International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences

9-18

Authors: Farouq Rafiq ALTAHTAMOUNI, Zaher Abdelfattah ALSLEHAT

This study aims to investigate the impact of accounting indicators which are the return on assets, return on equity and earnings per share in addition to growth which is measured by sustainable growth rate on the market value which is measured by market share price, stock return and by market value to book value. By the application on the Jordanian Banks from 2002 to 2011, by using the simple regression test, and by using the least squares method, it was clear that all current accounting indicators and the current growth have a positive impact on the market share price and the market value to book value, and there is no effect of the current accounting indicators and the current growth on the stock market return. It also clear that there is a positive impact of future accounting indicators and the future growth on the market value depending on all of market value measurements, and that the best explanatory accounting indicators for the changes in the market value of the Jordanian banks is earnings per share.

26-37

Authors: Rihab GUIDARA, Younes BOUJELBENE

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of research and development investment (R&D) on managers’ behaviour. Specifically, considering that R&D is a specific investment, inherently exposed to a high level of uncertainty and high information asymmetry and that R&D accounting choices are a controversial issue, the current study tries to evaluate R&D effect on earnings management. The study is conducted on a sample of French companies investing heavily in R&D and accounting data are collected from the Worldscope database. The earning management is estimated through the discretionary accruals. Results indicate that R&D favours both incentive and ability for managers’ earnings management.

51–61

Authors: Olajide Solomon FADUN

Well formulated and implemented strategies are critical to firms’ performance. Strategic management is beneficial to a business as it operates in a dynamic and uncertain business environment. The study views strategic management as organisational risk management framework that promotes identification and evaluation of organisational risks and opportunities to enhance a firm’s performance. The study examines components of strategic management process, using Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank) as case study. It highlights background of study; undertakes internal analysis - SWOT; considers external environment, using PESTLE analytical tool; highlights strategic analysis and choice; appraises long-term objectives, generic and grand strategies; explains short-term objectives; and explores strategic control and continuous improvement. The findings indicate that GTBank has built its strategy around its brand image and its major competitors have not been able to displace her in the banking sector. This suggests that strategic management is beneficial to a firm, as it operates in a dynamic and uncertain business environment. The implication for practice is that effective strategic management - evaluation, formulation and implementation of organisational objectives - is critical for survival and relevance of a firm in the global business environment.

72–80

Authors: Zaher Abdelfattah ALSLEHAT, Farouq Rafiq ALTAHTAMOUNI

This study aimed to find a causal relationship between financial decisions (investment decision, Financing decision, and the dividend decision) and the causal relationship between those decisions and the financial performance of the Jordan commercial banking sector as measured by return on assets and return on equity for the period from 2002 to 2011. Where the study sample consisted of all commercial banks operating in the Jordanian's banking sector reached to thirteen banks. Among the most important findings of the study have a causal relationship in one direction between investment decision and financing decision, and the absence of a causal relationship between the distribution of profits and resolutions investment and financing. And the rate of return on assets is causing in both investment and financing decision, and there is no causal relationship between the decision of the distribution of profits and the entire rate of return on assets and return on equity.

94–104

Authors: Rim Ben HASSEN, Omri ABDELWAHED

The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate governance mechanisms applied to a particular form of ownership structure: the privatization. Using, a series of statistical and econometric analysis, we show that privatization is likely to occur in an environment that validates supports and promotes the conditions for atomicity, free exercise, flexibility and transparency. This environment is characterised by the existence of foreign investors and the independence of their boards. These findings suggest that a successful privatization should be accompanied by structural changes after which it would be possible to formulate the principles of governance.

117–126

Authors: Hassan SABERI, Abbas Rezazadeh KARSALARI

The purpose of this research is to investigate the kind of relationship between Cause Related Marketing (CRM) campaigns, brand perceptual dimensions and cultural traits as possible antecedents of consumer purchase intentions in the country of Iran. An initial conceptualization was developed from mainstream literature to be validated through empirical research. The conceptualization was then tested with quantitative survey data collected from about 384 consumers studying in different purchase centers in Esfahan. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypothesis derived from literature. The findings indicate that consumer purchase intentions are influenced by the cause related marketing campaigns. Furthermore it was observed that the perceptual brand equity dimensions and cultural values partially mediate the impact of CRM campaigns on consumer purchase intentions. The data was gathered from purchase centers in Esfahan only. Hence, future research could extend these findings to other cities in Iran to test their generalizing ability. This research has key implications for companies, charities and academic to effective use of cause related marketing campaigns in Iran. The study contributes to cause related marketing literature by indicating a mediating role of perceptual brand equity and cultural values on CRM campaigns and consumer purchase intentions. The mediating role of culture and perceived quality was ignored in previous studies. Moreover, it contributes to close the gap of empirical research in this field in Iran.

