annual data from 1980-2015 of non-stationary status. We found that at a level all our variables are not stationary, but would be stationary if we take the first difference. Johnson Co-integration test confirmed the status of long run relations among the model variables. VECM method applied to estimate the model. The model estimation results show that government capital spending has a considerable influence on the growth rate in the long and short run and highly significant. While Government recurrent expenditure has a negative effect, and its coefficient was highly significant. Population elasticity was positive which reflect the development of human capital. Dummy variable used to capture the effect of stability was positive and significant. We concluded that reducing government capital expenditure as the current government doing now, in order to reduce the budget deficit and revenue shortages resulted from low oil prices, will hinder the economic development and will affect the rate of growth negatively.

13-24

Authors: R. DHIVYA, S. D. SIVAKUMAR & S. SELAVANAYAKI

Continuance in online shopping is critical. Any online retailer should understand the factors that influence the consumers to return back for more. The Expectation-Confirmation Theory model (ECT model) with its four constructs (Expectation, Perceived performance, Confirmation/ disconfirmation and Satisfaction) best suited this research. The construct ‘usage continuance’ was added to the existing model and the results concluded that the marketing insights from the original ECT model does not cease at satisfaction but moves forward toward usage continuance.

35-50

Authors: SANJEEV KUMAR SINGHAL, PRABHAKAR JHA & VIJAY AGRAWAL

The ideas, rhetoric and ideologies about business practices being followed for undertaking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have led tothe transformation of internal behaviour of the corporate sector and changed relationships of the corporate sector with external stakeholders including the state, the third sector and the social sector locally as well as globally. The pattern and exercise of state authority is changing from government (rowing) to governance (steering) due to the increasingly complex, plural and fragmental nature of public policy implementation and service delivery in the twenty first century. The concept of Third-Party Government as prevalent in developed nations like United States involves extensive collaboration of the national (federal) government with institutions like states, cities, counties, universities, hospitals, banks, corporations and others for the actual delivery of public services. In theabove collaboration the government shares a substantial degree of its discretion over the spending of public funds and the exercise of public authority with third-party implementers who include business and third sector organizations. This form of collaboration is yet to be acknowledged in developing countries like India incorporating plethora of social services to be delivered by the Government in order to cater the essential public services like education, health and other social services. The paper attempts to provide an insight into above mentioned form of Governance of Government-Third Sector Partnerships for carrying out Corporate Social Responsibility. Moreover the CSR approach have changed from traditional to partnership mode, the study also makes an attempt to figureout a conceptual framework of governance of partnerships between corporate and third sector for CSR using exploratory method based on established facts.

59-64

Authors: UDAYAKUMARI VIDHYASAGARA MENON & MUHAMMED REFEQUE

Over the years, there has been a growing significance for big data analytics. With the advancements in communication systems, storage and real time computing, many consider that “big data” have the capacity to change many crucial dimensions of the economy. The study focuses on how big data can influence economic planning and implementation with special reference to Oman. It discusses how public and private data sets can improve the way the government quantifies, tracks, and influences economic activities in a country. It also discusses how the time lags in combining, analyzing and utilizing the collected data can be reduced for improving better economic planning. The study has important implications for government officials, researchers and policy makers for providing real-time awareness and feedback for the economy and for developing required early warning systems.

