Country Risk Analysis of Bangladesh

In the endeavor of conquering the worlds consumers, multinational companies face enormous risks. Such risks may arise from different political, economic, and financial factors. These factors are commonly referred to country risk as a whole. Focusing Bangladesh in this regard, objective of this study is to find out the level of country risk in terms of political, economic, and financial riskiness. Analysis of country risk has been done using an internationally recognized methodology named International Country Risk Guide (ICRG). For political risk analysis, primary data has been collected from 20 journalists, bureaucrats and policy makers, business persons, corporate professionals, and academicians with a structured closed-ended questionnaire. Results indicate that Bangladesh is in high risk position in terms of political risk, low risk position in terms of economic risk and very low risk position in terms of financial risk. Compositely, Bangladesh has been found to be a moderately risky country for investment.

Competitive Pattern of Foreign Direct Investment in India

Globalization can be summarized as opening-up of markets, leading to transfer of capital, technology and people. However, another important dimension of globalization is multilateralism. The international economic reforms encourage multilateralism leads allocative efficiency. Multilateralism implies importing capital from a variety of sources as may be most efficient. Indias FDI policy is in alignment with global FDI. In 1991, India had receiving FDI from 86 investing countries, which reached to 137 investing countries in 2013. This indicates global attractiveness and preferred investment destination. The paper examines FDI investing pattern of source countries in India. The period of study is 1991-2013. The paper applies a set of new indices like Index of Rank Dominance (IRD) and Bodenhorns measure of Mobility and Turnover. The most dominant country is USA. The RIRD (Relative Index of Rank Dominance) are top heavy. The first five countries are investing more than 60 percent FDI in India. Asian Tiger countries invested around 11 percent and BRICS countries have insignificant FDI in India. The competitive pattern of FDI has been declined among three different grouping countries. The global FDI in India has been declined 8 percent per annum in spite of favoured investment destination.

Do Macro-Economic Variables Affect Foreign Trade of India? Panel Regression Approach

After the crisis in 1991, the Indian government introduced some changes in its Policy on trade, foreign investment, tariffs, and taxes under the name of New Economic Reforms. The main focus of these reforms has been on liberalization, openness, and export promotion activity. The paper focuses on the impact of development variables on export from India. Developmental variables include infrastructure, human resource, openness, production & market, research & development, resources, and taxation. Each development variable consists of a set of related variables. The paper has used principal component analysis (PCA), composite index and panel regression model. These help to know impact of individual developmental variable on Indias export. The period of study is 1990 2013. The value of KMO is over 0.6 indicating the samples are adequate and the value of Bartletts test is less than 0.05 ensure suitability of PCA. The overall growth rate Indian foreign trade is 3 percent during last more than two decades. Main macro-economic variables are infrastructure, resources, and taxation. The government should strengthen and incorporate these macro-economic variables while making foreign trade policy (i.e. EXIM policy) policy under the umbrella of WTO.

Do Macroeconomic Variables Impact the Indian Stock Market?

This paper is intended to study the impact of various macroeconomic variables on Indian stock market. Based on the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) propounded by Ross in 1976 and various other studies, a number of macroeconomic variables including, inflation, industrial production, exchange rate, money supply, interest rate, and oil price have been identified to have a significant impact on the stock market. We have applied the multivariate extension of the classical linear regression model computed on Ordinary Least Squares method and Granger Causality test to re-establish the relationship between macroeconomic variables and stock returns over a period of 10 years from 2005 to 2015 using monthly observations. The results of this study show that only exchange rate has a significant negative impact on stock returns. The other macroeconomic variables are not significantly affecting stock returns, however, their impact is in accordance with the economic theory. The Granger Causality test reveals absence of any causal relationship between stock returns and macroeconomic variables, except in case of oil prices, where we find a unidirectional causal relationship running from stock returns to oil prices. However, the Granger Causality results should not be taken in the conventional meaning of causality, but results merely identifying precedence.

Corporate Social Responsibility Practice in India after Introduction of Companies Act, 2013

Companies Act, 2013 has come into effect in India recently. Previously, Indian companies were under the control of Companies Act, 1956. In Companies Act, 1956, there were no provisions regarding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Therefore, it was practiced only by few Indian companies voluntarily and they would report it in the way as they deemed fit. In this background, presence of a structured legal framework for CSR was badly needed. Keeping this in mind, Companies Act, 2013 has provided some important and contemporary provisions regarding CSR practice and reporting and these provisions came into effect from 1st April, 2014. Now, the companies which satisfy the required conditions as laid down in the act must spend a specific percentage of their net profit for CSR activities and report it each year. Standing on this situation, in this present paper, it has been attempted to review the scenario of CSR practice and reporting by some major Indian companies. A sample of ten companies has been selected for this purpose. On the basis of their merit in complying the CSR provisions, they have been ranked. The conclusion is that the selected companies have already initiated good CSR projects and they have the intention to perform their social responsibilities in the coming years in a better way.

