GENDER DIVERSITY ON BOARD AND ITS RELEVANCE TO FIRM PERFORMANCE: A STUDY ON PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY OF BANGLADESH

The study tries to examine the relationship between gender diversity on the Board and firms' profitability in Bangladesh's Pharmaceutical industry. The study employs a panel data approach with all the Pharmaceutical companies listed under Dhaka Stock Exchanges. The sample period covers eight years from 2012-2019. To conduct the study, Return on Equity and Tobin's Q was taken as a proxy of accounting measure of profitability and market measure of profitability, respectively. The proportion of women on board structure was taken as a proxy for gender diversity. Some other variables: board size, firm age, leverage, and firm size, were incorporated to control the effect of these variables on profitability. The study reveals that gender diversity shows a positive but insignificant relationship with the firm's performance in terms of ROE. The R square of this model was 11.67%. In terms of Tobin's Q, gender diversity exhibited a significant positive relationship with firm performance. The R square of this model was 17%. This implies that the market ascribes a great value to the inclusion of women in board structure since it increases the board structure's independence and profitability.

ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES AND VARIABLES INFLUENCING THE UPTAKE OF MOBILE FINANCIAL SERVICE IN UNBANKING POPULATION LIKE PAKISTAN

The growth of digital mobile devices enables the world to integrate and enables the masses to access and use services with optimism, speed and efficiency. These developments are on the rise in Pakistan. Market opportunities for digital financial services in Pakistan are projected to exceed $ 36 billion by 2025, which will increase GDP by 7%, create four million new jobs and generate $ 263 billion in new deposits. This power can only be achieved through a robust and efficient DFS environment. Although Pakistan has a DFS environment, it is unfortunate that so far no research has been done to determine and analyze the economic impact of mobile banking services as well as factors affecting their use in developing countries like Pakistan, to this end, the methodology part will be divided into two parts: the first part will focus on the secondary data to analyze and determine the impact of mobile banking activity on GDP, employment, government taxes for support to reduce non-banking figures in Pakistan. The second part will focus on the primary data that will be used to investigate the influencing variables on the usage of mobile banking services. A self-administered questionnaire has been developed with 250 respondents, which will be distributed to mobile money users to get their ideas on mobile banking services. Its results will be evaluated using the Pearson correlation and multiple regressions. Affective factors are assessed under five factors: risk, perceived trust, cost-effectiveness, accessibility and reliability using biometric analysis method in mobile banking. The study revealed that mobile financial services had positive impact on the economic indicators whereas factors like perceived trust, convenience and perceived risk had a significant influence on the adoption of mobile banking services but perceived cost and reliability were said to have insignificant influence on its adoption.

IMPACT OF BUYER’S LENIENT POLICY OF RETURN AND TRUST ON INTERNET PURCHASE DECISION IN SUPPLY CHAIN SECTOR OF PAKISTAN

This article aims to investigate the factors that impact the internet purchase decision in supply chain sector of Pakistan because our mode of purchasing has been changed dramatically as a result of the Internet. An increasing number of individuals prefer online mode of shopping rather than in physical stores. Despite of these benefits there possess some cons of online purchasing like complicated returns, difficult websites, no sales assistance and lack of trust. In this article, impact of two independent variable i.e., lenient policy of return of buyer and trust of buyer was analyzed against the dependent variable internet decision of purchase. A questionnaire of 21 questions was prepared. Data of 100 respondents was collected from buyers of Karachi. Reliability Analysis, ANOVA and regression analysis are performed using SPSS tool to find the results. Study concluded that lenient policy of return of buyer and trust of buyer has positive association with internet decision of purchase in Pakistan which means when buyers are provided with lenient policies for the return of goods for any reason and their trust in seller increases it will impact the decision of purchase positively. Thus, it will be beneficial in terms of chasing market competition and generating higher returns.

EFFECTS OF SELECTED COMPANY-SPECIFIC VARIABLES IN THE DETERMINATION OF COMPANY LEVERAGE: EVIDENCE FROM TEXTILE INDUSTRY OF BANGLADESH

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of profitability, liquidity, size, tangibility, and asset turnover on the leverage of the textile industry of Bangladesh. This paper analyzed 20 companies out of 56 companies listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange. The data set is for the periods from 2016 to 2019. To find the effects on the dependent variable, the Fixed Effects Model has been used which has been selected using the Hausman test. To test heteroskedasticity, the Breusch-Pagan heteroskedasticity test has been used. The study found size, profitability, and tangibility having a significant effect. While size and tangibility have a positive impact on leverage, profitability has a negative impact. The findings are diversified in nature. The results are not all consistent with the previous studies conducted in different developing countries. So, the policymakers should have in-depth insights while making decisions.

DOES ELECTION IMPACT ON STOCK MARKET RETURNS IN BANGLADESH?

