PACIFIC BUSINESS JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

5

Authors: Dr. Kishor Barad

Pliant-Tech India is an ISO 9001:2008 leading global plastics manufacturer of Seadart brand of double-walled insulated tubs and pallets for a wide range of food processing, industrial and logistics applications. The company had been facing severe competition from the indigenous enterprises in selling and distributing its insulated tubs in India. The customer segments of Pliant-Tech were fishing industry, poultry farms, ice cream manufacturers and ice cream vendors. The National Sales Manager and his team had been aggressively trying to directly sale the product to primary customers, develop the distribution channels and push the product, but were partially successful in their endeavor. The dealers perceived the Seadart products to be of low margin for the trade and 35 per cent costlier for the customers as compared to the products of indigenous players. The case narrates and describes the challenges and difficulties Pliant-Tech India was facing in selling and distributing the Seadart brand of insulated plastics tubs amongst its customer segments in India.

7

Authors: Soumitra Bhattacharya, Shubham Goswami

This paper examines the interplay between environmental rating and stock return. This is a novel attempt to measure the relation between sensitivity of Indian companies to environmental causes and its reward by Financial Market, thereby using financial market as a leverage by which environmental sensitivity can be promoted. In this paper an initiative is being made to see how capital market reward those firms whichhonors their environmental responsibility.Our study focuses on cement, steel, automobile and alkaline industries as these are one of the major polluter and emitters of GHG gases.

8

Authors: Vikas Kumar, Dr. Bikramjit Singh Hundal

Celebrity endorsement has become very popular element in the advertisement nowadays. Corporate uses this opportunity to grab the market and for expand their operation and promotion of their brand and product. More than ten percent of television advertising includes celebrity endorsements. The purpose of this research paper is to explore customer perception towards celebrity endorsement. Nine factors were manipulated in this research paper which is attractiveness, trustworthiness, physical appearance, popularity, and image/Goodwill, and reliability, negative role of celebrity, aspiration, and brand for result. For that 100 graduates and post graduate students from Amritsar (Punjab) were taken. Result shows that attractiveness of a celebrity endorsing a particular product/brand strongly influence a customer perception and impact of product and brand are more positive on the customer buying decision compare to celebrity endorsement. So celebrities' professional accomplishments and expertise may serve as a logical connection with the products, and consequently make the endorsement more believable to consumers.

8

Authors: Rosary Ramona Fernando A., Dr. R. Azhagaiah

The empowerment of women is crucial for the development of the country. Women empowerment is a process in which women challenge the existing norms and culture, to effectively promote their well being. The Indian Constitution grants equality to women in all aspects. In this regard, the year 2001 was celebrated as the year of Women Empowerment. The concept of self help groups (SHGs) introduced by the Ministry of Rural Development has taken its roots in nook and corner of the rural areas and in the semi-urban and urban areas, which help improve the living standards. The present paper examines the economic empowerment of the SHG members through the SHGs. The study is conducted in two blocks of Puducherry viz Puducherry and Oulgaret. Primary data were collected through structured interview schedule from 100 respondents, 50 each from the selected blocks. Paired t test was conducted inorder to find out the effect of becoming members in the SHG in respect of economic empowerment. The study proves that the SHGs enabled the women to have a significant improvement in the economic empowerment.

10

Authors: Dr. Seema Malik

Purpose– The main purpose of the present research is to study the relaationship and impact of Ownership Structure i.e. Promoters', Indian Institutional Investors' and Foreign Institutional Investors' shareholdings on the financial performance of the selected Pharmaceutical companies listed in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Design/Methodology/Approach– The study applies panel data regression analysis to a sample of pharmaceutical companies listed in BSE during the period 2004-2014. Findings–The paper finds that promoters' shareholding is positively and significantly related to both the financial measures i.e. Return on Equity (ROE) and Return on Assets (ROA). There is insignificant negative relationship between foreign institutional shareholding and both financial performance measures. The same insignificant negative relationship was found between Indian institutional shareholding and ROE but ROA is insignificantly and positively affected by the Indian Institutional shareholding. Practical implications– To improve the performance and accordingly the value of companies, the percentage of promoters' ownership should be increased as it has positive linkages with the financial performance. Further, it will help the investors to pay special attention to the type of ownership and ownership concentration of companies while making the investments.

11

Authors: Prof. S. M. Imamul Haque, Arif Ahmad Wani

Banking sector is considered as the lifeline of a nation, whichh translates the aspirations and hopes of people into reality. The mounting and massive expansion and diversification of banking sector has not been without its strains. With the elapsing time, Indian banking sector is entering continuously into newer phases, facing increasing competition from non-bank institutions not only in the domestic market but also in the international market. In the direction of successfulness and excellence, Indian banking sector, with the dawn of financial reforms, knocked the door of a new phase, where it witnessed major changes which include, but are not limited to interest rate deregulation, prudential norms, liberalization, globalization and more importantly entry of new private sector banks. This completely changed the style of operating of Indian commercial Banks. Despite the praiseworthy progression, Indian banking sector became prone to serious problems which resulted in decline of efficiency and productivity, eroded profits, deteriorated capital base which was further followed by bad quality of loan portfolios. These problems became greater setback in the process of bank's income generation and in beautifying their capital base. The deteriorated picture of capital has further led to inadequate loss provisions resulting into the adverse impact on depositor's and investor's confidence. Ultimately there appears the highest possibility of reputational risk to take place. Laconically, one of the main reasons behind such distortion and erosion of profits and capital base of commercial banks is financial risk to a greater extent. So, it is quite imperative to know the ups and downs of Indian commercial banks by studying and analyzing the relationship between their financial performance and financial risk. The present study is devoted in this direction which intends to explore the relationship between financial performance and financial risk by using the Linear Multiple Regression Model. The researchers have selected ten leading banks, five from each sector i.e. public and private, as representatives on the basis of their total assets. The analysis of the study validated that the two balance sheet risks (i.e. Interest Rate Risk and Liquidity Risk) are insignificant to the profitability whereas Credit Risk, Capital Risk and particularly Solvency Risk are statistically significant to the financial performance of Indian Commercial Banks. The study educed with a conclusion to have instrumental risk management approaches in practice to tackle financial risk exposure, aiming to stall the risk events before their intensity increases beyond the risk appetite of Indian commercial banks and snowball into a debacle.