An Empirical Study on Capital Structure and Corporate Performance of Chinese Listed Companies

The relationship between level of debt and the companys performance remains an important unsolved issue in the field of financing. It is very important to know how Chinas listed companies manage their capital towards business growth. This paper investigates the impact of the capital structure on corporate performance of a sample of 711 listed companies on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China in 2014. The results indicates that there is a positive relation between financial leverage and corporate performance as well as there is a positive impact that the mixture of long-term debt and short-term debt (using total debt). This would help decision maker in the companies to finance firms operation in the both periods. On the other hand, the short term debt has a negative relation and impact on corporate performance compared to the changing in firm size which cannot change in the profitability of firms.

Measuring Age-wise Perception of Different Beneficiaries Regarding Access to Financial Services through Cooperative Banks

The present study is undertaken to measure empirically the age-wise perception of different respondents regarding access to financial services through cooperative banks. In order to fulfill the objectives of the study, the primary data are collected personally from beneficiaries of the four cooperative banks covered under financial inclusion drive of RBI operating in Jammu region viz. The Citizen Cooperative Bank, The Jammu Central Cooperative Bank, Devika Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd., and Women Cooperative Credit Bank. The responses are collected using a self-developed questionnaire sub-divided into socio-economic variables and specific information regarding access to financial services. For comparison, responses from beneficiaries of cooperative banks operating in neighbouring tehsils of Himachal Pradesh and beneficiaries of cooperative banks from the state of Punjab are collected. The findings of the study reveal that there exists no significant difference between the perceptions of beneficiaries belonging to different age groups regarding the access to financial services through cooperative banks.

Relevant Costing: Can the Method Coincide with Different Industries?

In management accounting, relevant costing is a well-known method used to assess the feasibility of production decisions in the short-run. It can be applied to a number of specific decisions in various types of industries namely manufacturing, service, and not-for-profit organizations. However, this concept has not been widely used in agriculture. This paper reviews a case for using relevant costing approaches in agriculture and how this accounting concept can be applied to other organizational contexts. Relevant costing has been proposed to be more useful in agriculture as opposed to the traditional methods of cost analysis commonly used by the farms. Applications of relevant costing techniques in agriculture have been critically analyzed arguing that the nature of agricultural business and the assumptions of relevant costing do not really coincide. This makes the concept inappropriate for use in agriculture to a large extent. The paper further tries to assess cases with appropriate examples for different organizations where relevant costing techniques can be applied.

A Comparative Analysis of Media Consumption in Delhi, India

A common assumption is that age is the chief determinant for media habits of people. However, new researches believe that habits are the function of mindset rather than age. We are living in an era of cage-free content, where all media whether text, audio or video based are distributed and consumed across a wide range of channels from which individuals can pick and choose. Social media has today made far-reaching changes to the way many of us consume media. It encourages people to create content. Anyone can write articles or blogs, create photographic content, video content, broadcast ones voice through the media, and so on. Social media has weaned off traditional media. For example, digital technologies are causing vast changes in the way we use media. Understanding the role of media in young peoples lives is therefore of immense importance for those concerned about promoting the healthy development of children and teenagers, including parents, paediatricians, policymakers, childrens advocates, educators, and public health groups. The survey for the same was done among teenagers (13-18 year olds) and young adults (19-25 year olds) and the results have been graphically represented here.

Exploring Group Effects on Individual Ethical Judgements and Whistleblowing Decisions of Accountancy Students

Public confidence in the finance industry has been shaken by the numerous accounting scandals and corporate failures in recent years. These events have damaged the high regard and perceived integrity of professional accountants. As university students are prospective business leaders, it is important to develop their ethical reasoning and judgement to uphold the professionalism and justice in society. In this study, we examine the ethical judgement of final year accountancy students using brief vignettes that describe scenarios such as violations of codes of ethics, involvement in fraudulent activities, and earnings management. The various scenarios are commonly encountered by certified public accountants (CPA). In particular, we used a survey questionnaire to obtain 120 final year accountancy students perceived ethical responses to 6 vignettes together with their whistle blowing responses to each vignette, from inaction to internal or external whistle blowing. After they completed their individual answers, the students were requested to form groups of three to four members to provide group responses to the same set of vignettes. The results of this study provide evidence that prospective CPA can be encouraged to think independently, work collaboratively and enhance their ethical sensitivity and judgement through participating in group discussions. The limitations of the study are identified along with suggestions for future studies.