136–143

Authors: Paluku KAZIMOTO

Ever since the re-introduction of the Eastern Africa Community (EAC), there has been a clamor for the introduction of a single currency. This is because the effect of multiple currencies in cross-border transaction has led to the increase of the value of goods and services. Just like some countries within the European Union have some. In as much as it may be the ideal, there is a need to make a critical feasibility study so as to determine the role of single currency to drive economic development of EAC. Single currency will serve as means of payment for cross border trade and payments, familiarize the public with the benefits of monetary integration, and would encourage coordination of EAC monetary policies. The study was centered around one research question; what is the role of single currency for economic development in EAC? The study was based in Arusha city the headquarter of EAC. The study revealed that majority of respondents have high knowledge of the factors that encourage the EAC member countries to seek for the adoption for single currency for economic development These factors include and not exhaustive: enhancing currency stability, reduction of financial risks, reduction of transaction cost, reduction of exchange rate fluctuation, enhancing price transparency and reduction of inflation that impact on trade within the region. The study shows that for the effective integration to take place: there is a need to explore several monetary union models, make a design of the integration process, and put into place a mechanism of implementing the monetary integration in a gradual manner.

152–158

Authors: Ioana-Laura ŢIBULCĂ

Fiscal convergence among the EU Member States has constantly been one of the most important objectives of the European Union. Consequently, debates regarding new tax directives and discussions on common tax policies are always in the limelight. In the current study, the overall tax burden was considered as a descriptor of the fiscal systems of the EU Member States and used to analyze the convergence trend of taxation in the European Union. After using both statistical analysis and sigma-convergence, the conclusion is that the global financial crisis has affected fiscal convergence in the European Union by reversing the tax convergence tendency which existed among Member States until 2008.

176–184

Authors: Moses Ochieng GWEYI, John KARANJA

The aim of this study was an attempt to investigate the effect of financial leverage on financial performance of deposit taking Saccos in Kenya. The sample data was extracted from 40 Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (Saccos) registered by Sacco Society Regulatory Authority (SASRA) extended from the period 2010 to 2012. The secondary data used for analysis was collected from the financial statements of the various deposit taking Saccos. Two basic approaches descriptive and analytical design were adopted. The results show perfect positive correlation between debt equity ratio with return on equity and profit after tax at 99% confidence interval and a weak positive correlation between debt equity ratio with return on assets and income growth. As the scope of study is limited to the deposit taking Saccos and the sample size is small, the findings of the study must be interpreted with caution and the results may not be generalized to the Sacco sector. This is the first study that examines the relationship between financial leverage on financial performance of deposit taking savings and credit co-operative in Kenya.

201–217

Authors: Habib AFFES, Fatma AYADI

The relational intangible capital has become an important determinant of value creation in manufacturing. Hence, comes the importance of studying the factors that may affect this relational capital in the supply chain. The following research applies the contingency theory to try to improve our understanding of the factors that may explain the features improvement of relational capital with the suppliers. We have examined, particularly, the impact of the five following contingency factors: the perceived environmental uncertainty, the relational capital with suppliers, the generic cost leadership strategy, the organizational architecture and the company size on the improvement of the features of relational intangible capital with the suppliers. The results show that only the variables: perceived environmental uncertainty and the relational capital with suppliers have a positive and significant effect on the features improvement of relational intangible capital with the suppliers.

232–242

Authors: Mehmed GANIC

The aim of this paper is to analyze banking regulation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), as well as the reflection of implementation of Basel Core Principles on business of banks and certain trends in domestic banking. Questionnaire survey is used to investigate on possible concrete progress that is achieved in developing of the banking sector in B&H over the past decade. This paper represents the results of a research carried out on 19 out of 28 planned banks in B&H that were surveyed during summer of 2012. In addition, this paper analyzes the qualitative research whose main goal is to gain the respondents’ opinions about the past experiences and possible concrete progress that has been made in developing of the banking sector in B&H. Summarized results of the questionnaire, also, show that the consolidation of domestic banking market, although slow, is not yet fully completed and that the regulation in the field of banking supervision has a positive impact on improvement of the banks’ soundness, discipline and strengthening of their competitiveness. Additionally, our findings indicate that it can be expected to reduce the number of banks over the next several years. The banks are aware of the importance of the capital and its role in the stability of the banking sector in connection with the required minimum amount of capital supporting their needs to maintain capital requirements.

264–270

Authors: Zaryab SHEIKH, Shafaq RANA

The paper specifies its focus on rapid transition in management accounting techniques to process oriented techniques and to profoundly study new developments in management accounting system in last few years. The purpose of the paper is to bring newer and modern management techniques to light, such as TQM, the Balanced Scorecard, Activity Based Accounting, Target Costing and Just-inTime (JIT).These tools really help management accounting to reduce accounting transaction and to find more approximate cost of product in detail showing participation of every department and much more help in budget process and revenue recording for each department. The traditional management accounting tools, e.g. Budgeting, Standard Costing, Cost Volume Profit CVP) analysis and financial performance measurement are also very useful but to work with today’s customer focused environment and to measure the financial and non financial performance of the organization, less cost, more revenue and performance, the process oriented management accounting techniques are more useful.