9-18

Authors: R. M. D. A. P. RAJAPAKSE & A. A. J. FERNANDO

This research is attempted to identify relative importance of underlying motives of managers’ in Sri Lankan business organizations regarding the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Research is considered the managers of companies listed in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). Hence the present study is selected only four sectors in CSE namely manufacturing, banking finance and insurance, plantation and beverage food and tobacco. Study was based on the primary data. Primary data was collected through questionnaire and it was constructed to reflect key motives of CSR suggested in the literature and to examine whether it has been changed according to the business and personal profile of the manager. Descriptive analysis, independent sample t-test and One-way ANOVA occupied for the analysis. According to the results in descriptive analysis CSR is a more intrinsically driven concept in Sri Lanka. But managers are not rejecting the extrinsic motive as well. Further managers are more focus on the sustainability perspective of the society when engage in the CSR activities. That is the major concern about the CSR in the global arena in today’s context. Analysis of the data reveals that managers perceived that long term sustainability must be the focus of CSR activities of the company and it should be should link with the national development policies of the country. This implies that readiness of corporate world for the engaged in national development activities. Therefore this study pave the path for government and all the other responsible authorizes to stimulate the CSR in Sri Lanka. Policy makers should initiate social and environmental projects that could easily be implemented by the private sector to assist in sustainable development of the country.

25-32

Authors: K. KALIDAS & K. MAHENDRAN

Technological progress and entrepreneurship will change the economic conditions of the country. There is a huge gap between the research findings and commercialization of idea. The gap between the business idea and the real time market can be bridged by the Business Incubator. BI are newer and popular organizational forms that are created, often with the help of economic development agencies, to support and accel¬erate the development. The paucity of research on business incubation forms the interdisciplin¬ary or multidisciplinary perspectives that consider the different theo¬ries of management, organization, strategy, economics and business. The complex nature of BI means they are studied from broader analytical frameworks. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the content and evolution of BI research, identifying the subjects, research method¬ologies and levels of analysis, as well as the most outstanding authors and articles of greatest impact. The type of incubator, roles, stakeholders in BI, Agri Business Incubator was also reviewed.

7-20

Authors: MUHAMMAD SANI UMAR & ATANDA TAIWO MUTIU

This study examines the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance with particular reference to the United Bank for Africa Plc, Nigeria. It adopts three corporate governance mechanisms (board size, board composition and the number of board committees) and three performance variables (Return on Investment, Profit Margin and Return on Equity). Thus, panel data (from the secondary source) were collected on the corporate governance mechanisms and performance variables over a period of five years spanning from year 2006 to 2010. The multiple regression technique was used to analyze the data. The study finds that the number of board committees has significant negative relationship with Profit Margin. The size of the board does not significantly affect the return on shareholder’s equity and investment in the company and lastly, the presence of more number of independent directors on the board does not significantly affect firm performance. The study recommends amongst others that bank management should establish optimum board size to accommodate diverse backgrounds and skill mix appropriate to discharge their duties to the firm. Again, banks should not waste effort in engaging more independent directors on its board but however, endeavour to engage more executive directors who possess cognate experience in the industry on its board.

29-36

Authors: REKHA U. MENON & PRAMOD M.

India is emerging as an economic power. Several domestic and international Corporate came forward with innovative brands in the product and service segment during the last two decades. Competition is inevitable at this juncture. Eventually, business houses handed over the responsibility of ensuring their market headship to brand ambassadors. Now this model is not going in the right direction as many instances of facing setbacks either by the brands or by the celebrities is reported. This paper tries to narrate the emergence of celebrity brand ambassador concept in Indian corporate context. It also describes the recent down-turn of this model and explores the possible alternatives.

65-80

Authors: BALJEET SINGH & YOGESH C. JOSHI

Potato is the fourth largest food crop grown in the World after rice, wheat and maize. India is the second largest producer after China with a total annual production of around 40 million tonnes. It is a very rich source of carbohydrate and a leading source of food energy in many countries. Potato can be converted into many processed products including chips (wafers), French fries, starch, baby foods and dehydrated. Potato is attacked by a number of pests and diseases including the devastating late blight disease which was once responsible for worst known famine of Ireland in 1845. As a result approximately one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%. To control these pests and diseases, a number of agro chemicals are used in most developing countries. Potato production has no doubt increased over the years however, at an alarmingly high cost to human health, soil health and environment. This article aims at highlighting the harmful effects of agro-chemicals used in potato production, potential damages and ways and means for healthy potato production. The article implies that clean potato production is possible in the developing nations as well through farmer awareness and a number of policy interventions.