This paper investigates the impact of parliamentary general election on the stock market returns by considering the previous fifteen days and the after fifteen days of each of six elections in Bangladesh held between 1991 and 2018. The study analyzed the election effect on stock returns through considering both abnormal returns by choosing 20 stocks as a proxy of portfolio motive of the investors and the broad index returns as a measurement of whole market scenario. The study employed descriptive statistics, t-tests, and F-tests to understand the impact of election by gauging the changes in return series. Descriptive statistics showed very high differences in means, standard deviations, and volatilities. Paired t-tests showed significant differences between the means and F-tests showed significant differences between the variances of the returns during before and after days of these elections. The results were the same for abnormal returns and broad index returns. The impacts of individual election on the returns were also found as the same in most cases. The study has found some very useful insights part of which can benefit the policymakers to reform the policies. The common investors and the financial market participants can also make better investment plan.

Impact of Covid-19 in Bangladesh Stock Market

The world's big economies are roiled and going under a devastating threat amid the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. No country will be safe as this virus will eventually outbreak everywhere, regardless of how countries prepare to avoid it. The economic ramification as well as the stock market crisis will be uncertain due to the extended suspension of economic activities in almost every country. No wonder, the clattered stock markets of Bangladesh which have already got the adjective of “the worst stock market in the world” because of inefficient and irrational fluctuations in previous years will experience a colossal crisis due to the pandemic. The article provides an investigation on comparable analysis of the impact on stock markets of Bangladesh, Dhaka stock exchange, and Chittagong stock exchange, before and after the pandemic situation with current market data. We also examine the potential consequence of policy interventions to the market and the investors during a pandemic.

An Inferential Study on the Profitability Determinants of the Cement Industry in Bangladesh

This paper examines the impacts of firm-specific and macroeconomic factors in determining the profitability of the cement industry in Bangladesh. This study took stock exchange listed all cement companies of Bangladesh as samples and covered the period of 2000–2018. Return on Assets (ROA) was chosen as the dependent variable and firm size, expense to revenue ratio, leverage, age, inflation rate, GDP growth rate, and real interest rate were chosen as independent variables where the first four are firm-specific and the other three are macroeconomic factors. This study considered ROA as the profitability measurement of the firms. The study found that leverage, GDP growth rate, and real interest rate have significant impacts on the profitability. Firm size, age, GDP growth rate, and real interest rate have a positive impact whereas expenses to revenue ratio, leverage, and inflation have a negative impact on the profitability of the firms under the cement industry.

The Effects of Inventory Management capability on Performance of the Firm- Business Strategies as a Mediating Role

The research aim is to evaluate the mediating aspects of business strategies e.g. differentiation and cost leadership strategy in affecting the aspects of inventory capability e.g. cost-related factors of inventory and techniques of inventory and firm performance e.g. return on asset (ROA) and improve productivity (IMP) of the Bangladeshi garment industry. A survey was utilized to collect information and the questionnaire was dispersed among 385 senior managers in the readymade garment industry of Bangladesh. For the data analysis, AMOS version 24 and SPSS version 23 were used. The findings of the analyzed data revealed that strategies of the business mediate the consequence of inventory materials capability and performance of the firm. The (SEM) results identify that the study model has an appropriate observation fits.

Embezzlement and Reckless Spending: A Bottleneck for Local Governments’ Revitalization and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Nigeria operates a federal system of government and power is allocated to federal, state and local governments. A collaborative effort was encouraged to promote socio-economic development. Unfortunately, lack of diversification of the economy and over concentration on crude oil, it now operates a monolithic economy. Federal government on monthly basis share the proceed to the three levels of government but ironically, nothing significant is shown for the huge allocations due to uncontrollable embezzlement and reckless spending by public servants more specifically local authorities due to the extreme closeness to citizenry. Documentary data were obtained from published books, reputable journals, government publications, magazines, newspaper publications, internet sources and personal observations in carrying out this study. The paper observed that embezzlement and reckless spending is on the increase in some Nigerian local governments and is manifested through the state joint local government account, embezzlements and reckless spending by local chairmen, fake projects, collusion in the transaction of government businesses, ghost workers, denial of statutory functions. The paper concludes that local government is at the verge of total collapse if adequate measures were not taken to savage the situation. The paper recommends that states joint accounts should be scrap for local governments have a sustainable development.

Stock Market Development on Economic Growth of South Asian and Malaysian Economies: A Comparative Analysis

This analyzes concerning empirically appraise the effects and effect of stock market growth on the economic increase in two areas, in particular, South Asia and Malaysia. The researcher used market capitalization, total fee traded ratio, and turnover ratio as signs on inventory market improvement whilst GDP through a capital increase worth is back because of standardized monetary improvement. The linear dashboard facts methodology is utilized over the yearly facts about 1996-2018 according to locate out concerning the phenomenon. The effect is then compared at some stage in the countries concerning both regions. The experimental findings point out that inventory need enhancement contributes after half extent between the financial expand on the South Asian region but its impact concerning Malaysian neighborhood discovered in imitation which is very much significant.