282–290

Authors: Ethel YIRANBON, Zhou LULIN, Henry Asante ANTWI, Emmanuel Opoku MARFO, Kwame Oduro AMOAKO, Daniel Kwame OFFIN

There is a gap between rhetoric and reality concerning healthcare expenditures and population aging: although decades-old research suggests otherwise, there is widespread belief that the sustainability of the healthcare system is under serious threat owing to population aging. To shed new empirical light on this old debate, we used population-based administrative data to quantify recent trends and determinants of expenditure on hospital, medical and pharmaceutical care in Ghana. We modelled changes in inflation-adjusted expenditure per capita between 2006 and 2013 as a function of two demographic factors (population aging and changes in age-specific mortality rates) and three non-demographic factors (age-specific rates of use of care, quantities of care per user and inflation-adjusted costs per unit of care). We found that population aging contributed more than 10% per year to spending on medical, hospital and pharmaceutical care. Moreover, changes in age-specific mortality rates actually increased hospital expenditure by –13% per year. Based on forecasts through 2036, we found that the future effects of population aging on healthcare spending will continue to be large. We therefore conclude that population aging has exerted, and will continue to exert, high pressures on medical, hospital and pharmaceutical costs in Ghana. As indicated by the specific non-demographic cost drivers computed in our study, the critical determinants of expenditure on healthcare stem from both demographic and non-demographic factors over which practitioners, policy makers and patients have discretion.

303–311

Authors: Paluku KAZIMOTO

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) new or existing, often face challenges when approach products providers for both enterprise fixed capital investment and market standards. The insufficient supply of microloans is a major issue, particularly where business creators are unemployed persons. This study aims to assess challenges facing Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) towards international marketing standards. Study findings show that SME’s face challenges to access international marketing unaware of regulations and standards, lack of financial support from the Government, poor understanding of consumer’s needs and services, lack of essential entrepreneurial skills and weak networking structures to penetrate into international marketing. The study therefore recommends the improvement of information that is available to SME owners; to the government and other partners avail accessibility to financial facilities with reasonable interest rate of return, encourage more advertisements and use of up to date technology for business and international marketing standards through seminars and trainings on entrepreneurship, and networking structures for export and import of goods and services. The study also recommends that the government supports SME’s to ensure that they play their role in helping improve the economy of Tanzania and improve the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

320–326

Authors: Abbas Rezazadeh KARSALARI, Mohsen MEHRARA, Maysam MUSAI, Mosa MOHAMMADI

This paper investigates the causal relationship between environmental quality, economic growth and trade in D8 countries by using panel unit root tests and panel cointegration analysis for the period 1970-2011. The results suggest that there is a long-run relationship between these variables. Emissions have a positive long-run relationship with per capita income and trade. Moreover, the results show a unidirectional strong causality from economic growth to environment in these countries. We also find no causality between emissions and trade.

334–342

Authors: Fatemeh Khaleghi MEYBODI, Hassan Dehghan DENAVI, Abolfazl SADEGHIAN

Markowitz optimization problem so determination of investment efficient set, while the number of investable assets and constraints in the market is low can be solved by mathematical models. But when real-world conditions and limitations to be considered, portfolio optimization problem cannot solve easily using a methods of mathematics. For this reason, portfolio optimization using evolutionary algorithms has been an important topic of discussion today. The main objective of the present study is the solving of portfolio optimization problem (mean – variance model) by using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). for this purpose by use the price of 40 accepted shares in stock during the 1385 till 1390 years, is plotted the investment efficient set. Results from this study show that particle Swarm optimization method in portfolio optimization, despite the current limitations is successful.

362–368

Authors: Roghaye ENTEZARIAN, Ali ZABIHI, Khosro Faghani MAKRANI

Predicting profit of each stock is one of the key factors in investment and in compatibly of stock methods it is highly important both for providing capital and for users who use it for decisionmaking. Measuring future profit in each stock, managers seek to have the trust of the users who consider profit as a tool for assessing. Following empirical research is for assessing effect of management profit prediction error on capital cost in companies accepted in stock exchange of Tehran. Statistical society of the research includes 73 companies which are active in stock exchange of Tehran for a-five-year period from 2007-2010. Multi-variable regression method was used for investigation. The results gained out of the research indicates a direct and meaningful relation between profit prediction error and capital cost.

385–394

Authors: Gregory D. LYIMO

We examine the relationship between stock price synchronicity and earnings quality. We specifically used earning surprise and smoothness as proxy of earnings quality. Data were collected from companies listed in Bombay stock exchange in BSE 500. Our sample period ranges from 2006 to 2012. We employed panel data regression model using pooled OLS with standard error robust. We find that there is significant negative relationship between earnings surprise and stock price synchronicity. This finding is indicates that earnings surprise improves stock price informativeness. Finally, we find that there is no significance relationship between smoothness and stock price synchronicity. Therefore, smoothness of earnings does not influence stock price informativeness. The present study adds to new insight of the relationship between stock price informativeness and earnings quality proxies from emerging market particular India.